Stop Me Before I Vote Again

Y'know, I've got to confess that when I first heard about all this, I had my standard knee-jerk reaction vis-a-vis legitimizing a broken-down and corrupt institution by participating in its empty rituals.

While I still stand by that principle, I still liked what I saw folks doing in Iowa as I realized there was nothing in my "official" editorial position on elections that ruled out taking direct action to fuck shit up.

So, while I still think that the Occupy Movement and the "Greater Left" could send its best message by calling for an election boycott, perhaps equal or greater impact could also be made by dissident groups getting all up in the horse race's grille and fuckin' shit up.

Owen Royal Paine sez on 01.04.12 @11:02:
the corporate media want to keep the horse race uncontaminated by any countervailing coverage
of anti orthrian ballot boxing messages from the occ cloud

Speaking of which... as usual, I awoke this morning to Joe Scarborough's shitfest blabbering on my wife's TV. This morning was more excruciating than usual, of course, owing to their "reporting" and commentary on the still-twitching Iowa Caucus -- in particular the cranky and always annoying Mike Barnicle, who took a few moments from clinging to the side of a ship to spew a great, steaming, smarmy load of hagiography about frothy mixture of lube and fecal matter Rick Santorum's deep-down West Pennsylvania working-class roots. Not to be outdone, Scarborough himself suddenly got in touch with his inner populist and chimed in with a sing-songy litany of the abuses heaped on the US industrial sector since the 1970s, even using the phrase "the 99 percent" in his spewage. It was another one of those classic moments that made me want to reach through the screen into TV Land and stooge-slap Barnicle, Brzezinski and Scarborough cross-eyed.

Long story short... you're right on, Paine. They still haven't learned their lesson. There's nothing on US TV "news" except "election" news, and all that usual horse-race crap -- no reporting about the issues, or what the candidates stand for or don't stand for, just a bunch of "inside baseball" bullshit delivered in a style no different from a Game Of The Week pre-game show.

Luckily, we get Al Jazeera and Russia Today on our over-the-air DTV boxes and on the Web, so we can still find out what's actually going on in this country -- as well as (gasp) the rest of the world -- which doesn't have anything at all to do with the freak circus which just finished up its first tour date in Iowa last night.

Sadly, though, the DW's TV doesn't really venture any farther than LinkTV (for the occasional Democracy Now telecast) and Current (she followed Keith Olbermann over there).

Am I the only one who thinks Santorum did himself wonders with that "grandfather's hand" moment?

Let's remember - Santorum's grandpappy fled Mussolini. Mitten's grandsire fled to Mexico to avoid giving up his multi-wives.

Okay - so I'll out with it. I like Santorum*. He's a nice guy. I've only met him once, but he's got the same sort of sincerity that Bauer and Ashcroft had.

He's got some genuinely regressive notions about the uterus and Teh Gheys, but like old Huckster last cycle, he's the only Gopper making a case for working class jobs, as working class jobs.

Obamney is all like, "let's finance our way to more wealth [and no one pay attention to that Oz curtain]", and Santorum is talking plant construction and shit.

Those are organizable jobs, even if Santorum personally has his bite marks in the union arm.

* - I don't vote. I don't really care who gets elected. Yeah, Santy has some silly theocratic notions. So does Obama. And whoever gets elected next go around is probably going to try to get some Iran bombing on, so whatever...

Jack Crow sez on 01.04.12 @14:25:
...And whoever gets elected next go around is probably going to try to get some Iran bombing on, so whatever...

D'ahh, man, c'mon. That old Iran War Scare chestnut is so old it's got moss growing on the north side of it.

Y'know it's been almost a decade, now, that we've been on the verge of war in Iran, really, seriously, honestly, we mean it this time?

War in Iran ranks right up there with the Avian Flu Epidemic as the most horrific crisis that never happened.

flug nutz don't bash our crowbot

based on this fandango move

"Okay - so I'll out with it. I like Santorum"
i'd guess
crow's gone wild side
he's cross dressing today

hey it happens

especially to isolated mountain top
beacons of a hard won wisedom

Mike,

I think it happens this time. I'm not talking invasion and all that crap. Just a few bombs.

