Buzzflash
del.icio.us
Digg
Facebook
Mixx it!
RedditNew Hampshire Senator Judd Gregg, a right-wing Republican who campaigned against Barack Obama's presidential run and condemned the new president's economic policies, has decided not to join the Obama administration as Secretary of Commerce.
Gregg withdrew his nomination Thursday, saying he had "irresolvable differences" with the president who appointed him.
No kidding.
When did this dawn on the senator?
Whatever the timeline, Obama is lucky to be rid of Gregg.
This nomination was always a case of taking the "team of rivals" fantasy to extremes.
Of course, Obama should consider and appoint responsible Republicans to his Cabinet. He should even consider capable conservatives, especially those who cling to the old-line conservative values of fiscal responsibility and distaste for military adventurism.
But Gregg never fit into either of those categories. He was a party-line voter in the Senate -- and will be again, as he never gave up his seat. And, if he were a man of any principle, Gregg would have been a constant critic within the Cabinet.
Despite the fact that no president wants to see Cabinet picks withdraw -- and, certainly, no president wants to lose three nominees (Bill Richardson, Tom Daschle and now Gregg) -- Obama should welcome Gregg's exit.
Now, Obama must quickly make a new nomination for Commerce Secretary.
Here's a tip for the president: Don't pick someone with whom you have "irresolvable differences." And, even more important, don't pick someone who takes the better part of a month to figure out that those differences are "irresolvable."
Share this article
- Atrios
- Arts and Letters Daily
- The Caucus
- Campus Progress
- Crooks and Liars
- The Daily Gotham
- Daily Kos
- Echidne of the Snakes
- Ezra Klein
- FAIR
- Feministe
- Feministing
- Firedoglake
- Glenn Greenwald
- Gothamist
- In these Times
- Hendrik Hertzberg
- Huffington Post
- Hullabaloo
- Matthew Yglesias
- Media Matters
- Mother Jones
- My DD
- New York Review of Books
- Openleft
- Pam's House Blend
- Pandagon
- Political Wire
- The Progressive
- RaceWire
- Real Clear Politics
- Roberto Lovato
- Romenesko
- Swing State Project
- Talking Points Memo
- Ta-Nehisi Coates
- Tapped
- Tech President
- Tompaine
- The Washington Note
- Utne Reader
- Wonkette
- ZNet
RSS
Pick Patrick Buchanan or Lou Dobbs!
Posted by Happy at 02/12/2009 @ 6:01pm
>>>New Hampshire Senator Judd Gregg, a right-wing Republican who campaigned against Barack Obama's presidential run and condemned the new president's economic policies, has decided not to join the Obama administration as Secretary of Commerce.<<<
Well, if he can't support Obama's economic agenda, then heading Commerce really is not a good fit for him.
Posted by Metteyya at 02/12/2009 @ 6:03pm
I read it was a power play. Obama picked someone for something to work in the White House that diminished the authority of Commerce so Gregg didn't want to hassle with getting assurances that he wouldn't flip the Senate.
Posted by Darin_the_Big_Fat_Troll at 02/12/2009 @ 6:03pm
by "Flip" I meant give Dems a filabuster proof 60-vote majority.
Posted by Darin_the_Big_Fat_Troll at 02/12/2009 @ 6:04pm
Poor, poor Obama....the Magic seems to be dissipating...heck, I need to be on the lookout for some nick more fitting......for now, how about...The POTUS Who Can't Pick Straight.....nah, too long!
Posted by Happy at 02/12/2009 @ 6:05pm
Good advice, John. And I would add, "Yo, Obama, how about paying attention to your progressive base for a 'change'?!"
Looks like another excellent issue of The Nation this week --I've barely delved in, but if it's as good as last week's issue I like the trend.
In particular, the lead editorial is spot on regarding the seven headed beast that we currently are wrestling with. Namely the economic morass, and the "TARP" fiasco.
The first moment I started having serious misgivings about Obama was back in the almost ancient the Summer of '05 when he was apparently heavily caving to Wall Street already.
Here we are almost four years later and that historic impression is reimprinting itself with a vengeance.
I think it's time to say......
"Wake the hell up, Obama!"
Some populist principles right now would be a breath of fresh air over kissing the principal's asses. Not to mention probably saving Barack's presidential ass.
Posted by b_kool_66 at 02/12/2009 @ 6:07pm
So you think the new con blood sucking tick thing was just way too hard a habit for Gregg to kick or what? One would think as gross a habit as it is that a person would find relinquishing that bloated burden refreshing.
Postpartum depression... or mass tick supression?
Posted by hsuBfools at 02/12/2009 @ 6:14pm
And it's worth mentioning here that the new Tom Dispatch is a fixating read.
Excerpt:
Once the visit was concluded, we headed back for Fallujah and had a late night snack at Sheik Aifan's place before settling in for a night's sleep as his guest. His daughter, a shy girl of perhaps seven years of age, sat beside him as we ate. At one point, he suddenly peeled a crisp U.S. $100 bill off a wad of bills that would have stunned any movie mafia boss, smiled benevolently, and added that she shouldn't let her mother know about the gift.
The sheik, of course, had $100 bills to spare, as millions of dollars for so-called construction projects have been funneled his way. It's how he pays the roughly 900 men that he estimates make up his private militia. For all of this he can thank the U.S. military, which delivers regular installments of money -- shrink-wrapped bricks of those $100 bills -- because post-invasion Iraq remains largely a cash-only economy.
End quote.
Shades of the infamous Vanity Fair article, "Billions Over Baghdad", by James Steele and Donald Barlett.
www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/10/iraq_billions200710
Posted by b_kool_66 at 02/12/2009 @ 6:15pm
I think Maxine Waters would make a good nomination for Commerce Secretary. She displayed a truly fascinating grasp of business yesterday in the hearings with the CEO's. I'm sure should would be very well received.
Posted by sntauri at 02/12/2009 @ 6:15pm
Ah, the surge, the surge.
Posted by emile duBois at 02/12/2009 @ 6:18pm
Welcome to Comedy Central! (a.k.a. The Nation)
You have to admit, this stuff gets funny sometimes.
Mr. Nichols talks about President Obama considering and appointing "responsible Republicans" and "capable conservatives" to his cabinet.
However, I am sure that Mr. Nichols's definitions of a responisble Republican and of a capable Conservative are MILES APART from how responsible Republicans and capable Conservatives would define themselves!
