From the annals of Great Historical Crybabies, I give you two GOP children stamping their little feet. First President Bush comments on the Iraq spending bill passed by the house.
The Democrats have sent their message, now it's time to send their money. This is an important moment -- a decision for the new leaders in Congress. Our men in women in uniform should not have to worry that politicians in Washington will deny them the funds and the flexibility they need to win. Congress needs to send me a clean bill that I can sign without delay. I expect Congress to do its duty and to fund our troops, and so do the American people -- and so do the good men and women standing with me here today.
If you’ve ever wondered what a two-year-old president would sound like, you now have your answer. This man spent the first six years of his term getting everything he ever wanted passed by a sycophantic Republican congress, using his little unconstitutional red pen to scribble out any parts he didn’t think applied to him, and having to answer no questions about anything he did. That’s changed. Moderately anti-war Democrats got together with extremely anti-war Democrats to pass a compromise bill that calls for the end of this horrible, horrible war. Bush throws a hissy fit, and threatens to take his toys and go home.
Please do. Please opt out of the political process. Please, please, please make yourself irrelevant to the process of governance.
In a weird sort of echo, Newt Gingrich has seen YouTube and he doesn’t like it, not one little bit (via Shakespeare’s Sister).
I don't know how many of you have seen the YouTube commercial about 1984, which was presumably done randomly by some really clever person with pretty good technology. And it's a very interesting, you know, attack on Hillary and modest promotion of Barack Obama, and it is utterly, totally destructive of the process of thought. There is not a single thing in that commercial that enables America to solve a problem. [. . .] And it's very dangerous, because we have no habits anymore of serious dialogue; we have no habits of serious citizenship. Everything is reduced to gossip, attack, whose consultant is cleverer, and it's really very destructive.
Newt is shocked – shocked – to discover that political ads can sometimes be used to attack people based on visceral emotional reactions rather than thoughtful policy positions. Huh. Do you really think so?
OK not that so much – he helped invent modern attack politics – as the idea that this kind of ad can be created by “random” people who happen to be “clever.” The democratization of media is something that he and his ilk are very afraid of. If it doesn’t take loads of money to communicate nationally, then the elites can no longer control the message. Ordinary people with a webcam and some video software is what Gingrich finds “really, really destructive.” I hope so.
The underlying theme is entitlement. Those with wealth and power in this country believe they should be given whatever they want, which is most often more wealth and power. GW “give me the money” Bush and Newt “I’m the only serious citizen I care about” Gingrich are smug and self-important as long as things go their way, but threaten to take it away and they show their true selves: spoiled brats. Newt even looks a bit like a man-sized baby.
- jack*
Great post. Found you through Paperwight. You need to blog more. Blogrolling you. and I'll be kicking your butt too, because...that's what I do.
Posted by: Blue Gal | April 29, 2007 at 09:01 PM