I mean, this really isn't outside the pale. The US is currently backing the fuck out of the Baloch insurgency, which is already conducting a bombing campaign inside Iran.

And Obama's sanctions are an act of war.

It comes down to the Likudniks. Do they force the issue? A year ago, I'd have said, "No way." Now, I think Bibi really, really, really needs a distraction.

And he can count on both the Dems and the Repubs backing him.

*

op,

You can be really tin eared, prof.

Pardon me while I do a Krugman and quote myself (from the comment thread on the prior post):

"People know in their hearts, in their bones, in their deepest reccesses, that global capitalism is ruining their lives, their families, their wellbeing. They don't have words for it and they don't know what to do about it. Yet, anyway."

I'd add: Santorum seems to be the only candidate in either party who has a gut sense of this and speaks from that "place." Of course, that ultimately reveals how truly pathetic the political system is. But I agree with Crow: I kind of like Santo too. The subtext of his message is: Something Is Terribly Wrong and You Are Getting Screwed.

I have to disagree with Mike F. I happened to be watching Morning Blow in a hotel room this morning, and I kinda of agreed with the blather. Santo sounds like a 99%-er, or the closest to it among all the 1% candidates. Yes, yes: what a truly pathetic commentary. But further proof that Dembots have zero populist appeal or touch, and the only voices with a shred of working class resonance now and again appear from the right.

"There's somethin' happenin' here" with Santo that's not happenin' with any of the others, not least Nobama.

I feel Santorum, at least as rendered here, is kinda echoing a nostalgically remembered past; America's Industrial Golden Age, when working class whites were comfortably employed in the making of goods,

Obamney is all like, "let's finance our way to more wealth [and no one pay attention to that Oz curtain]", and Santorum is talking plant construction and shit.

my ear is pure tin woofie

but its not about nuance and timbre
you iz off
the usual rails you ride on these days

" I've only met him once, but he's got the same sort of sincerity that Bauer and Ashcroft had"

ya ya i know you used to pimp the GOP
on off hours
back in your white mountain jean genet
home invader and maitre'd days
-------------------

"Santo sounds like a 99%-er"
are you shittin me chom ???

this guy is a total fraud hoaxter and three card montee master
this ' i'm from next door' act.
.please
and that big hands in the casket ...riff
strictly from andy kaufman

a two dimensional persona
so overstated it mocks his audience

jesus
sob towel rick from hard luck PA

nice guy ?? why not if you can pull it off
it polls well
but who cares... fuck that

i wouldn't be surprised if he'd urinate in his mothers mouth ..so long as it got him from first to second base

"Santorum is talking plant construction and shit "

look he picks up a dime or two fronting for smoke stack outfits
that are twenty to thrty years assed scrap by date
that pretty much defines penn industry

trace thru the wiring diagram and you get to swine like that marc Rich guy clinton blew on his way out of the white house

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Rich

when it comes to progressive wage class max
industrial policy
you're a hapless kitten crowbot
a milk lapping meowing hapless kitten

it creates a certain anguish laffing in your face
but i love when the clown shoes peep out from under the floor length skirt
can't help but over play the chortle

"Obama at least gets America ain't make'n shit no more and monetary alchemy is just about all that's left to the so called economy"
ward you foldin your cards

the choice isn't a way back machine to the 1950's or importing every durable product
from east asia and latin america

we can use forex policy and green tech projects
to restore our industrial setor

not to create millions of new assembly line jobs
automation max will preclude that
but to plug part of a totally un necessary trade deficit that translate into un necessary fiscal deficits and/or drastic under employment

durable product production and energy self sufficiency are both doable missions

know your economy

op sez on 01.04.12 @15:04:
flug nutz don't bash our crowbot

http://images.wikia.com/characters/images/1/1a/Crow_T._Robot.jpg

D'ahh, relax, man; I'm not ragging on him. What do I look like -- Tom Servo?