Posted by sjchermak at 02/12/2009 @ 6:23pm
yay! they should never have picked that guy anyway.
what were they thinking?
Posted by ibbleblibble at 02/12/2009 @ 6:24pm
Posted by sntauri at 02/12/2009 @ 6:15pm
Hey, if it isn't "sntauri"!!!
The Super Nova of stupidity. Or....The Crab Nebulae of Nubulosity.
You rock, dude.
Posted by b_kool_66 at 02/12/2009 @ 6:24pm
bravo to Sen Gregg for rediscovering his principles
Now President Obama can continue his recent quest to disband our economic market system in favor of the welfare state he is implementing with the new spending bill.
He needs a commerce secretary that agrees with his apparent about face from his January 28th meeting with business leaders when he proclaimed that business, not govt was the key to economic growth.
Then he can rename the Commerce Dept into the Dept of Federal Welfare.
Posted by antisocialist at 02/12/2009 @ 6:26pm
look mr. president...
those kinds of republicans about which you spoke fondly just aren't around much anymore.
those are days gone by...the sensible country clubber style republicans...
those guys are, with a few exceptions, a real pit of vipers and have been for a while. watch out...they play hard ball and don't really like you...you just have the power of popularity and they know when to back down. they respect the power and pretend to respect the niceness. like i saud, beware...
perhaps its just best to abandon the cumbaya crap after all...those guys laugh at and make fun of that stuff when they are alone, MR. PRESIDENT...they see niceness as weakness...
beware...
better perhaps if they just stayed on their side of the aisle and fulfilled their role as the "loyal" opposition?
they are the opposition, after all...
Posted by ibbleblibble at 02/12/2009 @ 6:34pm
bravo to Sen Gregg for rediscovering his principles
Posted by antisocialist at 02/12/2009 @ 6:26pm | ignore this person | warn this person
.
"The fault lies with me," Gregg said in an interview..."I may have embarrassed myself but hopefully not him."
.
Sure Larry...his principles...
...that's why Gregg says **he** is at fault and **embarassed**.
Posted by Lillian at 02/12/2009 @ 6:39pm
but kudos to you nonetheless, mr. president.
if there's one thing that rightfully puts fear into the hearts of the opposition, even in america, its a highly, even hostilely partisan president presiding over a congress of his own party...who are cheering said hostile president on...
and so your attempts to reach across the party lines, as well as fulfilling campaign promises, serve to comfort an opposition that knows in its heart of hearts, was often mean, petty, mean spirited, insulting, arrogant, and intimidating to its "treasonous" and "traitorous" opponants...
nice, very nice...
but as you are being nice and fulfilling your campaign promises and being gracious to the often oh so undeserving vanquished...
keep a pistol cocked and loaded under the table...these guys are treacherous as the sea...a pit of vipers...
Posted by ibbleblibble at 02/12/2009 @ 6:44pm
I did not understand President Obama's choice. I must say, though, that I felt that Senator Gregg did the right thing. It was that quality in the man the must have led Barack to choose him in the first place.
Now... if Geithner has the same quality, he will resign and allow the President to appoint someone to Treasury who has not been and is not a part of the problem.
Posted by cwcrosby42 at 02/12/2009 @ 6:46pm
After running a virtually flawless campaign, the Obama Admins vetting process has been alarmingly flawed. After such a heady election victory, did Obama think he had the Midas touch; that those he chose were good simply because he chose them?
I respect his bipartisan push--something we haven't seen in eight years. Yet, why all this fawning deference to the Repugs, the very corrupt rats who got us all in this mess? Dammit, we elected this man and strengthened the Dem majority in both Houses. Where is this "change we can believe in"? It's only been three weeks but it's a sorry beginning, if anyone asks me.
Posted by dbrands at 02/12/2009 @ 7:00pm
Yeah, and I'd have left too if some social engineer, caucasian hater in the White House announced me unreliably biased when it came to the census and had the support of our supposedly "post racial" president. Funny how racism is more likely to surface among those that have themselves experienced it.
This idiot had two months or more to prepare for these cabinet appointments and of those that remain, has, across the board, from Clinton to Geithner, picked some real doozies. He has approached running the government in the way and with about the same maturity as he approached running the Harvard Law Review. Greenwald reports today that Holder is using the legal philosphies of the Bush Administration to prosecute cases in which torture has been alleged. If this guy doesn't wake up soon, someone's going to have to stick one of his fingers in a light plug. He's completely out of control.
Posted by john lowell at 02/12/2009 @ 7:03pm
This is probably the most honorable thing Gregg has ever done. He would have been a good choice if he had been clean, intelligent and knowledgeable. I still don't know why our scrappy president picked this guy, unless it was to show how bad things could get with parochial small minded people. With a nation full of gifted professionals, why our super intelligent global thinking president would pick a narrow small thinking person like Gregg. I could understand Richardson, that was an excellent choice, but Gregg???? How about Collins or Snow? I know we shouldn't pick on the party of Lincoln today, but he would hardly recognize the party of gluttons of today.
Posted by heidi39 at 02/12/2009 @ 7:09pm
Re: Judd - Need to know what right wing group informed this, assuming I am correct, an intelligent individual, that it would be in his best interest, not to join an administration who was the majority choice of American voters this past Nov. His term is now over, he's gone - his next election phase will be ugly - so be it. A shout out to our President - "gloves are off - bring us your best & brightest" - I made a choice this past Nov. and I will see it through - my employment is so very close to being ended - I'm a cook in Reno, NV. However, I still have faith. I am absolutely livid at this crap the Republicans are expressing - we need to look beyond - save our planet & all of us who inhabit this wonderous earth.
Posted by ritzy at 02/12/2009 @ 7:14pm
b_kool_66
I can only assume that your opposition to Maxine Waters is because of you lack a true passion for diversity and a multicultural perspective on business.
Posted by sntauri at 02/12/2009 @ 7:34pm
Obviously, Republicans have drawn the line and as Rush Limbaugh stated, hope "President Obama fails". The fascists in this country have made a mess of things and are now content to sit back and watch mother hen Democrats come along to try and fix things, while they wait for the inevitable pitfalls so they can self-righteously proclaim, "We told you so, socialism doesn't work." Big gamble on their part as Obama has 80% approval ratings and the right is in the minority. Perhaps the Repiglicans will go the way of the dinosaur. After all, thanks to the neo-cons we have an expensive quagmire war on two fronts and ally Israel looking rather brutish. The anti-war forces are gonna reinvigorate the demand to withdrawal from Central Asia. Will the left have the stomach for the fight? The military industrial complex is not gonna stop making weapons. Or maybe Democrats are just the other side to the Republican coin and the military budget is off limits. One things for sure, "truth is stranger than fiction".
