Friday, January 27, 2006

Failure

Majority in U.S. Say Bush Presidency Is a Failure, Poll Finds

Jan. 26 (Bloomberg) -- A majority of Americans said the presidency of George W. Bush has been a failure and that they would be more likely to vote for congressional candidates who oppose him, according to a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll.


Now, when is the corporate media going to stop pretending that this clown is popular?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hey, offering this here since I saw no reply to it when it was posted below. For those wondering, original post claimed to link to smears of Walter Cronkite, which I find a bit odd, as he is rather a non-entity today. Now, our blogmaster claims he was only predicting that poor Walter would be smeared, although when he produced links, they seemed to point only to insults, rather than smears. As in, my favorite regarding Mr. Cronkite, that he is a warm, oval-shaped vacuum.
Now, that was written back when Walt retired, and is not a smear, but is an insult. A quite deliberate insult, one that does not pretend to be anything other than an insult. I might try to smear Walt by saying that he is a secret Commie, although that would carry little weight today. I might suggest that he enjoys carnal relations with porcine critters, which might carry more weight today. In either case, I'd be claiming some matter of fact about Mr. Cronkite to be true, which if true others would find damaging, and (if such were a smear) claiming such knowing the evidence was slim, at best.
On the other hand, the previous characterization of Mr. Cronkite, hereafter Walt, that he is or was a warm, oval-shaped vacuum, is not a smear. It is an insult, pure and simple. And from what I could see, so were the comments linked to by our beloved blogmaster. They characterized Walt in unfriendly, even mean, ways. But they did not allege, from what our blogmaster posted, anything that went beyond pure insult.
Now, it is not nice to insult others, and it is rather unfair to insult those in the public eye, although often hard to resist. I, for one, retain a fondness for disparaging remarks directed at the erstwhile oval-shaped vacuum.
But I do think we should keep a distinction between what amounts to name-calling, and smearing. Indeed, I think we should all work to keep as many distinctions as we can, and especially those relating to politics. It is in making trouble over such distinctions that we do our best to keep modern barbarisms at bay.

--Stephen Miller
3 Comments Close this window Collapse comments
Anonymous said...
Following this link, I found nothing disparaging about Mr. Cronkite, by anyone, right-wing or not. Doesn't this make your tag line itself a bit of a smear on right-wingers?
While we are at it, your repetetive use of the term "right-wingers" is a bit disturbing. It suggests that these are a monolithic and uniformly malevolent group of people, who must be opposed on all occasions and in every possible way. Perhaps this is simply an overflow of the competitive and partisan spirit on your part, but I'd suggest you look over the tone of this blog carefully, with consideration given to the possibility that, rather than informing others about American politics from a distinctive point of view, you may have crossed over the line to demonizing your (perhaps largely mythical) opponents. To put it more simply, consider this--if you were to begin to refer to conservatives and Republicans as vermin, would it substantially alter the tone of this blog?

--Stephen Miller

3:12 PM


Iggy said...
[[Following this link, I found nothing disparaging about Mr. Cronkite, by anyone, right-wing or not. Doesn't this make your tag line itself a bit of a smear on right-wingers?]]

No, my tagline was a PREDICTION that Cronkite's criticism would LEAD to smearing, and my prediction was dead accurate. If you actually want to SEE some smear, try here, for example:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1558676/posts

Some choice bits:

"Time for Walter to leave Earth."

"The only thing Cronkite should being doing is taking a dirt nap"

"Walter: Turn up your hearing aid...and now that you can hear me--STFU!"

By not actually linking to such trash I was being nicer to the right-wingers than usual, and had assumed that any reasonably intelligent human being who was paying attention AT ALL would have been aware of the sort of crap routinely indulged in by the right-wingers for about 15 years now.

[[While we are at it, your repetetive use of the term "right-wingers" is a bit disturbing. It suggests that these are a monolithic and uniformly malevolent group of people, who must be opposed on all occasions and in every possible way.]]

They ARE monolithic, which is why they are so utterly predictable. Not only ARE they monolithic, they are PROUD of being monolithic, and total conformity and a willingness for large groups of people to repeat the same propaganda simultaneously is a fundamental part of their strategy. Bushites and Fascists RELY on groupthink.

[[rather than informing others about American politics from a distinctive point of view, you may have crossed over the line to demonizing your (perhaps largely mythical) opponents.]]

Yeah, let's be POLITE to those who defend torture. Let's be POLITE to those who spread lies so that they can start wars which kill tens of thousands of innocent people. Let's be POLITE to those who constantly accuse their fellow Americans of treason. Let's be POLITE to those who routinely practice eliminationist rhetoric. Let's be POLITE to incipient fascists.

[To put it more simply, consider his--if you were to begin to refer to conservatives and Republicans as vermin, would it substantially alter the tone of this blog?]

I would never do that. Vermin are noble and natural creatures. It would be foolish to criticize vermin. What makes right-wingers so reprehensible is that they are unquestionably human, and have perverted their own humanity, nourished the basest impulses in the human breast, and used those impulses to harm others. Vermin are incapable of that.

Iggy

5:05 PM


Anonymous said...
You have convinced me. Right-wingers are reprehensible, perverted, base creatures, who are below vermin. They are monolithic, fascistic, and captured by a terrible groupthink. They are certainly owed none of the civilities of polite discourse, as you are at such pains to point out. In fact, one suspects, on the basis of your enlightening description, that they are owed nothing more than, well, elimination.
Oh, but wait. Eliminationist rhetoric is a feature of the right-wingers. Must be wrong here. So what exactly does one do with those worse than vermin? Maybe there are some nice camps we can find for them, away from decent people?

--Stephen Miller