That same kind of desperation to get people to pay attention to you and take you seriously seems to have infected the Democratic Party, whose leaders are now saying the most outlandish things in a frantic effort to regain control of the national debate and reestablish their credibility. In the wake of massive protests against their insurance-industry bailout disguised as a healthcare plan, and shocking revelations about the corruption of their grassroots as represented by the whoremongers at ACORN, Democratic leaders seem to have become completely unhinged and are ready to say the most ridiculous things to try to demonize their opponents and win the soundbite war.
This has been going on in the media for weeks as pundits from the left have tried to portray protesters as racists and kooks, or shills for big insurance providing protest on demand. These efforts became increasingly embarrassing as more and more evidence came out that it was Democrats who were astroturfing and staging events while bringing in thugs and shills to try to silence their own constituents who were in the streets demanding accountability from their government.
Now the desperation to regain control of the debate has reached an even higher level, and dragged top Democrats into saying truly crazy and offensive things which are so over-the-top that they verge on self-parody.
At a Thursday press conference, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) tried to draw a comparison between current protests against the government and the anti-gay rhetoric and violence of the 1970s, saying, "I have concerns about some of the language that is being used, because I saw this myself in the late '70s in San Francisco. This kind of rhetoric was very frightening, and it created a climate in which violence took place."
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Ted
*(fart)
2 - Dave Nalle
I see you expended your entire intellectual arsenal on that one, Ted.
Dave
3 - Clavos
I thought it was rather good, Dave. In one short word he managed to characterize the acuity of his intellect AND offer the world a glimpse into his puerile fixation on bodily functions.
4 - Dave Nalle
And he speaks for myriad others who share his political perspective.
5 - zingzing
dave, just because you shit on people using more words doesn't mean you aren't doing anything except shitting on people. #4 is no better than #1, and it's far more counter-productive.
6 - zingzing
"expended your entire intellectual arsenal"
that's quite a pun.
7 - Glenn Contrarian
In addition to the obvious accusation of bigotry, she even seems to be suggesting the possibility of extreme violence by alluding to the Harvey Milk assassination. Pelosi was near tears as she recalled the violence of an earlier era, a violence which has no actual discernible parallel in the current, peaceful protests over healthcare and government spending.
Of course, of course! That's why threats on the life of the president of the United States have now risen by as much as 400 percent since his inauguration, which in the words of CNN's source in the Secret Service, 400 percent death threats against Barack Obama..."go far beyond anything the Secret Service has seen with any other president".
The same article shows a clip of a 'pastor' saying "I'm gonna pray that he (Obama) dies and go to hell."
Of course you don't agree with that statement...but where's the Republican outrage that we'd surely see if this were said against even the least popular president in modern times - Dubya?
Obama is still nearly twice as popular as Bush was...but he's getting 400% more death threats? And YOU think Pelosi's blowing things out of proportion?
In the '70s we really were in the last days of a racist society.
That's why in 1984 when I was on leave, I went to my hometown and saw the 'white' and 'colored' entrances still on the main street doctor's office. The words had been painted over...but paint doesn't hide words that are chiseled an inch deep in marble.
That's why the most listened-to man on radio - Rush Limbaugh - called for segregated buses. It does not matter that you and other BC conservatives disavow him, because he does seem to be the most powerful conservative in America (since even the chairman of the Republican party cannot point out Limbaugh's errors).
Not only are African-Americans strongly represented among those protesting healthcare and out-of-control government, but they are relatively young and most of them seem to be from the dreadfully racist southern states.
Uh-huh. That's why when we see a 'tea party' or any other form of protest by Republicans, the crowd is almost lily-white. According to this Gallup data, two percent of your registered membership that is black (as compared to 19% of registered Democrats)...and you're losing ground significantly among the Latinos, too. The article states: "The results show clearly that the Republican Party today is first and foremost a political entity dominated by white Americans. Eighty-nine percent of rank-and-file Republicans are non-Hispanic whites, leaving just 5% who are Hispanic (of any race), 2% who are black, and 4% of other races."
Many of [these conservative blacks] have even been elevated to positions of leadership within the tea party organizations and the Republican Party.
This is known as 'tokenism' - particularly when they make up two percent of your registered membership.
Dave, you (and the Republican party) are not fooling anyone. IF the Republican party at rallies made a practice of publicly pointing out racist signs or language and having such removed from the group, and IF the Republican party banded together (as they do so well) against obviously racist stunts like "Barack the Magic Negro", and IF the Republican party actually tried working IN the inner city to help improve the lives of people there (even though YOU claimed we 'prevent you from doing so')...
...THEN you'd find real progress among the minorities - but not before.
The provable facts show that our article, Dave, is nothing more than wishful thinking.
8 - Glenn Contrarian
"intellectual arsenal"
I'm still laughing - I do love a good pun!
9 - Glenn Contrarian
Man, but I gotta be more careful. The last sentence should read, "YOUR article", not 'OUR article'. That's really embarrassing.
10 - Jet Gardner
Almost as if it were written by an intellectual arsonist... :)
11 - Dave Nalle
I like that term, "intellectual arsonist" -- I may put it on my next business card.
