Political Quotes of the Day

Discussing all things political in NW Arkansas and beyond.
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Re: Political Quotes of the Day

Post by Dardedar »

"It's a sad tale that began in the '80s, when leading conservati­­ves frustrated with the left-leani­­ng press and university establishm­­ent began to speak of an "adversary culture of intellectu­­als." ... The die was cast. Over the next 25 years there grew up a new generation of conservati­­ve writers who cultivated none of their elders' intellectu­­al virtues -- indeed, who saw themselves as counter-in­­tellectua­l­s. Most are well-educa­­ted and many have attended Ivy League universiti­­es; in fact, one of the mastermind­­s of the Palin nomination was once a Harvard professor. But their function within the conservati­­ve movement is no longer to educate and ennoble a populist political tendency, it is to defend that tendency against the supposedly monolithic and uniformly hostile educated classes. They mock the advice of Nobel Prize-winn­­ing economists and praise the financial acumen of plumbers and builders. They ridicule ambassador­­s and diplomats while promoting jingoistic journalist­­s who have never lived abroad and speak no foreign languages. And with the rise of shock radio and television­­, they have found a large, popular audience that eagerly absorbs their contempt for intellectu­­al elites. They hoped to shape that audience, but the truth is that their audience has now shaped them."

LINK
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Re: Political Quotes of the Day

Post by Doug »

From here.

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On this Sunday's "GPS," CNN host Fareed Zakaria blasted Glenn Beck's assertion that around ten percent of Muslims are terrorists.

...[Zakaria says this is nonsense], a "figure made up by Glenn Beck with absolutely no basis in fact."

Zakaria noted that, according to the State Department, there were around 11,000 terrorist attacks committed in the world in 2009. He said he would be "generous" to Beck and assume that a hundred people carried out each attack -- even though, in reality, most involved from one to three people.

"One hundred people times 11,000 terror attacks equals 1,100,000 people," Zakaria said. "But Glenn Beck's figure is 157 times higher than that. If in fact there are 157 million Muslim terrorists in the world, what were the other 155,900,000 of them doing last year?"
"We could have done something important Max. We could have fought child abuse or Republicans!" --Oona Hart (played by Victoria Foyt), in the 1995 movie "Last Summer in the Hamptons."
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Re: Political Quotes of the Day

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"McCain distinguished himself doubly this weekend, opposing the Dream Act and leading the opposition to "Don't Ask," despite the very public positions of his wife and daughter on the other side of the issue. I used to know a different John McCain, the guy who proposed comprehensive immigration reform with Ted Kennedy, the guy--a conservative, to be sure, but an honorable one--who refused to indulge in the hateful strictures of his party's extremists. His public fall has been spectacular, a consequence of politics--he "needed" to be reelected--and personal pique. He's a bitter man now, who can barely tolerate the fact that he lost to Barack Obama. But he lost for an obvious reason: his campaign proved him to be puerile and feckless, a politician who panicked when the heat was on during the financial collapse, a trigger-happy gambler who chose an incompetent for his vice president. He has made quite a show ever since of demonstrating his petulance and lack of grace.

What a guy."

Joe Klein ... TIME
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Re: Political Quotes of the Day

Post by Dardedar »

"In the last eight weeks, the President has accomplish­ed:

A New Trade Agreement with South Korea
A (say what you will) Tax Policy deal that included an extended of items that weren't part of the original deal for the middle class, especially an extension of the Recovery Act Tax Credits and the extension of unemployme­nt benefits for millions
The Repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell
The Ratificati­on of the new START Treaty
The Passage of 9/11 First Responder Medical funding
The Child Food Nutrition Bill"

Huff Po thread
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Re: Political Quotes of the Day

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Birthers and Birthism, Condemned

Excerpt:

The essence of Liberi v. Taitz is not in itself an eligibility claim. Why then are we so ready to impugn 'birthism,' as opposed to, say, simple hyperreactivity, vendetta, fraud, abuse of the courts, ignorance of the law, and plain stupidity?

Because those traits ARE the essence of birthism.

