Stickybuffalo.com

Okay, let’s have a little “light relief.” Having a look at Reuters just now, I saw the headline “No big budget deal? Blame Obama, not Boehner” and just couldn’t resist.

Turns out, it was everything one could have hoped for.

Now, I don’t bother a lot with right-wing commentary. I realize that this may set off alarms about “epistemic closure” and “The Daily Me,” etc., but 1) I feel that “mainstream” news sources generally do an entirely adequate job of keeping me updated about the Republican party line and 2) whenever I do take a look at the unfiltered stuff, it tends to confirm my belief that there’s really no value to be had from more-regular exposure.

James Pethokoukis’s remarkable little sampling of how the congressional Republican “murder-suicide pact” on the debt ceiling is being explained in the wingnut fringe is, of course, a perfect example. (But, hey, he was a Jeopardy! champion in 2002; isn’t that neat?)

Let’s have a look:

I knew as soon as I read the second sentence, declaring how “[Obama] could have embraced market-centered, consumer-focused reforms to Medicare” that this one was going all-in, shoot-the-moon for dogma and talking points. (more…)

What would we do without Ohio Republicans like John Boehner.

Honestly, the elected officeholders among Ohio Democrats don’t exactly set an impossible standard. Aside from shameless Cuyahoga County corruption, I don’t really feel “rah, rah, blue party” when Sherrod is tirelessly defending coal industry profits, or Dennis is making a fool of himself.

Fortunately the “leading lights” of the Ohio GOP, like Johns Kasich and Boehner, work hard to maintain the legacy of Bob Taft and thereby make their Buckeye State opponents look responsible, mature and brilliant by comparison.

Today, apparently, House Speaker Boehn-head “accused Obama and his political organization, Organizing For America, of trying to undermine efforts of Republican governors to cut their budgets by ‘inciting’ protests around the nation.”

It’s worth going over to NPR to read all the quotes from JB, just to marvel at the number of hypocrisies and other assorted laughers; if you made a drinking game out of it you’d be passed out on the floor before this evening begins. A good summary of his main ‘point’ is, however, provided by:

“[President Obama's] political organization is colluding with special-interest allies across the country to demagogue reform-minded governors who are making the tough choices that the President is avoiding.”

Damn, did he miss any buzzwords or talking points at all in there? Anyway, aside from the various humorous elements in this, I find myself challenged to know how to interpret Boehner’s real intent. (more…)

Lately I’ve noticed a number of terms which are frequently used, particularly by the Anglo-American news media and punditry, in ways that seem deeply misguided and misleading. I would like therefore to challenge the assumptions made in current usage of the following terms:

Center (or centre). Frankly, in the context of American politics, the term “center” seems to have become nothing less than a euphemism for “conservative,” “reactionary” and/or “Republican.” “The center” always seems to be located in a rightward direction; the only time it ever seems to apply to Republicans is in the context of a primary race, usually for the presidency, in which there is a brief window between courting primary voters and commencing the general election campaign when a candidate might “move back to the center” by means of some modest leftward shift. Otherwise, the “center” seems exclusively used to describe a position to the right of Democrats.

(more…)