And Glenn, I hear all the stuff you're saying, but I have to go to lunch.
IMO it doesn't matter at all. The point of the article which you're missing is that regardless of the outside perception, the protesters and the new right really are not racist, and the face of the protests is strongly multi-ethnic regardless of your dubious 2% figure.
Dave
12 - TK
Actually, the shark jumping episode was not in the last season of Happy Days. It was in the fifth season and cosidered the turning point where the show went downhill afterwards. It went on for a total of 10 seasons.
13 - zingzing
"the face of the protests is strongly multi-ethnic regardless of your dubious 2% figure."
good god, dave. i just took a look at images of the 9/12 tea party in washington and i was on page 13 of google images before i found a minority of course, that turned out to be a picture of the amnesty marches a few years back. i had to continue until page 17 until i found a picture of a black man running for congress in nc. so i'm not sure that works. the next image of a minority was from a chess website. i was getting kinda tired of looking at white people, so i put a limit of page 20 on myself, but i was already on page 21. there was a picture of a tea party in memphis, and i thought "surely, there's going to be a black man in memphis..." but, no. all white. by this time i was getting curious, so i looked at another page. then another. i just wanted to find this "multi-ethnic face." there was a picture from miami. surely there's a hispanic man in miami. nope. on page 25, there's a possible minority, but i can't say for sure. but that's good enough for me. so many white people...
14 - Clavos
Um zing:
Since most of the Latinos (we don't have any Hispanics, they all come from Latin America and the Caribbean), in Miami are as white as any of you gringos, I don't see how you can look at a picture of a Miami crowd and determine there are no Latinos in it.
15 - Clavos
In point of fact, zing, Miami-Dade county is 65% Latino, according to the Census Bureau, and votes heavily Republican.
16 - roger nowosielski
I like "intellectual arsenal," especially if it's Ted's edition. But "intellectual arsonist" is even better. (That must be someone like Thed Kaczynski, the Unabomber.) And it goes well with anarchist because anarchists are intellectuals, except when they resort to crude means.
17 - roger nowosielski
Aren't they mostly Cubans, though?
18 - zingzing
looked like a bunch of old white men to me. not gonna say that there wasn't a latino in there somewhere, but i couldn't spot one.
and it seems to me that the latino vote in florida kinda sealed the deal for obama there. he won by 20% in miami-dade county, and with quite a lot of help from the latino population.
and you don't have any hispanics?
19 - Clavos
Not for years Roger. Most of the immigrants are from Central and South America.
20 - Clavos
Actually, it was closer to 16%, zing, but decisive nonetheless.
The Miami-Dade Congressional delegation continues to be 60% Republican.
You can't "spot" Latinos in Miami, zing, they mostly don't look like Mexicans, they're mostly white, not Indian
21 - zingzing
i'm still going to stick by my point that dave's "strongly multi-ethnic" "face of the protests" is a figment of his imagination. these protests are almost ridiculously white. you'd think there'd be a stronger minority presence than there looks to be. now, maybe there are (really, there has to be,) more minorities involved than i've seen, but 25 pages of google images was a lot to look through. still, i came up with no readily-identifiable minorities in any of the pictures.
(and yes, there have to be more than 0 minorities involved in these things.)
22 - Dave Nalle
I can't be everywhere, Zing, I just know that here in Texas (where most of the examples I linked to in the article are from) there are plenty of african-americans and hispanics among the protesters. Are there as many as I would like to see? No. But we can't overcome generations of the plantation mentality that quickly. The door is open to every person of every color or background who eventually comes to the realization that self-reliance and individual liberty and free enterprise are for everyone and that so long as they are willing to take from the state they empower the state.
Dave
23 - roger nowosielski
"Plantation mentality," that's a good one. It means they're slovenly, niggardly and generally speaking dumb.
24 - Glenn Contrarian
zing -
That's why I keep telling Dave, "the facts must determine one's belief, but one's belief should NOT determine the facts."
Evidence. Facts. Reality.
But it looks like their addiction to the grape Kool-Aid is too strong. Dave's very intelligent...but chooses - chooses - to ignore the evidence so that he may protect his own beliefs. Either that, or is quite aware of the reality and chooses to make what he knows are patently false statements.
If the latter, then he's dishonest with all those who peruse BC. If the former, then he's dishonest with himself (and if that's the case, he may not even realize it).
Dave -
I know what I've said offends you (and I hope you understand that offense is never my intention), but your article is completely out of whack with reality. All you have to support your contentions are rhetoric and suppositions. All the provable facts and all available evidence is against you.
Someone as educated as you - in history of all things - should know to let the facts determine your belief...but that's not what you're doing in your article.
25 - El Bicho
Good eye, TK, although the show ran 11 seasons. Also, I am curious why Dave thinks Happy Days was desperate for ratings when it ended the previous season at #1 overall and the "Jump the Shark" season at #2. The phrase has more to do with a show losing its way creatively, no matter what Wikipedia says.
"A lot of these protesters weren't even born in 1978"
Where is this wellspring of 20-and-under protestors?