Posted by Anarchisto at 02/12/2009 @ 7:37pm
I made a choice this past Nov. and I will see it through - my employment is so very close to being ended - I'm a cook in Reno, NV. However, I still have faith. I am absolutely livid at this crap the Republicans are expressing - we need to look beyond - save our planet & all of us who inhabit this wonderous earth.
Posted by ritzy at 02/12/2009 @ 7:14pm
"I still have faith"......
Hope you have enough "faith" to pay the mortgage/rent and whatever else....
I fly into Reno every few years enroute to Lake Tahoe...stayed a night at Circus, Circus during Spring Break `07....sure hope your "faith" lasts until my next visit....which BTW, will be postponed...maybe until the stock market gains at least 50%.....
Say, saw the news that Vegas' gambling revenue in Dec. was down 27% (vs. Dec. `07)......Reno probably even worse......you'll need a lot of "faith"...HOPE AND CHANGE you can really use!
Posted by Happy at 02/12/2009 @ 7:44pm
Perhaps the Repiglicans will go the way of the dinosaur.
they will go the way of the whig party.
Posted by emile duBois at 02/12/2009 @ 8:20pm
It was (and is) a win-win scenario with Gregg.
If he took the job, the Governor of NH would appoint a more liberal Repub.
If he didn't (as he didn't), he faces a serious challenger from a Democrat in an increasing "Red" New Hampshire in 2 years.
Posted by Mask at 02/12/2009 @ 8:26pm
Sntauri,
Sorry....but Maxine Waters came off as an imbecile in that hearing yesterday....as well as arrogant, disrespectful, and childishly provocative. Compared to her House colleagues on the committee, she is an embarrassment. Barney Frank must hold his breath every time it's her turn to speak.
Posted by jimmylove at 02/12/2009 @ 8:26pm
Two points of humour here.
1. Gregg is considered right wing? Yes, that den of had core right wingers up there in New England.... It servers to point out that if Gregg is defined at right wing then it goes to show just how far left these kooks are ..... There are docrsts in other parts of the country that are more right wing than Anyone from NE.
Hilarious
2. Maxims Waters is one of the main culprits in preventing real reform from taking hold at FM,FMc, and every other organization that makes loans, years ago..... Hell, her lunatic,business accume is even preserved on C-span. Her grilling bankers was funny enough as wraped herself deeper into hypocriscy, but the funniest part is that some here ACTUALLY put his name on a post recommending Maxine to replace Gregg.
Really hilarious.
Kudos to Gregg for standing on principles, although he should have known better.
.... For I believe the bloom in coming off the rose for Obama at a fast rate.
Could be a long four years.... For all of us.
Posted by YourJomamma at 02/12/2009 @ 8:28pm
Posted by YourJomamma at 02/12/2009 @ 8:28pm
That was back when Dems were in the minority...couldn't stop the war, Patriot Act, etc....
but "magically" were able to stop Bush and Hastert and Frist's desperate efforts to reform Freddie and Fannie.
Right?
Posted by Mask at 02/12/2009 @ 8:34pm
YourJomamma,
You are correct about Maxine Waters. When OFHEO was urging greater regulatory oversight of the GSE's, Maxine Waters was one of the ones that was outraged, and is on tape for everyone to see (feel free to youtube it Sntauri or anyone else) grilling the regulators about it...basically accusing them of a witch hunt. She could not believe they had the audacity of questioning the leadership of Frank Raines, later discovered to be cooking the books and raided Fannie of several million dollars. Yes, Mr. Raines was African-American and liberal, so that provides some insight into the source of Maxine's rage. Turns out Raines was a crook. As a liberal member of that committee, she had an opportunity to proactively limit the extent of the housing crisis by reigning in the GSE's...tightening underwriting guidelines, trimming balance sheets, altering leverage ratios. Instead, she chose to play the race card. Totally wreckless and irresponsible...almost criminal.
Posted by jimmylove at 02/12/2009 @ 8:37pm
Sometimes a shoe looks good through window and may appear to match the outfit for a major undertaking but once you try it on, it simply not a good fit, nothing more, nothing less. No need to make a big deal out of a pair of shoes that just wasn't meant to be.
Posted by vinnyj1 at 02/12/2009 @ 8:53pm
Uh, John, Jimmy, not to state the obvious, but I believe Sntauri had the Sarcasm knob dialed up to warp nine with that Waters recommendation.
Posted by Benchrest at 02/12/2009 @ 9:20pm
Gosh, I sure hope so.
Posted by jimmylove at 02/12/2009 @ 9:21pm
Gee, me too.
Posted by Benchrest at 02/12/2009 @ 9:41pm
Gee, me too.
Posted by Benchrest at 02/12/2009 @ 9:41pm
Jimmy2???
Posted by Happy at 02/12/2009 @ 10:00pm
lou dobbs?
happy, stop embarrassing yourself.
Posted by frosty zoom at 02/12/2009 @ 10:02pm
Posted by Happy at 02/12/2009 @ 10:00pm
Nice catch.
Posted by Benchrest at 02/12/2009 @ 10:03pm
happy, stop embarrassing yourself.
Posted by frosty zoom at 02/12/2009 @ 10:02pm
How so?
Is a Sec. of Commerce prohibited from hosting a TV show on the side....and pitch his (& Obama's) viewpoint....
Hmmm....if Magic wants to be bi-partisan, he can nominate both Buchanan AND Dobbs to be Co-Sec. of Commerce....double barrels of America First and f*&k everybody else...:)
Posted by Happy at 02/12/2009 @ 10:18pm
i wonder what the vetting showed.....
maybe he actually paid his taxes!
Posted by frosty zoom at 02/12/2009 @ 10:26pm
Hey, HAPP, how about Pat Buchanan for Secretary of Defense?
Uh...what was his view on invading Iraq and neo-conservatism, again???
Posted by Mask at 02/12/2009 @ 10:26pm
"There are conservative economists who are intelligent. There also are conservative economists who--like Milton Friedman--understand that the velocity of money is interest-elastic, are not xenophobic and jingoistic, are not in the pockets of the world's money launderers, understand that a reliance on hot money-fueled economic growth creates instability, are not shills for the oil companies, are able to use their fingers and toes to accurately assess the U.S. federal budget, and don't falsely blame the financial crisis on feckless poor Black people who can't pay their mortgages and the government that forced banks to lend to them."
http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/
Posted by frosty zoom at 02/12/2009 @ 10:30pm
HAPP, how about Pat Buchanan for Secretary of Defense?
