Dude, you're just committed to being a downer, aren't you? Tomorrow we plan to take over the world. Tonight WE DANCE!
Well, I think we all know what my unifying theme is.
There's still going to be a role for outrage at the Administration -- Speaker Pelosi doesn't get issued a magic wand to make them stop doing bad stuff.
And isn't the wonky stuff really at the heart of the left? We're the side that believes that government can fix things and help people, if we work hard and try to get it all right. But what that means is that we have to pay an awful lot of attention to the details.
Wonky cock. I think the triumphant liberal blogs should all be about wonkishness and cock. What a wonderful world!
No, cock is *your* theme. Mine is pussy.
Actually, in all seriousness. The gender gap and the marriage gap look to have made a difference last night: women lean Dem, as we all know, and so do single folks--and single women lean most Dem of all, at 66% according to the results I've seen this morning. Women have the most to gain from getting politicians out of monitering private lives, and I still maintain that embracing some version of the Dems as "mommy party," i.e. for fair wages, health care, education, stability, and so forth, is the way to go. Combine that with focusing on the all-politics-is-local thing (at the moment I'm pretty convinced that redistricting needs to happen nation-wide; Democratic governors in so-called red states? This tells you something), and you've got a good, coherent platform.
I'd say you have enough themes to be getting on with and enough issues to solve, even without the ease of being in opposition. Take a look at some of the discussions here on welfare and poverty etc.
The trick is finding the energy for anger at the social injustices of everyday experience with the same conviction as when in opposition to an extant evil (which still exists). Seems to me from over here that there might be some country building to be done on your own doorstep: Uniting the two America's would be a project worth an attempt.
"for fair wages, health care, education, stability, and so forth, is the way to go."
This is right, but I think adopting the term "mommy party" would be a big mistake. When the Republican party is defunct, we can divy up the spoils, and I fully expect a Feminist Party. But that's not my mission, not yet.
But let's not fight, I really only disagree on the label.
I've already had a great time reading over Res Publica's to-do list for the 110th. I don't really care about the post to which he links in his post, because I don't think that what we really need are Democratic representatives sitting around reading blegs, but I think Res' to-do list is pretty sweet. I am hoping that the shift in power will create a shift in the blogosphere, too, such that smaller blogs with a more focused niche in terms of subject matter will have a chance to shine as the real experts. Huge blogs definitely have their place as centers of activity and motivation, but I think smaller blogs could really step up to the plate and become the centers of imagination and ingenuity for the left.
and I flatter myself by thinking I've got any sort of mission, other than cheerleading. Ok, bye!
I said some *version* of. "Mommy party" is an obvious non-player, given the negative associations of mommy (including for feminists). But something along those lines, I'm telling you.
8 - The problem is that figuring out how to, say, nail the people who embezzled hundreds of millions of dollars from Iraqi reconstruction funds or put together a decent Medicare reform package doesn't have the same fulfilling oomph of being able to chant "advantage: blogosphere!" over and over. (I know the guy who invented the word, and now he regrets it heartily.) True for the right and left both. I'm still seeing nannering about what a terrible candidate Tammy Duckworth was and how Cegelis would have totally smoked Roskam if only big bad Rahm had stayed out of it, and I'd guess that it's based more on petty jealousy about how awesome TEH NETR00TZ are than any serious ideological differences.
But no fighting today! I'm all puppies and smiles. Except for that shitting ponies problem, that's a li'l frown-inducing.
Okay, y'all, I'm running an "offensive sexist statement" contest over at my place and my readers are being teh lame about it. I know you guys can get the ball rolling over there. So to speak. Help a sister out.
"who can articulate the unifying themes of the left"
you think "ogged sucks" is played out on that front?
Seriously: this is a good post. Clearly we're all a little too giddy for it just yet, but it's an important point.
Rove and his minions didn't surrender, and they aren't spending the day dancing in glee. They're spending the day trying to figure out how to put a spoke in the wheels of the shiny new Democratic majority.
So--yeah, after today, we should get down to more serious work, and see if blogging can advocate, instead of simply protesting.
