The Show Horse

Finally, some intelligent and thought-provoking analysis regarding the Only News Story of the Year.

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"The United States of Stepford"

Maitri puts American puritan cultural hypocracy on blast. In a just world, this would be more than a t-shirt slogan:

Get over it, you frustrated, misprioritizing tensionball of a nation just waiting to burst.

Meanwhile, Jeffrey quotes Glenn Greenwald, who's also calling for a realistic perspective.

You know who's not calling for perspective? GOP Chair Reince Preibus. But I've got two words and four letters for RP: David Vitter. STFU.

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Credibility Matters (Mea Culpa Update)

Well, I guess that's one that Breitbart finally got right. Now this is all we'll hear about, regardless of his long line of previous failures, lies, misrepresentations, and video splices. He and his cohorts are still deeply in the red when it comes to credibility, and they remain so.

Especially because who Congressman Weiner flirts with - even inappropriately and outside his marriage, even over the internet - is only anyone's business if A) he did something illegal or B) if he ran campaigns based on "traditional family values."

Hell, there's a fairly high-value US Senator from the state of Louisiana who survived a much more sordid scandal, and he focuses almost exclusively on family values issues. Of course, he'd never have to feel threatened by the likes of Breitbart & Co....

Though in the age of the internet, I am constantly shocked to find out how many dudes, especially those with high profile jobs, think they can get away with this kind of drunken, college level type behavior. This is bush league stuff, and lacks class. At some point, fellas, it is time to start behaving like grown-ups.

But unless there's something we haven't heard yet, someone's position as a US Congressman is beholden only to voters and the law. Being a classless tool is not a career ending offense last time I checked.

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Credibility Matters

Look, I don't know a lot about New York congressman Anthony Weiner, and I really don't have the time to follow him closely. I think maybe I've seen some video of him in the past, probably regarding the "GOP's War on Women" narrative, and that was the last time I heard about him.

Which is probably why I'm I'm hearing about him now.

Of course, I'd find the whole thing far move believable if the first people to report on the scandal weren't the credibility deficit-running likes of Andrew Brietbart & Co. One of the golden rules of prank-playing is to let someone else discover your handiwork, so your involvement isn't immediately clear to anyone paying attention.

But after Brietbart's reporting on ACORN and NPR were proven to be manufactured, and after the Big Prankster spliced Shirley Sherrod's anti-racism speech into the last Common Sista Soulja music video and called it "news," his involvement with any story degrades its crediblity almost to the point of laughability.

Weiner could have made a solid case that his Twitter and Yfrog accounts were hacked in the first place. Brietbart's almost immediate involvement in the scandal-story only solidifies Weiner's claims, and tells us all we really need to know about this.

How does this get MSM play, though?

I've explained in the past why the GOP, with their lock-step talking points and reliance on winning elections based on emotional cultural issues rather than effective policy goals, is more vulnerable to scandal "coattails" than the Democrats. When your whole party choses to die on the hill of "traditional values," and the folks standing with you on "traditional values" get caught in decidedly non-traditional scandals, you're more likely to all look like fools. You all get hit with the charge of hypocricy, and the photos you took together get rolled out come election time (with typically mixed results based on your voting base).

The Dems, on the other hand, hardly agree on policy matters, much less talking points or stances on values. That's why Democratic sex scandals usually only affect those who engage in illicit behavior, and the staffers who help them keep things covered up. The scandal coattails usually don't extend very far (outside a typical demographic), even though the other side spends limitless talk radio wattage to do so.

And that's the rub. That's why right-wing operatives go to such lengths to try and manufacture scandals surrounding Democratic, liberal, progressive, and left-wing operatives, even when plenty of real (but boring) policy failures exist. These scandals A) play to the base, who love to hear a good scandal like the tabloid followers they are, B) pay the bills, because fake scandals = page views and advertising dollars, and to some limit C) control the narrative, because "Democratic Congressman Tweets Lewd Photo" is a headline people everywhere will remember if it gets picked up by the MSM.

What I can't figure out is why the MSM keeps falling for Brietbart's scams. Then I remember that he and his folks are running five or six or seventy of these types of scams every week, and not even the MSM can keep up.

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The Obituary of Record

bin Laden is dead. Reports are saying that Navy SEALs found him in a vacation manse in Pakistan, and instead of coming along peacefully, he decided to resist capture with the typical results.

The New York Times goes for seven pages of obituary, tying him to every recent terrorist attack we know by name, over the administrations of five United States Presidents.