Posted by Mask at 02/12/2009 @ 10:26pm
Lukewarm but acceptable for the times we're in! He'll push for disengagement everywhere but I'm sure he is for an even stronger America....something I share....hell, yeah! SECURE borders, let's build missile defense, satellite-based weapons, next gen nukes......Fortress America! That would be my `Out-of-Everywhere-Price' and a price I and Buchanan, know that your Messiah won't pay!
Posted by Happy at 02/12/2009 @ 10:34pm
there's no money, happy.
there hasn't been any for years.
anyhoo,
"WASHINGTON (AP) -- Congressional leaders have killed a plan that would have forced financial institutions to compensate taxpayers if they paid their executives large bonuses after receiving federal bailout money."
Posted by frosty zoom at 02/12/2009 @ 10:38pm
"WASHINGTON (AP) -- Congressional leaders have killed a plan that would have forced financial institutions to compensate taxpayers if they paid their executives large bonuses after receiving federal bailout money."
Posted by frosty zoom at 02/12/2009 @ 10:38pm
Think our "Congressional leaders" are loopy? Wonder which "leaders" came up with this...If I'm the CEO, I'd say, sure, no problem....then I write myself & cronies, huge checks and later, pay the penalty with the next bailout `draw'.....this is so laughable it must be a Leno joke!
Posted by Happy at 02/12/2009 @ 10:50pm
Oh that Happster... like A-Rod on steroids.
yyyyyyyyyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwwnnnnnnnnn
Posted by winyahn at 02/12/2009 @ 10:58pm
Posted by YourJomamma at 02/12/2009 @ 8:28pm
"Kudos to Gregg for standing on principles, although he should have known better."
"Gregg: However, it has become apparent during this process that this will not work for me as I have found that on issues such as the stimulus package and the Census there are irresolvable conflicts for me."
Translation: I don't want to be caught within a mile of the economic blast zone cause by the Porkulus Bill. Plus, I refuse to provide political cover for Obama's complete corruption of the Census function of government, a move that brings us one step closer to being a banana republic.
".... For I believe the bloom in coming off the rose for Obama at a fast rate."
The kool-aid is still strong, however.
"Could be a long four years.... For all of us."
Could be? Buy gold, my friend. And be ready to ship it overseas. The looting has only just begun.
Posted by pontificus at 02/12/2009 @ 11:08pm
Maybe Gregg withdrew because he couldn't even get his hands on a copy of the $789 billion Pork Bill!
From US News & World Report:
Washington Whispers by Paul Bedard
Congressional Offices Don't Have the Stimulus Bill, Lobbyists Do
February 12, 2009 04:14 PM ET
By Paul Bedard, Washington Whispers
We're receiving E-mails from Capitol Hill staffers expressing frustration that they can't get a copy of the stimulus bill agreed to last night at a price of $789 billion. What's more, staffers are complaining about who does have a copy: K Street lobbyists. E-mails one key Democratic staffer: "K Street has the bill, or chunks of it, already, and the congressional offices don't. So, the Hill is getting calls from the press (because it's leaking out) asking us to confirm or talk about what we know--but we can't do that because we haven't seen the bill. Anyway, peeps up here are sort of a combo of confused and like, 'Is this really happening?'" Reporters pressing for details, meanwhile, are getting different numbers from different offices, especially when seeking the details of specific programs.
Worse, there seem to be several different versions of what was agreed upon, with some officials circulating older versions of the package that seems to still be developing. Leadership aides said that it will work out later today and promised that lawmakers will get time to review the bill before Friday's vote.
Posted by Happy at 02/12/2009 @ 11:15pm
Pick Patrick Buchanan or Lou Dobbs!
Posted by Happy at 02/12/2009
Both of these guys would love it. Especially xenophobic Dobbs. The US Census Bureau is part of the Commerce Dept. and Dobbs would definitely purge illegals from the rolls.
What was Sen. Gregg's position re: Census?
Posted by koroviev at 02/12/2009 @ 11:38pm
Perhaps the Repiglicans will go the way of the dinosaur.
they will go the way of the whig party.
Posted by emile duBois at 02/12/2009 @ 8:20pm
Emile, you must have joined Darla for some serious bong activity.
Posted by antisocialist at 02/12/2009 @ 11:56pm
Ponti,
My overseas sales profits will never see our shores and it will be legal. I want to put my money next to Kennedy, Pelosi, Feinstein, Clinton, and most of Hollywood.
My service contracts here unfortunately will be subject to taxes as well as the income of the employees we hire.
Posted by YourJomamma at 02/13/2009 @ 12:03am
Ponti,
Be carefull on gold... Most of gold demand came from China and India for jewelry.....and the demand for jewelry has collapsed. The gold rise is due to dollar printing and spending inflationary pressures from the pork bill.
Swiss francs and retirement property should be safe.
I am moving back to Colorado in a few months and I will not buy a house. I do not want debt or a mortgage. Also gonna keep my BMW another 2 years. Cash will be king for a while.
Plus I need to add a conservative vote to Denver. The rest of Co is red but certain areas in Denver turned the state blue. Got to help change it back....:)
I need to establish residency for a year so my daughter can get in state tuition in Colorado like the illegal immigrants kids.
Posted by YourJomamma at 02/13/2009 @ 12:15am
I need to establish residency for a year so my daughter can get in state tuition in Colorado like the illegal immigrants kids.
Posted by YourJomamma at 02/13/2009 @ 12:15am | ignore this person | warn this person
I think your best bet would be to have her disavow her American citizenship, enter the country illegally and reap all the social security, medicare, and college grants available to illegal aliens! Of course you know she will have to lie about her actual "race" on all applications, but you won't be out a dime except on your share of the national taxes! It has worked for millions of others since the 1990s!
Posted by comancheamerican at 02/13/2009 @ 12:57am
Letter to the Editor,
The Nation is an excellent magazine.
But one aspect of your magazine's presence on the Internet is being neglected. Stop allowing yourselves to be embarrassed by your lack control over the "Comments" blog for your online readers.
It is an elementary, but crucial, mistake to not monitor the blog, to assure it is used in an adult, informative, worthwhile-to-read manner.