You CAN'T BE a birther, unless you:

1. Have such a conspiratorial, narcissistic mindset, combined with hatred of Obama and/or liberals and/or non-whites, that you are literally deaf, dumb, and blind to the Constitution and the law, as well as to reason and commonsense -- or
2. Are willing to playact at (1) in order to further political ends by exciting fear, doubt, and hatred in susceptible people through the use of lies.

In the old game of "Ignorant or Evil," those are the two extremes. Corsi is evil. Lakin is ignorant. Berg is hyper-ignorant. Orly is evil and ignorant. Butterdezillion is crazy.

Birthers wrap themselves in the flag and set it on fire.

Advising someone to disentangle themselves from Birthers is like advising them to disentangle themselves from child-slave traffickers, or puppy-torturers. The 'class' is tainted by definition.

Consider the fact that the more extreme end of the right-wing/conservative/Libertarian/Tea Party/Republican cadre -- the end most infected with the 'usurper' meme -- thinks nothing of praying for armed insurrection.

These are not just the scum that you would always have been able to find in dark corners during ANY administration. These are housewives, retirees, your neighbors. It has become common parlance to invoke the idea of Civil War as a solution to an administration one doesn't agree with.

The rest...
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Re: Political Quotes of the Day

Post by Dardedar »

From a comment thread:

***
"Dear Mr. President,

Well, it has been almost exactly two years since that joyous day on which you became our 44th President. It still brings a smile to my face when I remember you walking hand-in-ha­nd with your beautiful wife and daughters along the Mall as your predecesso­r left Washington for the last time in Marine One and the world joined in celebratio­n.

You came into office amidst the worst economic crisis in our history, but led us through the storm with calm, cool competence­. You have faced the most vicious political attacks of any President in my lifetime; even in the midst of national crisis, you faced the most intransige­nt, nihilistic partisan opposition imaginable­. But you maintained your dignity and composure, and accomplish­ed more than any President in 50 years. Your refusal to sink to your opponents' level frustrates them, and your achievemen­ts make them hysterical­.

You have been through the grinder over the past two years, but there are millions of us out here who will always have your back. We feel assured with your competent hand on the wheel of state, and safe in the knowledge that you will always act in our nation's best interests, even if the political costs are high.

Ignore the naysayers and doommonger­s, sir. Do not hate them, for they are just scared and intimidate­d by you. Stay the course, stay focused, and we will have your back.

We look forward to your continued accomplish­ments in the next six years."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/sh ... 46259.html
"I'm not a skeptic because I want to believe, I'm a skeptic because I want to know." --Michael Shermer
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Re: Political Quotes of the Day

Post by Dardedar »

"What does it mean to be qualified to be president? She is born in
this country and she's the right age. Those are the qualifications."
-- Rick Santorum (R-Man-on-Dog sex), on Sarah Palin's qualifications (as seen on bartcop.com)
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Re: Political Quotes of the Day

Post by Doug »

Darrel wrote:"What does it mean to be qualified to be president? She is born in
this country and she's the right age. Those are the qualifications." -- Rick Santorum
DOUG
GW Bush definitely lowered the bar for Republicans.
"We could have done something important Max. We could have fought child abuse or Republicans!" --Oona Hart (played by Victoria Foyt), in the 1995 movie "Last Summer in the Hamptons."
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Re: Political Quotes of the Day

Post by Dardedar »

.
Beck Ridiculed Pelosi For Speaking Out Against Violent Tea Party Rhetoric

"I'm waiting for Glenn Beck to finally apologize.

I'm waiting for him to acknowledge that violent rhetoric can and does influence mentally unbalanced people, and that a line has been so clearly crossed, even Glenn Beck has regrets.

When you tell people Obama's planning to kill them, that has consequences.

When you warn people of an impending Reichstag moment and power grab, you're targeting our leaders.

When Byron Williams, armed to the teeth and wearing body armor, drives to San Francisco to shoot officials of the Tides Foundation and hopefully start a revolution, was it a coincidence that you'd targeted them with your violent rhetoric?

When your fan Richard Poplowski became so convinced that the Obama administration would take his guns that he gunned down three Pittsburgh policemen, you planted those seeds...