Was he really that important to worldwide terrorism? Did his family really refer to him as the "slave child?" There is so much in that story that I want to believe, so much of it that seems plausible. Doing so might mean a real blow has been struck against worldwide terrorism, just by eliminating one man on a personal mission.

I pondered over how much damage one man can do, and how much damage that one man actually did. We heard his name before the day "September 11th" was seared into our collective consciousness. Just look at the irreparable damage he has left in his wake. That would be true, regardless of the words in the New York Times.

So, I'll also ponder the power of words, written on the page, to write history as it happens.

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The KSM Civilian Federal Trial Unicorn

Promised. Not delivered.

But let's not kid ourselves who is at fault for this broken promise. While the President and the Attorney General bear tremendous responsibility for it, you cannot excuse the cowardice of the political factions in this country who would use such a trial as an excuse to fan the flames of cultural panic, nationalist fear, and sectarian hatred all over America.

They are the same people who manufactured a controversey about a "Ground Zero Mosque," which was neither a mosque nor at Ground Zero, which an issue last summer (several of whom are running for President) to help them win elections through demagoguery. They are the people who, fearing the political fallout from that manufacture, choose to bow or cower before the altar of cultural panic instead of leading the nation away from it.

It is a shame that, when it comes to big decisions, the political calculus must include expectations of issue demagoguery by the opposition and allies. What is even more of a shame is that those calculations show the manufacture of fear to be more powerful than doing things the way they ought to be done.

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Four Articles

School systems don't just affect the students attending classes, they affect their entire communities. I think about this as New Orleans - and so many other communities in the South - attempt to reconcile our historical legacies and suburban exodus with rebuilding our cities.

Regarding that motion, I'm reading four articles right now that tie into this.

New Orleans Needs a Population Explosion

A Conversation with Edward L. Glaeser.

Athens Rising February 11

And finally, though it isn't an article per se, I'm still thinking about the panel discussion from Tuesday night, the comments here and the observations of other who were there or those following online.

All of this information has to do with the way cities interact with their populations, which inspire or stifle innovations, affecting education, which in turn affects their populations, which inspire innovations...

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Lincoln Elected President

The whole of the North outweighed a deeply divided South. This contest, though hard fought, was never in doubt since the Democratic Party split in twain this summer.

And disunion appears headed for defeat all over the South. South Carolina and their quest for disunion be damned, Richmond and New Orleans go for Bell.

Thank the Lord the election passed quietly in New Orleans, you know this city's penchant for rioting and carrying on, especially when political matters are at stake. Hopefully, such news will repudiate the boldest of Fire-Eaters:

The general tone of public sentiment is consistent with acquiescence with the result. Many say they worked hard and honestly to prevent the election of LINCOLN, but now, as he is to be President, they will see all his acts carried out, and at every hazard support the Constitution.

Embittered feelings have already greatly subsided, and not a solitary disunion sentiment has been heard from any one. The Breckinridge and Bell men and the Douglasites seem determined to abide by the decision of the people.

It isn't the best of outcomes, but considering the alternatives, I think we'll get off light this time.

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Presidential Election To Be Decided in New York City

It all comes down to this, folks. We know what side the New York Times is on, that's for sure.

The attitude of the Republican Party is eminently national and conservative, -- and its success will do more to suppress the sectional agitation of the Slavery question than any other result. It seeks no interference with Slavery, -- but aims only to check its increase. Its candidate is an eminently just, upright and conservative statesman, -- pledged by his opinions, his declarations and his life against any invasion of Southern rights and any denial of Southern justice. The whole country has confidence in his honor and his fidelity to the Constitution; -- and that confidence will not be misplaced or betrayed.

After weeks of hearing from Lincoln supporters, this should come as no surprise.

I wish to have it settled that the Constitution of the United States is the safeguard and bulwark of all our interests, North and South, and not the President, from whatever party he may be selected. When the Constitution is violated, then is the time to resist, or to secede, if the violator cannot be brought to justice according to law.

As they say, it will take 40,000-50,000 votes in New York City to keep Lincoln from becoming President. I don't see it happening. He has swept the whole of the North, and we will have to wait to see how those Fire-Eaters in South Carolina respond.

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Not the Crime But the Coverup

There are a lot of folks on the right and the left who will claim their political opponents, if successful, will take us right down the road to a police state. Some claims are more credible than others. But what I don't understand is how so many folks will focus on the erosion of their rights from Washington, but won't demand accountability from government offices down the street.

Because, really, "Isn't the Blue Wall of Silence really just the most successful Stop Snitchin' campaign in history?"

You don't have to live in New Orleans for this issue to be important. It happens everywhere.


HT: Daily Dish

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