The Center for American Progress published an issue of The Progress Report repeating self-congratulatory talking points from Democratic congressional leadership. Their message: "Don't be Demappointed, people -- we're doing stuff! Really!"
CAP, if you aren't familiar with it, was founded to be a think tank for progressives, the Heritage Foundation of the left. But there doesn't seem to have been a lot of thinking that went into that message.
The Democratic takeover of Congress was an exciting moment for many. That excitement has subsequently evaporated. From Iraq to global trade to global warming, the Dems are leaving many with a special kind of disappointment that deserves a special name. Say, Demappointment.
One reason, though not the only, is that the Dems are just as bought-and-sold as the GOP:
Citibank gives money to Tom Daschle, Tom Daschle crafts the hideous Bankruptcy Bill, and suddenly the Midwestern union member who was laid off in the wake of Democrat-passed NAFTA can’t even declare bankruptcy to get out from the credit card debt he incurred in his unemployment. He will now probably suck eggs for the rest of his life, paying off credit card debt year after year at a snail’s pace while working as a non-union butcher in a Wal-Mart in Butte. Royally screwed twice by the Democratic Party he voted for, he will almost certainly decide to vote Republican the first time he opens up the door to find four pimply college students wearing I READ BANNED BOOKS t-shirts taking up a collection to agitate for dolphin-safe tuna.(Another is that they govern like they're still in the minority.) But they sure are pulling out all the stops to insist that they're getting real work done.
...not if you can get Fred Thompson's.
Better yet, you can read Blogs4Brownback's hilarious exchanges in advance of the debate. Some favorite lines: "The Constitution is an obvious fraud to me because it guarantees that which the Bible prohibits, i.e. due process of law, the freedom to be secure in one’s possessions and papers, the freedom to avoid torture, the 'freedom' to express thoughts contrary to the strict word of Christ, equality among the races, the right of women to vote, and the 'freedom' to NOT be compelled toward the only true ideology - the word of Christ."
Unfortunately, Hillary's personal blog is all too silent.
Are there other political campaign satire blogs out there? (A search for a faux Ron Paul blog ended up with waaaaaaay too many hits to too many blogs that were too hard to distinguish between satire and seriousness.) All five of you who read this blog, if you know of any, please comment!
One of the lessons of 9/11 was that many of us were finally forced to learn about Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden -- and how the U.S. backed bin Laden's fight against the Soviets and then promptly ignored the country when the Soviets were repelled and Afghanistan was left in ruins.
So, after the 9/11 attacks and the U.S. military toppled the Taliban, what did President Genius do -- but essentially abandon Afghanistan. Oh, we're still there, but Afghanistan has been reduced to a city-state surrounded by lawless regions, because the U.S. once again left Afghanistan in ruins as President Genius diverted our resources and set us on the fatally foolhardy adventure in Iraq.
Now comes word that five U.S. soldiers were killed when a NATO helicopter was shot down. Additionally, per WaPo, this crash "was the 13th deadly helicopter incident involving U.S. troops since the invasion of Afghanistan in 2002." Emergency responders responding to the crash were ambushed as well. This crash occurred in the Helmand province, about which "[l]ocal officials in recent months have said the situation . . . is out of control."
November changed nothing.
We try to have a snarky blog thing going on over here, but this is all so deeply frustrating that we are out of snark right now.
>> Who is this moron? (And I'm not asking about Ron Paul.)
>> This is news?
>> McCain finally went back to the Senate after missing more votes than anyone but Tim Johnson, who suffered an aneurysm. Best commentary: “By all accounts, John McCain is not recovering from the brain hemorrhage many believe he suffered around the time he announced his candidacy for president.”
>> This guy asks the question that this blogger has memorably answered.
>> Most people in this country work shit jobs for shit wages, but campaigning about it "carries significant risks." (Because not campaigning about it has totally worked for Dems.)
>> It turns out we were all fucked up before we were even born.
>> Daytime TV: so many reasons not to watch, and now it turns out the hosts and staffers really are that insipid.
>> Damn. Those of us who are fantastically good looking are being discriminated against.
>> Nature abhors an idiot.