Yes! Thanks. You and Ogged and Steve are saving my blog from it's own feminist humorlessness, and I am grateful.
ITS! ITS!
Okay, I need to go get some lunch, because there's really no excuse for that error. I'd plead my blood sugar, but really I just need to run away for a little while so I can blush furiously in private.
I think that blogs can help with the investigation and prosecution business. That and voting down or tabling new Republican bills are all that control of Congress really means.
What stops crazy stuff between now and January?
"Mom" has negative associations? Normally mom is right there next to apple pie.
At least at the rhetorical level, we should look to Clinton. Remember how often the word "family" appeared in his word cloud? If we can get family associated with education, health care, stability, etc. rather than fag bashing, we will have won a huge victory. The working families party has a nice ring to it, even though it is already taken.
Also, I want more sex in the party. Rather than the mommy party, can we be the MILF party?
"Mom" has negative associations? Normally mom is right there next to apple pie.
Not "Mom," "Mommy." Pretty different associations.
Rumsfeld is gone! I've been jumping up and down. Where be your sardonic postings, Unfogged team?
The haste of the dismissal is comic in its own right. We could have a contest. Write the script for the last (telephone) conversation between George and Donald. Come on, it's got to be good.
Rather than the mommy party, can we be the MILF party?
HELL YES.
Ogged, nothing the blogs could have done between last night and the current moment (4:12 and whatever seconds it is) licenses the preemptive worrying in this post.
23: Rather than the mommy party, can we be the MILF party?
Fighting so hard not to say anything boorish about actual elected Democrats who are moms....
I wonder if he'll come back to Chicago and I can resume having comic, brush-with-greatness encounters with him. At parties, I've often found that people of my age and class usually have a story when the subject comes up.
25 -- I wrote a letter to the editor about it being shameful that Rumsfeld should resign in response to a domestic political defeat, rather than ages ago in acknowledgement of his miserable failure at the job he is in office for. If it is published I will link it.
I'm not sure the election results should be seen as an endorsement of any unifying theme of the left other than competence. Given the enormous amount of damage to be undone, and the exigencies of our situation both at home and abroad, what I would hope for is not a distinctively ideological statement so much as a sustained effort at competent stewardship. In a sense this is disingenuous, as it's the rhetorical stance of having no rhetorical stance, the policy equivalent of GW Bush's jes' folks act, but it has the advantage of being politically workable. I think Pelosi's 100 hours is just the right idea: we can legislate for a long time on "those guys can't run anything, but we can do better."
Sadly, the "MILF Party" is vetoed, because the "I" in MILF reifies the male gaze. Plus we want straight women to vote for us. But I think that's on the right track....
Actually, the rest of 23 gets at something I was thinking about last night, prior to learning that GOP voter-sabotage in VA, CT, etc. was failing.
Dems are the party of American Values. Mom & apple pie. Inalienable rights. Life, Liberty. Voting. Freedom. Habeas freaking corpus.
Now, since we won, we're not supposed to worry about Lakoffian framing, but about governance, but I think that this frame is also a useful roadmap towards a governing vision. Because it tells us which fights to pick, and when to keep our powder dry. And since these are fundamental concepts, they won't force us into - or out of - any positions that aren't winners on either the merits or on principle.
I should note that this is not intended as an eagle-fucking contest. I don't use the above term as a stand-in for flag-waving, but as an alternative. Standing up for what's important about America, not just wearing a lapel pin. And I feel like it fits in with the MILF Party idea, as well. It meshes with Edwards' Two Americas concept (even tho' I don't much like the guy), which is very MILFey.
Also see Henry. I think the case for structural reform and (what I take to be) Deanian 50-state effort is pretty convincing.
32 is an awesome example of form following content. Nicely done, Labs.
I'm not sure the election results should be seen as an endorsement of any unifying theme of the left other than competence. Given the enormous amount of damage to be undone, and the exigencies of our situation both at home and abroad, what I would hope for is not a distinctively ideological statement so much as a sustained effort at competent stewardship.
