"Instead of joining us on the right side of history, all the Republicans can come up with is, 'slow down, stop everything, let's start over.' If you think you've heard these same excuses before, you're right. When this country belatedly recognized the wrongs of slavery, there were those who dug in their heels and said 'slow down, it's too early, things aren't bad enough,'" Harry Reid, on healthcare reform.
Huh?
It’s an effective ad against something of a straw man. I really haven’t heard anyone say that opposition to, say, the public option is rooted in racism. Maybe someone has, but it’s not exactly a meme. Conflating wider worries about the intensity of vaguely articulated loathing of Obama as racially tinged with specific worries about health insurance reform is, however, a useful piece of sophism. But really: a total government take-over of the healthcare system? For a reform where almost every newly insured person will get coverage under a private insurance company and get prescription drugs from private drug companies and get treated in non-government-run hospitals? Sigh.
"A biology professor at the University of Minnesota, Morris, known as PZ “Little Paul” Myers, has no claim to fame beyond an infantile expression of bigotry that went viral, much like a flu virus. Though mostly forgotten, Myers is to an Internet hate virus what that pig in Veracruz, Mexico, is to H1N1. He is the original host in an obscure village,"- Wayne Laugesen, Colorado Springs Gazette, in an editorial urging YouTube to remove video of PZ Meyers desecrating a Eucharist.
"Get a sex change, or at least start wearing Red outfits and high heels around the house playing Sarah dress-up for yourself and whatever gutter trash you can round up at the local adult book store. You look like an aging queen on her knees at some gloryhole waiting for a miraculous birth certificate to be slipped in from the next stall so you can engage your latest perversion until you climax all over yourself," – Dan Riehl, on my request for actual, easily available proof of Palin's maternity of Trig.
"The basic problem with my love relationships with women is that my standards are so high — and they apply equally to both of us. I seek full-blast mutual intensity, fully fledged mutual acceptance, full-blown mutual flourishing, and fully felt peace and joy with each other. This requires a level of physical attraction, personal adoration, and moral admiration that is hard to find. And it shares a depth of trust and openness for a genuine soul-sharing with a mutual respect for a calling to each other and to others. Does such a woman exist for me? Only God knows and I eagerly await this divine unfolding. Like Heathcliff and Catherine’s relationship in Emily Bronte’s remarkable novel Wuthering Heights or Franz Schubert’s tempestuous piano Sonata No. 21 in B flat (D.960) I will not let life or death stand in the way of this sublime and funky love that I crave!" – Cornel West, in his new memoir.
"I note that some Palin fans are trying to spin the fact that she never called on the president to produce his birth certificate or questioned his citizenship. They are missing the point. Sarah Palin has said that these questions are legitimate, that voters have a right to know, and that “a lot” of citizens are concerned about it.
She didn’t say what any rational person on the right or left believes: that questions about the president’s birth have been settled by the state of Hawaii, that only a very small group of citizens are even concerned about the issue, and that an equally small number of people were even aware of the ridiculous controversy over Trig’s origins…
The problem is, unless the GOP — and that includes Rush Limbaugh and the other cotton candy conservatives who wield a lot of influence — stand up and denounce her in no uncertain terms, birtherism will have gone completely mainstream in the Republican Party. If that happens, you might want to forget about any significant gains at the polls for the GOP in 2010," – Rick Moran, PJM.
There will be and can be no GOP base or even elite open dissent against Palin.
She is a religious icon now. In a religious party. Logic has no place in such a climate; just obedience, and, er, that wonderful word from the campaign: deference.
Needless to say, I'll post at length on this shortly. But I am grateful that Palin herself has now said that the attempt to get independent factual evidence of factual claims made by politicians as a central part of their campaign appeal and platform is legitimate. Of course it's legitimate. It's called journalism and accountability.
But as we have discovered, those two elements are no longer very common among journalists and politicians. They are all infotainers now.
Tea-partiers ape voiceover legend Don LaFontaine:
"The Obama Left can tolerate, barely, the appearance of waging war if that’s what it takes to prevent rank-and-file Democrats from revolting. But they have no interest in defeating anti-American Muslims (who, after all, have a point, right?) or in pursuing American interests for their own sake," – Andy McCarthy, NRO.
"If it doesn't raise costs, and we're truly going to take this money from Medicare, what it's going to do to our seniors is, I have a message for you: 'You're gonna die sooner," – Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK), on the Democrats' healthcare plan.
The Dish 