You can hide behind the flag, Mr. Beck, but now everyone sees you for who you are. You're a liar, and a bully, and a thug. You incite other people and sit back, counting your cash.

Shame on you. You're a twisted excuse for a human being, and your words led to the death of other human beings. No, you didn't pull the trigger -- but neither did Charles Manson."
"I'm not a skeptic because I want to believe, I'm a skeptic because I want to know." --Michael Shermer
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Re: Political Quotes of the Day

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"We need to realize that the rhetoric, and the firing people up and ... for example, we're on Sarah Palin's targeted list, but the thing is, the way she has it depicted, we're in the crosshairs of a gun sight over our district. When people do that, they've got to realize that there are consequences to that action..." --Gabrielle Giffords on MSNBC responding to Palin's use of cross hairs on a map to target her.

LINK

See also this at The Atlantic:

Palinspeak And Violence.

At least 113 referenced examples of recent rightwing violence.

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Re: Political Quotes of the Day

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FLASHBACK: 'Fox News: The No. 1 Name in Murder Fantasies'; Bill O'Reilly's recent "joke" about decapitating Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank was only the latest example of a demented Fox News culture that permits on-air personalities to fantasize about assassination and other forms of violence against those deemed enemies of the station, its personalities or their worldview." – Steve Rendall, Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting

cited at MichaelMoore.com
"We could have done something important Max. We could have fought child abuse or Republicans!" --Oona Hart (played by Victoria Foyt), in the 1995 movie "Last Summer in the Hamptons."
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Re: Political Quotes of the Day

Post by Doug »

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(File photo)

DOUG writes:
Bill Maher was on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. He was great.
===============================================================
"The NRA should just change their name to the 'Assassin's Lobby,'" Maher said before receiving stunned silence and later applause from the audience.

He also suggested that gun owners change their view of firearms, from a hobby or form of defense to a vice or guilty pleasure:

"If you love guns, just admit it -- like it's a vice," Maher said. "It's like alcohol or drugs or sex addiction or gambling... It's not good for you or anyone else, but you like it."

See here.
"We could have done something important Max. We could have fought child abuse or Republicans!" --Oona Hart (played by Victoria Foyt), in the 1995 movie "Last Summer in the Hamptons."
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Re: Political Quotes of the Day

Post by Dardedar »

Quote:

"You [Palin] have often complained about out-of-bounds personal comments directed toward you (eg, David Letterman’s). Now try to show toward others the same empathy that you demand from others. Innocent as you feel yourself to be, try to imagine how it must have felt to be Giffords during this past campaign season: guns showing up at her rallies, her offices vandalized, death threats – and your map as the finishing touch. Imagine how her family must feel." --Conservative but not insane, David Frum, LINK

"At least 10 of the 20 on Sarah's hit-list received death threats, had their offices vandalized or shot up, and one got a bullet in the head on Saturday... If you or I put up a hit-list with 20 Federal officials on it, in the crosshairs of a gunsight, and 10 of them got a barrage of death threats, offices vandalized and shot up, and one ended up with a bullet in the head, you or I would not be posting 'prayer, peace 'n' justice' bullshit on facebook after scrubbing our hit-list map like Lady MacBeth ('Out damned spot!')

You or I would be in a small room right now answering some very tough questions by law enforcement."

KOS comment

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Re: Political Quotes of the Day

Post by L.Wood »

.

WHO KNEW?

Image

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Re: Political Quotes of the Day

Post by L.Wood »

.

"I can see the end of Sarah Palin's political career from my house!"
Betty Bowers on FB

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Re: Political Quotes of the Day

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Media Matters: Changing The Tone, Or Changing Our Understanding?