Is that a descriptive or a normative 'should'? Because I think we are well advised to treat this victory as an endorsement of Democratic ideology -- another couple of years of cringing around muttering "We know you didn't elect us because you approve of us - we're too repugnant for that to be possible - so we'll just get this mess all tidied up so you can go back to electing the Real Americans (TM) you naturally adore," isn't going to do us any good in the long run.
I say we make a push on single payer French style UHC. Make Bush veto it.
Then there will be no comity. I will back my SexyChicksNDongz platform to the disastrous end.
perhaps the "fucking mommy party" or even the mother/fucker party. (cf
Well, whatever we choose, I think we definitely need to label the Rs the party of Men, Dogs, and Pork.
I like the Fucking Mommy Party. As opposed to the Fucking Mommy Over Party, aka the party of Men, Dogs, and Pork.
Isn't it cute how LB is being all grownup and talking about, like, policy and stuff? Maybe we can make her the head of the FMP.
I'm a man who likes dogs and pork. Seriously, it's not time to push people out of what little coalition we've built here.
Pork is good. What about the Party of Eaglefucking Contests? That's my new favorite phrase.
I say we make a push on single payer French style UHC.
Disagree entirely. I think Dean's right: we'll get single-payer, but only piecemeal.
I'm ok with that, just so long as it doesn't reify any gazes.
Clown, I read somewhere that Rumsfeld had offered his resignation on more than one occasion--after the Abu Ghraib debacle and one other time--but that Bush had refused it. It's shameful of Bush to accept it only after a political defeat, but Rumsfeld appears to have a bit more decency. His leaving makes me both glad and sad. Glad that he's gone, because he was terrible and sad that he's the only person in the administration who would be willing to resign because of poor job performance. Colin Powell left, because he was tired, not because he failed. Now there's nobody who would be willing to do that. I realize that that's pretty twistd logic.
Rahm is a bit of a wanker. It's not because he's moderate. He's got all of the slickness of Bill Clinton without any of his charisma. When you watch him on TV, it's so obvious that he's full of himself--more even than most politicians. But my biggest criticism of him is that he has a grasp of wonky policy details, but he doesn't seem to have a heart that's capable of articulating why those things matter. He may be able to explain a particular policy in technocratic terms, but I do not get the sense that he has a moral vision for why those policies really matter.
The Republicans are the Party of Schiavo. You have to dedfine them by their most easily demonizable constituency: religious fanatics.
I suppose it implictly endorses and normalizes bird abuse. I think the logo should be the Muppet Sam The American Eagle, wincing.
Dogfuckers and Eaglefuckers? I want to get the Dogfucking in there. I think we owe it to Ricky.
45: I think I cribbed it from Get Your War On.
Ah, there
I got a small man crush on Rahm last night, it took me until this morning to realize why. When they took the stage last night, the word REVENGE was written all over his face. Yeah, I know he's a self-serving dick, but that was fun to see.
Rahm Emanuel used to be a ballet dancer. He's also the brother of Ari Emanuel, on whom Jeremy Piven's character in Entrourage is based.
And now my man crush has deepened. Curse you, ogged.
22 is right. We have lame-duck Congress to get thru first. Keep the spotlight on them for a while longer.
Sistersaralou at Next Hurrah talked about 1958. I don't have the timing exact, but that sounds really close to Sputnik and the massive educational drive...I would have to do research to know what form it took back then.
But education strikes me as a place where Bush(Laura) could be reached, a legacy Dems could share because they would benefit more by the results down the line.
But my biggest criticism of him is that he has a grasp of wonky policy details, but he doesn't seem to have a heart that's capable of articulating why those things matter. He may be able to explain a particular policy in technocratic terms, but I do not get the sense that he has a moral vision for why those policies really matter.
Yes, but if he understands THAT the moral policies actually matter, is there any difference? Let's say Rahm Emanel is a box, into which come policy questions, and out of which come answers that fit within the moral framework of progressive liberalism. But if he doesn't know HOW he processed the one into the other, is he considered not a liberal, or conscious, or Chinese?