But, aaaaaaaa-nyway... when I heard frothy mixture of lube and fecal matter Rick Santorum doing the Dead Man's Hands rap on Morning Joe this morning, it made me want to drive the bus, if you know what I mean. If it had come from anybody but a politician, it might have meant something, but coming from a politician -- and especially one running for President -- it sounded like the schlockiest, smarmiest load of shit ever emitted by a Presidential hopeful in an attempt to connect with the (formerly) working class.

tom servo now there's a critic

http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs42/f/2009/144/6/0/Tom_Servo_Cutaway_view_by_Koku_chan.jpg

Interesting that there would be a MST3K (I think that's the right abbreviation) reference here. I was trying to understand my own life recently, in the way the network corporate fascist purchasing zealots do, by seeing the commonalities in my "choices."
TV - MST3K
Music - Evolution Control Committee
Fiction - Mark Leyner
Magazine - Spy
Alt culture - Portlandia, Spinal Tap
Blog - SMBIVA
Philosophy - nihilist atheism
Work - state worker fake-it-to-make-it

Commonality - They all take normal shit, and truly fuck it up while not really distorting the control of the normal by the normal shit.

OP,
Of course he's a fraud hoaxter.

Jack,
How do you think Santo will do in NH?

CZ,

Better than current corporate press expectations. Santorum has the second largest organization, endorsement level and ground support - next to Romney.

Abortion isn't going to hurt him, but his hard core contraception line may eventually catch up with him. What's working to his favor is that a whole lot of NH's recent transplants are Catholics from NY, NY and MA - guys like Londonderry's rabid-eye Baldassaro - or leftcoasters who came for the "business friendly" tax environment, like Testerman. They don't need to hear about the RCC's opinions on contraception. They know 'em already, and do their own thing.

I think he can manage a strong third if he stays away from gays, gods and guns. Guns don't move anyone here. Not even the Dems, who, like their Vermonter compatriots, don't even bother. Somebody crabbing about guns in NH isn't paying attention.

NH's not only the least religious state in the country (tied with Vermont), it's also the most anti-religious. If Santy wants to reach out beyond the bedroom Catholics, he'll stay away from the rough handed critiques of gay marriage and persecuted Christianity. NH's going to stay gay friendly for longer than not, and not many people want to be reminded that Bishop McCormack was Cardinal Law's pedophile hidey man.

All that noted, Santorum's game is South Carolina.

And FWIW, the evangelicals, Lamar Alexander and Huckabee, both posted strong seconds doing the blue collar jobs thing. And Buchanan and Bush did not run as secularists, to say the least.

OP,

This punctuation mark - "?" - is your friend. You'll be able to break up your inscrutable tirades against a faithless history into occasional engagements with flesh and blood persons.

Peter,

I don't know the end game. Like I said, I'm not a voter. I just happen to have had a chance to meet Santorum and he's likeable. Huckabee, from what I gather, is also an affable man.

Santorum has sincerity - or at least the perception of it - on his side.

Do I think it will carry him all the way to the GE and a chance to go protectionist on plant capacity and industrial jobs?

Probably not. I think, as someone else noted already, that Obama allows the perfect out for our banking lords and masters. He does their bidding, and they get to pretend that he's the socialist enemy.

Why would they want a Romney who is a perfectly branded country club money-bags goodhair?

op sez on 01.04.12 @18:20:
tom servo now there's a critic

http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs42/f/2009/144/6/0/Tom_Servo_Cutaway_view_by_Koku_chan.jpg

D'ahh ha ha ha hah. We're everywhere. ("Manos"? D'ahhh ha ha ha ha ha)
Hell, it's bad enough I'm a Deadhead...!

But, still... the Crowbot has a good point about the US having already committed technical "acts of war" against Iran; I was thinking of real honest-to-god, good old-fashioned war, not just sactions and this pussified robotic air war the US has been waging, but D'AHHHHHHH I'VE GOT MOVIE SIIIIIIGGGNNNN....!

"faithless history" ??????

Clio faithless ...why not ??

and if so
far from inducing
a tirade out of moi
the prospect of this feature
makes Her
all the more appealing

alas She has no reason to be faithful
or faithless

and even so
we have no way to judge what is faithless
and what is not

too soon to tell as comrade chou suggested
in another context

I think all the above (main + comments) would be more interesting if it were actually written by several individuals rather than one, pretending at many.