Please don't just take my word for this. Ask someone who you expect to give you good feedback. You are doing a great disservice to your readers by allowing yourself to be sabotaged. Whether it is being done intentionally or not, I'm not certain.
A small cadre of perhaps twenty incestuous bloggers are injecting themselves into every article that you publish online. Some of them pollute every single article! The same people post again, and again, and again, with boring predictability, and even worse, with rarely anything interesting to say. The gibberish is often comprised of looping, personal brickbats hurled at one or another of the twenty boring, tragically home-bound(?), desperately needy partners in the blogging circle jerk.
This condition is very bad. Clear some space to allow an upgrade in this public activity to occur.
Just limit the number of times that any one of the trolls can post in one day. Is one post a day not adequate for any person, no matter who that person may be?
More people than the Tragic Twenty will be more willing to contribute, once the conversation is pulled out of the litter box it has been allowed to devolve into.
Perhaps more interestingly, you must consider the possibility that The Nation is being attacked by some right-wing action that wants to piss in your soup. Let me give you one reason why I am suspicious.
Posted by Dr_Lightning at 02/13/2009 @ 01:00am
Letter to the Editor (cont.) A couple of weeks ago, just to do a comparison, I just went to the web site of The American Spectator magazine.
I wanted to check how many "liberal" and/ or "leftist" blog entries there were for one of the articles in THAT magazine.
I clicked the top story on the list of the available claptrap.
I scrolled to the bottom and began reading/scannning the comments of those people who responded to add something to the article, which was about the Republican vote fraud expert, Ken Blackwell. I started counting the entries that could only be taken as a Republican and/or fascist group of sentences.
I stopped counting when it got to twenty straight pro-Republican or fascist blog comments to the Blackwell article; unmitigated, bilious, Orc-speak.
At The Nation's public blog & comments, the distribution is close to a fifty-fifty split between posts that might be expected to be placed on the site of the USA's foremost magazine that presents political views that are to the left-of-center, and the other fifty percent is absolute right-wing or fascist drool.
On the web site of The Nation?! I suspect that there is something organized going on.
Bring your web site up to modern standards. Control the trolls. It is the professional step that you must take to help make your web site good for YOUR constituency.
Thanks.
Dr. Lightning http://www.feedbooks.com/userbook/2988
Posted by Dr_Lightning at 02/13/2009 @ 01:01am
Comanch,
I actually thought I might do that after my profits are in the Islands and the enter here through Mexico, bring my money in, and after a year pay a $2000 fine for not paying taxes( after a year here as an illegal ) and then re apply for American citizenship.... Keep my cash and maybe get a check for being illegal.
Posted by YourJomamma at 02/13/2009 @ 01:05am
Posted by Dr_Lightning at 02/13/2009 @ 01:01am
Poor fella, that narcissisitic ECHO chamber is taking its toll! Must be a Huffington poster where only sterotypical posts are accepted?
Posted by comancheamerican at 02/13/2009 @ 01:46am
Is it seriously so lonely and sad in your world thay you need to spend hours waiting to vomit what little reasoning power you have in a place where people are clearly looking to have a rational conversation? Surely with all the successful businesses you run and the wonderful lives you have this must impinge on your precious time...
Posted by dekist at 02/13/2009 @ 04:02am
Then he can rename the Commerce Dept into the Dept of Federal Welfare.
Posted by antisocialist at 02/12/2009 @ 6:26pm
What the hell do you call defense spending Mr Blood and Guts?!
Posted by Wolfgang1 at 02/13/2009 @ 06:46am
Dr. Lightning http://www.feedbooks.com/userbook/2988
I agree completely. It was okay when the election was the issue, however, the crap that comes out of the "drolls" is old. We have all heard it before too many times. Their input puts a damper on the prospect that any worthwhile debate will occur. Putting the idiots on ignore does not solve the problem! Do somrthing NATION!
Posted by Truthman at 02/13/2009 @ 07:49am
I just feel the patriotism oozing from the pores of the cons. Their guy set us up for a decade long downturn in the economy, had two wars "off budget", hired his cronies to raid the treasury, lost (literally) pallets of taxpayer money, gave away 300 billion with zero oversight to Wall Street execs...
but it is of course Obamas fault. Will the cons stay and fight for their country? HELL NO! They will take their money elswhere. Fair weather friends indeed. They elect their guy, and then when he runs the country into the ground, they whine and moan and threaten to take their toys to non-socialist countries (HAR! Like Germany, or asking for Swiss francs).
See ya! What is taking you so long John? Move now. Take your kids and move somewhere with ALL private schools, no drivers licenses, no taxes, little government oversight.
I suggest, again, Iraq or the Sudan. If you know of places that suit you better, let us know. Of course Cayman would be nice, you could hide with your fellow cretins the drug lords and off shore Iranian sub contractors.
Posted by crabwalk at 02/13/2009 @ 08:03am
Putting the idiots on ignore does not solve the problem!
how so? I have had mask on ignore for more than a year, and I have discovered that he is a pleasant fellow.
in absentia. hahahahahahaha
Posted by emile duBois at 02/13/2009 @ 08:16am
Emile, you must have joined Darla for some serious bong activity. Posted by antisocialist at 02/12/2009 @ 11:56pm | ignore this person | warn this person
well, I would love to. just as I joined you for some serious Belgian ale activity.
the whigs went the way of the dinosaur. the repugs will join them there soon.
Posted by emile duBois at 02/13/2009 @ 08:19am
Dr, you are a new poster, I presume. you come in here and right away wish to change the blog. the arrogance of that is staggering.
there are many polite blogs, why don't you stay there?
I say let the trolls post their mostly ignorant and dumb posts. let the worker bees here skewer them and shoot them down, a metaphor, not a directive.
most of all, let's use the ignore button, and leave the blog alone.
Posted by emile duBois at 02/13/2009 @ 08:23am
Swiss francs
Posted by YourJomamma at 02/13/2009 @ 12:15am
uh, you'd better check that one.
Posted by frosty zoom at 02/13/2009 @ 08:41am
RE Dr. Lightning's comments, I almost wrote a similar letter. Other sites have comments that are coherent, on-topic, informative and polite. I get the print edition of the Nation (I know, environmentally wasteful - but so much easier to read) & will probably just go back to responding to it with letters to the editor when I have something to say.
I agree with Dr. Lightning that the trolls on this site are deliberately trying to disrupt the conversation among Nation readers. I would not be surprised if they were being paid to do so.