"the "MILF Party" is vetoed"
MILF is already taken by an Islamic extremist group in the Phillipines. (Moro-Islamic Liberation Front)
Sadly, the "MILF Party" is vetoed, because the "I" in MILF reifies the male gaze. Plus we want straight women to vote for us. But I think that's on the right track....
Let's be inclusive and be the MWLF party. We just need a Welsh politician to articulate this vision.
Rumsfeld's resignation is a victory for the congressional democrats that demanded it.
Pelosi has a 100 hour plan focused on doing things that moderate democrats and the public at large support. Plus, moderate democrats want to see the investigations flowing as much as any other democrats do.
Because of this, there isn't much intra-democratic conflict in the foreseeable future. The liberal wing is focusing on economic and governance issues like the moderates want, but the moderates have to stop bragging about their moderation to the media. That shit really is wankerific.
If democrats keep the senate, I would like to see popular liberal proposals such as solid heath care plan going up to the president. I just think we need to get some victories in the 100 hr plan first.
57: The trouble with an amoral, ostensibly progressive figure like Rahm is that, without the moral framework, the results are not guaranteed to be progressively moral. More important, he's very likely to get sidetracked: If we raise even more money from giant corporations, imagine what great populist legislation we could pass!!
This is the entire DLC trap; it's actually part of why some non-rabid conservatives reacted viscerally against Clinton. They sensed that he wanted power for its own sake. I think the reality was that he knew that power was necessary to accomplish good things, so he made sure he had power. But he was so good at power-accrual, and triangulation, that the actual good-doing got short-shrift.
And I don't think Rahm has half the moral framework of Clinton (much less half the political acuity).
BG, I don't think we know a damned thing about who offered to resign and with how much sincerity.
Ned, Does it really matter? Maybe not to you, but to a lot of people, yes. And what I'm saying is that I think that he has individual little tweaks in policy that are sort of okay ideas, but that he's not willing to tackle the really big issues. I don't really care for targeted education tax breaks that are so complicated that you can't figure them out without the help of TurboTax. I want a few simple, big programs.
I just don't think that there's anything really coherent about his policy program. That DLC-inspired book he put out with Bruce Reed left me feeling blah. It was basically: "elect us, because we're not as bad as the Republicans." Well, that's definitely true--especially given how awful the current Republicans are--but it's not particularly inspiring.
What we need is to fortify ourselves with narratives of restoration and recovery. I recommend starting with Carlyle's Past and Present.
Ditto to what JRoth said.
Jackmormon, you're right. Last night I was at an election party, and some woman said that she, a Deval Patrick supporter, felt bad for Kerry Healey, because it must be hard to have to make a concession speech. I said, "No, you have to go in for the kill." I think, though, that I said that partly because I can be a bit soft myself and wanted to steel myself against that. So yeah, let me take pleasure in Rumsfeld's demise.
I read Bob Woodward's new book, and the one thing it made clear was that in an earlier age, Rumsfeld's subordinates woulda put poison in his coffee cup after the third month. The man was a bureaucratic nightmare.
I want more good news! We've had a steady trickle of good news all day, and I want more!
I want more concession speeches! resignations! I want someone to offer me a job! or free babysitting!
More! More!
I posted this at TAPPED, and I want to spread it around. The subject was Pelosi taking impeachment off the table:
Think of it as a Fed RICO investigation. Use the committees to go after the little and medium fish first.
This is why impeachment should be off the table:so that "I was following orders" is off the table.
1) Bring back rule of law
2) Show that the wrong kind of loyalty can hurt you bad
3) Show that your boss cannot protect you
4) Remove an entire generation of future Haldemans, Negropontes, and Addingtons from the political scene.
5) Make Bush issue an bushel of pardons.
Watergate was the model, not Monica. How do you kill a king? You turn his courtiers against each other, and then they will turn against him.
If Pelosi and Conyers plays this right, Bush will resign in disgrace. Asked publicly by members of his own party.
We want to kill a party.