And let's not fool ourselves with the forced symmetry of "both sides do it," which is all too often employed in the media's overriding quest for "balance" at the expense of accuracy. On Monday, the New Yorker's George Packer observed:
In fact, there is no balance -- none whatsoever. Only one side has made the rhetoric of armed revolt against an oppressive tyranny the guiding spirit of its grassroots movement and its midterm campaign. Only one side routinely invokes the Second Amendment as a form of swagger and intimidation, not-so-coyly conflating rights with threats. Only one side's activists bring guns to democratic political gatherings. Only one side has a popular national TV host who uses his platform to indoctrinate viewers in the conviction that the President is an alien, totalitarian menace to the country. Only one side fills the AM waves with rage and incendiary falsehoods. Only one side has an iconic leader, with a devoted grassroots following, who can't stop using violent imagery and dividing her countrymen into us and them, real and fake. Any sentient American knows which side that is; to argue otherwise is disingenuous.
"Consider, briefly, Rush Limbaugh, who can make a legitimate claim to being the most influential pundit in America. In response to the pleas for civility that arose in the aftermath of the shooting, Limbaugh went on a deliberate crusade to make AM radio as ugly as possible. He said the alleged shooter has the support of the Democratic Party, intimated that the health care reform bill was intended to foment violence of the sort we saw in Arizona, brashly declared "we don't need to heal," and attacked the president for delivering hopeful news about Rep. Giffords' recovery.
Sentiments such as these are ineffably crass and are antithetical to calls for "more civility" -- but what else should we expect from Rush Limbaugh? As if to reaffirm that his existence is dedicated to poisoning public dialogue, he even revisited this week one of his low watermarks from years past, defending his attacks on Michael J. Fox's struggle with Parkinson's Disease."

http://mediamatters.org/research/201101140041
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Re: Political Quotes of the Day

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"There's good reason why her [Ayn Rand's] teachings are not taught in any philosophy curriculum at any academia and none of her peers actually respect her as a philosopher, because she's not. There aren't many (any?) atheist philosophers who agree with her self centered, greed is good and anyone who makes under $200k is scum line of thought. You won't find her works discussed in the standard history of philosophy either in general or in American history. Her thoughts on the poor, Jews, blacks, all of which she criticizes throughout her books are more along the lines of the rantings of a senile racist than that of a real philosopher.

Her self-reliant individualism and utter contempt of the 'weak" seems rather hollow in light of her own experiences in life. She was after all assisted both financially and socially by her friends and devoted followers throughout her life and even more so as she neared death. It seems her "philosophy" wasn't even good for her self, so why would it be good for anyone else?" --Billy S. on our Fayfree facebook page.
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Re: Political Quotes of the Day

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Darrel wrote:"There's good reason why her [Ayn Rand's] teachings are not taught in any philosophy curriculum at any academia and none of her peers actually respect her as a philosopher, because she's not. There aren't many (any?) atheist philosophers who agree with her self centered, greed is good and anyone who makes under $200k is scum line of thought. You won't find her works discussed in the standard history of philosophy either in general or in American history.
DOUG
It is true that she is not considered a philosopher by the vast majority of philosophers working today. However, she is often brought up in philosophy classes as an example of an ethical egoist (or at least a quasi-ethical egoist)--one who believes that the right act is defined as one that benefits oneself more than any other available course of action in a given situation.

Few philosophers agree with that view, so she is often brought up as an example in this context simply because the pickin's are slim in that category.
"We could have done something important Max. We could have fought child abuse or Republicans!" --Oona Hart (played by Victoria Foyt), in the 1995 movie "Last Summer in the Hamptons."
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Re: Political Quotes of the Day

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“This is America, where a white Catholic male Republican judge was murdered on his way to greet a Democratic Jewish woman member of Congress, who was his friend. Her life was saved initially by a 20-year old Mexican-American gay college student, and eventually by a Korean-American combat surgeon, all eulogized by our African American President.” –Allen Ginsburg. LINK
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Re: Political Quotes of the Day

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"She doesn't know anything." --John McCain's chief campaign strategist Steve Schmidt, speaking of Palin

CBS News

"...and whether or not there's some measure there in terms of limiting the size of the magazine that you can buy to go with semi-automatic weapons -- we've had that in place before," the former vice president said, referring to the federal assault weapons ban that expired in 2004. "Maybe it's appropriate to reestablish that kind of thing, but I think you do have to be careful, obviously."
--Cheney, stating the obvious with as many weasel words as he can fit

"If you take a shot whenever Republicans say something that’s not true, please assign a designated driver."
--congressman Anthony Weiner, warning anyone playing drinking games during the republican debate on health care in Congress.

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