Posted by cdlepthien at 02/13/2009 @ 09:00am
Posted by Dr_Lightning at 02/13/2009 @ 01:01am
Wait a minute...if a person could only post "one time a day"...
how would YOU get to post BOTH halves of your screed?!??!?!?!???
Posted by Mask at 02/13/2009 @ 09:01am
Emile,
I have been a subscriber to The Nation for literally decades, although I do not subscribe at this time. It is my favorite magazine, so I don't see why it is I who should be asked to leave. I do not often post to the blogs, but I often scan the remarks of the people who do. It is supposed to add something to the conversation.
You know the people I am talking about. I am not incorrect in what I say about them.
What has been allowed to happen at The Nation is unprofessional, unworthy of its standards, and probably a coordinated right-wing attempt to confuse and signal jam. On the whole, I would guess that 51% of the blog comments are trivial, self-indulgent, self-referential, and embarrassing Orc-speak. This has been allowed to happen through neglect.
This is not the way a good blog is run. Ask anyone who has experience with the problem. You must control the trolls, or they ruin it for the majority.
Hell, let them make one post per topic even, instead of one perday. For any person who does not have an obsessive-compulsive disorder, that will be MORE than sufficient.
Dr. Lightning
Posted by Dr_Lightning at 02/13/2009 @ 09:03am
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/action/ignore.mhtml?who=Dr_Lightning
if you don't like it, don't come.
Posted by emile duBois at 02/13/2009 @ 09:23am
You must control the trolls, or they ruin it for the majority.
sounds a bit Stalinist to me.
the majority seems not to complain.
Posted by emile duBois at 02/13/2009 @ 09:25am
I too am a subscriber of the Nation and support them with donations. I agree with Dr. Lightning. The Drolls make this blog a joke at times. Its a real shame because I enjoy reading the comments of many who post here. The crap that comes from the drolls is so idiotic that it doesn't warrent a response. We are giving them way too much power!
Posted by Truthman at 02/13/2009 @ 09:31am
sted by Truthman at 02/13/2009 @ 09:31am | ignore this person | warn this person
just ignore the m*therf***ers. what's so difficult about that?
Posted by emile duBois at 02/13/2009 @ 09:40am
Dr Lightning, It is pretty much the same no matter what comments section you enter these days. I do find your notion that only right of center commenters fall into this category somewhat silly as there are plenty of ignorant kids out there on all sides of the political spectrum. In addition, your notion to screen or limit dialogue is common for those of you who think they have it all figured out and can't be bothered listening to competing viewpoints. Is it your intent to just create an echo chamber? Go back and read your posts and you will see how foolish it is. It would certainly be the first one i would screen from this entire thread.
Posted by cje64 at 02/13/2009 @ 09:40am
Partisan twits on both sides! The entire political discourse is so amusing. No, the Demos will not succeed to create a permanent hold on political power. No, the Repugs are not down and out permanently. No, neither party has a lick of integrity or commitment to anything other than their turn at the cookie jar.
Our country is doomed, because of our abject lack of common sense or critical reasoning skills among the vast majority of the voting public.
so, you idiots just banter back and forth with your partisan stupidity. if you don't want to see your kids grow up in a 3rd world country, you'd be wise to move soon.
Posted by kennpalm at 02/13/2009 @ 09:40am
I too am a subscriber of the Nation and support them with donations. I agree with Dr. Lightning. The Drolls make this blog a joke at times. Its a real shame because I enjoy reading the comments of many who post here. The crap that comes from the drolls is so idiotic that it doesn't warrent a response. We are giving them way too much power!
Posted by Truthman at 02/13/2009 @ 09:31am
If you reading nothing but items from those who believe EXACTLY as you do, then this is not the place for you. Create your own blog or gulag, stop all the free spech you want from there..in the mean time...
try Castros or Chavez or a Stalinist web site...I am sure they all have the same opinons and beliefs as you with none of those pesky dissenters..you can call it "the Peoples Blog".
so..you are free blog,..or not blog..or get the fuck out....and leave the rest of us alone to do what we freely have chosen to do on an open and free from regulators like you forum...exercise our freedom of speech.
As to content...from what I read of you and your Dr Lightening clown..we already know what you will say, too...and disagree 110%.
Bugger off.
Posted by YourJomamma at 02/13/2009 @ 09:42am
if you don't want to see your kids grow up in a 3rd world country, you'd be wise to move soon.
Posted by kennpalm at 02/13/2009 @ 09:40am
Many be too late...we are headed for a one party state with congress giving up its duty to run the census, so it won't be long and we will have all dems after redistricting...the illegal influx with no let up and no skills, and no english, plus a phone book of govt free programs will drive out the capital and the jobs producers, combined with an education system that is nothing more than a union shop of daycared free lunch rooms where indoctrination occurs for socialistic troops.
Plus this week we killed off our currency and our economic golden goose for good.
Posted by YourJomamma at 02/13/2009 @ 09:48am
Posted by kennpalm at 02/13/2009 @ 09:40am | ignore this person | warn this person
you're a big help.
Posted by emile duBois at 02/13/2009 @ 09:54am
Crab,
"See ya! What is taking you so long John? Move now. Take your kids and move somewhere with ALL private schools, no drivers licenses, no taxes, little government oversight"
Not quite right.
I am not yet ready to move yet but I am seriously thinking if conditions warrent. All our service scans are for domestic use and we are hiring people with skills and a science background to scan,starting at $ 50k a year.
And here is where you need to listen and perhaps understand the value of tax cuts to business and job creation.
My partner and I(I am a small % owner) started this business with an idea and a product that had no market. No one would finance us, unless they could steeal %51+ and by that time my partner put up what was left in his house, which he eventually had to sell. The company got its first scan job and paid the bills. Second scan job helped build another scanner..after 4 years...2 jobs. I sold the concept to China and a few other countries..a contract is drawn and the final demos and signings in China this summer should start the cash flow to manufacturing process.