71:Of course I do. But I also want UHC and choice and a bunch of other good things that are not coming out of this Congress. What comes out of the Congress is more Democratic Congresspersons and Senators and a President. Then the good stuff.
Now getting good bills filibustered or vetoed will not dominate the talk shows.
God save us if we don't have time for cock, for all our wonking.
70- you won't be able to kill the party, but a purge will be from inside. The social conservatives lost big, and I hope that the limited government, "small town values" will prevail. It has happened before, Goldwater to Reagan.
Iran-contra was based on small town values.
Are not the "small town values" part of the social conservative package?
Depends which small town you're talking about.
I'd really like to hear are the liberal voices (they must be out there) who can articulate the unifying themes of the left... Not only that, but the larger blogs now have real social force. ... A little coordination and planning could go a long way.
I sure wish there were a bunch of excited and inspired brilliant people who had some sort of way they could talk to each other and who wanted to do a project that would be influential.
I don't think we actually count as one of the larger blogs.
God save us if we don't have time for cock, for all our wonking.
Happy orgy at SB's!
Drudge sez AP just called Virginia for Webb.
Here's the link.
Senate, bitches. It's official.
70- you won't be able to kill the party, but a purge will be from inside. The social conservatives lost big, and I hope that the limited government, "small town values" will prevail.
Hahahaha. Good luck; the social conservatives are a substantially larger part of your reliable base than the limited government folks. And, as I recall, the deficit exploded during Reagan's term, and he ended up having to raise taxes two or three times.
I think part of the problem is that social conservatives have specific ideas about what they want; beyond tax cuts forever, limited government folks either don't or don't really mean what they claim to want.
Appointments clause power, I think I love you, but I wanna know for sure.
I just pressed it up against the comment box.
Mail a pic to Ben so he can post it for us to admire.
Tigger, meet Eeyore.
This is the best summary of Megan-Unfogged interactions that I think I've ever seen.
For all any of us knows, Drymala did send in a pic.
Yes, but now he can say which one and you can post it! Hooray!
Yeah, how will we know that Joe took off his pants? That's what it all comes down to, right? The hours of knocking on doors, handing out pamphlets, calling voters, watching the polls, and now finally, the big payoff. We want visual proof...
OK, so I went and read the link in 84, and I read the MSNBC.com story (credited as "NBC, MSNBC and news services"), and don't at all understand what changed that now they're going to call it.
I think the answer is in Joe D's pants.
It seems that Allen's people have unofficially called it quits. Officially, tomorrow morning. Is what they're saying.
It's cold in here without pants.
Oh yeah, you talk a lot of shit, but so did the Republicans.
Oh, sure, it's easy for you pseudonymous fuckers. You can post pantsless pics all the livelong day.
I, for one, am in favor of all the pseudonymous fuckers posting pantsless pics all the livelong day.
What's the point of being an artist if you can't do crazy shit? I ask you.
c0ck@unfogged.com still works, Joe; totally randomized filenames and no one'll know it's from you.
I remind the ladies that script at the other end of the address can't discriminate between c0ck, tits, asses, vulvas, or anything like that, so y'all should get on the ball too.
CNN says:
A source close to Allen also told CNN that the senator "has no intention of dragging this out."
1st reaction: OH THANK GOD.
2nd reaction: Someone must have some good dirt on GOP dirty tricks in this race.
Alternately the ladies can send photos of their privy parts directly to me.
Allen wanted the Senate seat mostly as a springboard to the White House. That's dead no matter what, so he may be happier doing something else with his life than fighting for a slim chance to go back to the Senate with his tail between his legs.
97, 103: I had really, really hoped this was the explanation, had even opined about it to Rah this morning, but hadn't been able to get my optimism on.
Allen wanted the Senate seat mostly as a springboard to the White House.
The man really is an idiot, isn't he?
My enthusiasm for articulate Welsh leaders aside, I think this is a great and timely post.
As I see it, there are five major interlocking concerns.
1) Good old domestic policy--comforting the afflicted, making the country as a whole better off, fairly and justly. And this, to me, currently boils down to healthcare.