I closed a large scan contract which to hire more 4 scanners.. We have 6 salesman on commission selling scan jobs and want to hire 5 or 10 teams of 2 scanners at $50k each guy plus a piece of the company. My partner and I still draw no salary..2 months ago our accountant said we have goods news and bad...we have $50k cash in bank...and owe $48,000 in taxes...govt got the money, we didn't hire anymore, even might cut 1 guy..and now are waiting for March or April for new contracts to kick in...taxes killed off hiring...no stimulus, not "help"..just a notice from IRS wanting to remmind us to send in qaurter payments EVEN THO WE DO NOT KNOW IF WE WILL MAKE MONEY
con't
Posted by YourJomamma at 02/13/2009 @ 10:04am
Right next to today's Feb. 13, article by Barney Frank about cutting defense spending to help the economy is an expensive ad to petition the government to continue the billions in spending for the useless Raptor F-22 fighter plane.I have reworked the article to send to Pres. Obama. Contact me for the full text, or I may conclude it in a separate blog. Dear President Obama,
As you work with Congress to address our nation's challenges, I urge you to discontinue production of the world's most advanced fighter aircraft, the F-22 Raptor. Although doing so may support tens of thousands of well-paying, specialized American jobs, preserve more than $12 billion in annual economic activity, i t will do little or nothing to maintain America's air superiority. The threats to our national security are within our borders. These are poverty, the weakest health care system in the industrialized world, a badly decaying infrastructure, a 19th century education system, and a continuing petroleum-based economy. In your inaugural address, you stated that if a government program works, we should move forward. The F-22 program explicitly does NOT fit this bill. Unfortunately it is on budget and ahead of schedule, and we are now reaping the tremendous debt through our nation's investment in design and development of a fighter plane that is essentially useless. There is no perceived enemy for this plane to defend us against.
Ensuring the production line of this questionable program stays open would be a rescue or bailout if that money was freed up for the President's stimulus package. The funding authorized by Congress to be truncated. Now the decision to cut this program and substantially reduce the military budget rests in your hands. The clock is ticking...
Posted by b00b00sdad at 02/13/2009 @ 10:06am
Putting the idiots on ignore doesn't help. The responces to their "spew" still comes out from those of you with more than two neurons to rub together.
Posted by Truthman at 02/13/2009 @ 10:08am
Posted by emile duBois at 02/13/2009 @ 08:23am
buzz buzz here, buzz buzz there
buzz around your hive
Posted by crabwalk at 02/13/2009 @ 10:10am
then you can ignore those too.
I can prove the efficacy of the ignore button by ignoring those who complain about the trolls, and wish for a bit more authority. get it?
Posted by emile duBois at 02/13/2009 @ 10:13am
Richardson, Daschle, Gregg ...
The Clintons are licking their chops.
And is that an even bigger dirty grin on Rahm's face?
'12 primaries ... wake up, Obama, & very soon ... or you'll be toast.
Posted by sloper at 02/13/2009 @ 10:20am
con't Now, accountant says, with the overseas sales and the amount I will make there he suggest we keep $ off shore legaly since the amount I will lose personaly and the amount company will lose to taxes is staggaring..slows down our growth and hiring by years..
better off lending back to ourselves our own money..
And when I look at the list of horseshit the "stimulus" plan is funding that has NOTHING to do with growth..I am out.
It is a large scale model of the CHICAGO MACHINE PARTONAGE SYSTEM being put upon us..and we will never escape this web..
so when we fight through all the road blocks the govt put up with all the crap you leftys want..we will hopefully sell out to a big conglomerate and get out..
what you do not know is..some of your bigger mouth pieces of supporters are ALREADY out..assets tucked safely away...
My parnter and I are small potatoes and won't be noticed by your types..you snidley laugh and crack that we are just wannabes with no real money, blah,blah,blah..
but what you don't know, but the IRS is becoming awrae..is that many small chumps like me are staring to do what the big boys(Kennedys, Clintons, Rockefellars, Pelsois,ect) have been doing for generations.
protecting their assets from you instead of reinvesting to grow more..and more jobs..and then we watch trillions wasted, stolen, and our own president pandering to have govt buy some woman housings, food, which after 50 years in this country and she can't do shit with out govt(someone else money)lots of her..checks for ACORN,arts,pet projects,..enough. Enough small guys like us disappear you will have no money to fund all the shit the FF never dream of..or would have allowed.
I am not alone,and Bush was part of the same problem..biggest employeer is USA..unioned
Posted by YourJomamma at 02/13/2009 @ 10:20am
Posted by emile duBois at 02/13/2009 @ 10:13am | ignore this person | warn this person Thanks for your kind comments, but, I don't think we are on the same page.
Posted by Truthman at 02/13/2009 @ 10:24am
Nichols, you're such a snarky condescending fringe liberal.
Gregg is lucky to be rid of Obama.
It was pretty clear that Gregg was going to be Commerce Figurehead; they just wanted him for the "we're bIpaRTisaN, SEEEE!" narrative.
Who'd want to be a part of what will become the most corrupt, naive administration in all US history, anyway?
Gregg was stupid for accepting the nom and Obama was manipulative for offering it. Both of them should be ashamed.
Posted by prosanity at 02/13/2009 @ 10:39am
I think it's wonderful that the conservatives are getting behind their president in these times of war.
Posted by crabwalk at 02/13/2009 @ 10:43am
truthman, no we're not in this instance.
I would be happy to engage you on pretty much any other subject.
Posted by emile duBois at 02/13/2009 @ 10:49am
JOMAMMA,
You had a republican "CEO" president, you had congress for years. They lowered your taxes, they got just about everything they asked for. The budget deficit has been compunded by YOUR wars, the "producers" loaned out money they did not have to people that could not pay it back, the "producers" reaped massive pay offs then came hat in hand for YOUR money, YOUR president gave them 400 billion with zero oversight.
This economy you see before you has been put in place by free marketeers, globalization proponents and cut-taxes republicans, the IMF and pro-business democrats. There has not been a liberal congress for decades. If you are seeking blame, look in the mirror.
Now Obama has inhereted a fricking mess, a mess created by greedy business and greedy consumers. He is operating with the best intel he has, with resolve to be committed to a recovery. That used to be all you asked for from a president.
I think you need to have a discussion with DARIN about selflessness versus selfishness.
BTW, last time you wrote about your business you were hiring at over 100K, now it is 50k.
Posted by crabwalk at 02/13/2009 @ 10:54am
Crab,
"You had a republican "CEO" president, you had congress for years."
Again, for the last time..
BUSH WAS NO CONSERVATIVE AND SPENT TREASURE LIKE A DRUNKEN DEMOCRAT. I DID NOT LIKE HIM.
YOUR BOY IS SPENDING 5 TIMES WHAT BUSH DID FOR STARTERS..WHAT DO YOU NOT GET THAT I SAY THEY ARE PART OF THE SAME PROBELM.
AND I AM OUT. I WILL NOT PLAY ANYMORE.