2) Major domestic crisis. The environment. Too urgent, too important, too behind to be anything but front and center. 6-14 years has created a lot of havoc.
3) Ethics/Accountability/the Rule of Law: Everything from restoring Habeas, beating back the Patriot Act, cleaning up the lobbying/finance process, and bringing back transparency and documentation.
4) Foreign Policy---Get out of Iraq, & Generally Be Smarter and Nicer. Get out of Iraq is an acute, immediate problem, but be Smarter & Nicer applies generally.
5) Bring the budget into line and start attacking the beast of the appropriations/military industry monster.
These are all connected, like the five triangles in a pentagon, swirld slightly. (Eek.)
Congress can help with the first with minor bills. It's not going to be able to get the whole thing in without a Dem Prez, but it can start laying the path. The same, but more, with #2. The big thing is #3---being super transparent, ruthless with corruption, and ruthless about investigating. I think #3 is the place bloggers/online denizens can help the most. There is a wealth of public information we can help agitate for (think GAO/Office of Budget/hearings), then help sort and analyze, then help publicize. It's not just about blogging--it's about wikis and parallel process volunteering and using mapping and other tools to visualize complexity and flow. It's about meetups---all our online conversations slowly turning into real life conversations, friendships, collaborations, and projects. It's also about bridging--by virtue of being connected, informed people with lots of virtual friends we are hubs, and we should connect our virtual life with our real life, transfering informational benefits to local groups. If we use blogs to encourage and support each other in becoming more and more involved with our local and physical political reality, I think we can get immense amounts of work done.
All this applies to #5 as well. For a while I've fantasized about setting up a semi-closed (i.e. you have to prove your chops a bit, first, be known, etc., to edit) wiki to analyze and track the budget. I don't know enough about it's structure to know how to break it up, but why not make a shadow group of congressional aides? Surely on the blogosphere there are 1200 odd smart, likeminded people who'd be willing to track the machinations of each Rep, Senator, & Secretary as necessary. There are some real possibilities now. . . .I think I hadn't allowed myself to believe in them before today, and suddenly my brain is on fire.
As for Iraq and foreign policy, I think we still have to keep protesting, loudly if more gracefully. Candlelight vigils, eagle eyed analysis, and LOTS of hearings.
Thanks Ogged, for getting it going, and thanks everyone for toasting, etc. And thanks Joe, um, yeah. :-)
I'm just glad to see that the "You lost, get over it" shoe fits just as well on the other foot. Justice, or at least vaguely equitable treatment, marches on!
Hey could everybody wish me luck? I'm off to take a test which I deeply resent having to take but which my employer wishes me to; it is the NASD Series 7 license. I have been going over the study material for a month and it has progressed from "word salad" to "minimally comprehensible" to "sufficiently impressed upon my memory as to make actual understanding not completely relevant". The test is 250 multiple-choice questions and I am given 6 hours[!] to complete it, and I only need to get 70% (175 questions) correct to pass; so I think I am going to do ok -- still your wishes of luck will be appreciated. See you this afternoon.
Good luck! That sure does look like a pisser of a test, especially if it's not actually your thing.
have been going over the study material for a month and it has progressed from "word salad" to "minimally comprehensible" to "sufficiently impressed upon my memory as to make actual understanding not completely relevant".
And after that, you are allowed to play with other peoples' money? Cool.
Good luck!
Go Clown! As I understand the Series 7, too, it's kind of low pressure because it's not uncommon (although irksome) to have to retake it. So you pass, or if you don't, no biggie -- you take it again.
Yay, I passed! Thanks for the well wishes, to rfts, rh-c, lb, and anyone else who muttered under their breath a prayer for my passage but neglected to commit it to comments. Those of you who wished me ill, well fuck you, Jack, it had no effect.
And: today is sunny, clear and 65 degrees F, and I have the afternoon off -- I think I will go call a couple of people to let them know I passed, and go do some yard work. The blogosphere will have to wend its own way today, I'm not available for my customary gatekeeper duties.