ANSWERME..WHY CANT WE READ THE STIMULUS BILL? WHY IS PELOSI RUNNING OFF TO ITALY?
WHY VOTE FOR SOMETHING 1000 PAGES LONG WITH NO DEBATE? OR EVEN READ THE THING?
I.... AM.... OUT. YOU WIN.
Posted by YourJomamma at 02/13/2009 @ 11:12am
BTW, last time you wrote about your business you were hiring at over 100K, now it is 50k.
Posted by crabwalk at 02/13/2009 @ 10:54am
Yes, the programers and code writers(2)..and that post was to make the point that unskilled and english majors will not be part of a good economy..and will be paid by the hour...
you must have missed that part.
Posted by YourJomamma at 02/13/2009 @ 11:16am
Also, I am opposed to this stimulus package as it has been "crafted". I have written to Levin and Shauer expressing that opposition.
What does that do to your pre-conceived notions about my beliefs? Does your brain hurt yet?
I also see no ideas coming from the "right", other than the same stuff that got us here, de-regulation and tax cuts. We did that, since Clinton. We could keep doing the same expecting different results, but that would be silly.
We could also disassemble Soc Security, medicare and all the social networks you hate so much. How do you think that would play? Hint: see Bush and the privatization of Sco Sec.
We could get rid of every union in the US, including police/fire/pilots, that would clear up, as you tell us, a smaller and smaller excuse for business. Then people would make less than they do now, and could pay less towards their bills. If you doubt that, look at wages paid in right-to-work states vs union states.
Posted by crabwalk at 02/13/2009 @ 11:20am
See ya.
Have fun in non-socialist China.
I recommend you sign up for the government approved religion, they frown on free lance.
Posted by crabwalk at 02/13/2009 @ 11:24am
Obama is simply calling the right-wing's bluff... and its working. Who better to prove that the economy has been 'toyed with' than the very ideologues that have 'cooked up' this mess.
The right wing is being caught out as we speak... and they are still trying to make it seem like Obama is being 'caught with the bag'... now more than ever.
The economy has been rigged... which was 'supposed' to empower McCain enough to get him elected... so now, because it didn't work... they are 'committed' to following through on an impending collision course with international bankruptcy... in order to keep Obama's intelligent manifestations from germinating.
My take on this is that it is not so much about fearing policy changes for their own sake... but it is more of a fight for survival for the far right... who has been holding all the trump cards for too long... thus 'taking advantage' has become a way of life...
...which implies that they will have no qualms with tanking the entire world's economy... in order to not have to face up to the last ten years of 'misappropriations'...
Stand firm... the bets are on the table... but the results are in the cards Obama is holding...;^)
Posted by ttr at 02/13/2009 @ 11:26am
Obama humilated Sen Gregg by pulling the Census into the White House and making it clear to everyone with a brain that any Republican in Obama's cabinet will be nothing more than an Obamaton with all the real power and decisions being made by a 100% partisan political corrupt White House staff doing things the Chicago Way. What Republican in their right mind wants to be a Rahm Emanuel puppet? Obama can surely find some more corrupt tax cheating Democrats to fill his cabinet!
Posted by valwayne at 02/13/2009 @ 11:37am
Posted by YourJomamma at 02/13/2009 @ 11:12am
Our "boy", MAASCH???
Posted by Mask at 02/13/2009 @ 11:41am
What Republican is in their right mind?
Posted by emile duBois at 02/13/2009 @ 11:45am
What corruption?
Posted by crabwalk at 02/13/2009 @ 11:50am
Bring your web site up to modern standards. Control the trolls. It is the professional step that you must take to help make your web site good for YOUR constituency.
Posted by Dr_Lightning at 02/13/2009 @ 01:01am
You're one dumbass!
"modern standards" for internet blogs mean attracting eyeballs & clicks which....ta da.....bring advertisers!
You assume The Nation "neglects" its Comment section...and apparently has, for many years now. My take is that the folks at TN, is smart enough to figure out what's in their best financial interest....just look at the various ads on this blog!
Like it or not, we have a `community' here...and each of us despise many of those with the opposing ideology and quite a few of us have mastered the "ignore this person" feature.
Despite the animosity within the `community', I believe our entire community of REGULARS is to be commended for having the courage and open-mind to post publicly and leaving ourselves to whatever is flung at us.....something your Messiah, and clearly yourself, isn't able to withstand (see Magic's first Presidential Address with pre-selected reporters/questions)....and your Party's current LOVE of the Fairness Doctrine.
Posted by Happy at 02/13/2009 @ 11:51am
Posted by Happy at 02/13/2009 @ 11:51am | ignore this person | warn this person
Happy, don't lump us, or Obama, in with them. I would much rather have discourse with a troll, or you, then with "an echo chamber".
Posted by !immutable at 02/13/2009 @ 11:58am
Even when faced with the best majority since the 60's the bitterness and hate remains in the liberal soul (such as it is).
Imagine what it will be like when Pelosi is thrown out on her ear in two years? The Messiah a failed memory, walking dead and gone in four.
While Bush II was a failure as was Hoover for his pandering to left-wing compromises the ultimate Bush conspiracy is under way. He left an economic problem and liberals have no clue on that topic especially. Both Geitner and idiotic "stimulus" are proof perfect.
Go ahead, start on the "fairness doctrine" and build all the re-education camps you wish, you will fail in the end and very soon. America was tired and weak with whining compromisers as the only alternative but aside from the clueless/hardcore socialists Obama is a joke.
Posted by CPhanson at 02/13/2009 @ 11:58am
Mask,
My boy was Reagan... Ok?
Please.
Posted by YourJomamma at 02/13/2009 @ 12:11pm
Posted by YourJomamma at 02/13/2009 @ 12
Hmmm?
Well....as far as the Gipper goes...you've read this, right?
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2003/0301.green.html
Posted by Mask at 02/13/2009 @ 12:15pm
If the Messiah has come, what the fuck are you clowns still doing here? Get stuck with us pagans and devil worshippers after all? My, my. What could have caused that?
Posted by crabwalk at 02/13/2009 @ 12:40pm
Posted by Mask at 02/13/2009 @ 12:15pm |
Nice work digging up The True Messiah, getting 3006 buildings named after Him was a goal not to be mocked as worship of The First One.
Posted by crabwalk at 02/13/2009 @ 12:46pm
As a resident of New Hampshire I am very familiar with Judd Gregg's political philosophy, his loyalty to his party, and his lockstep Republican voting record.
I was shocked to hear that Obama intended to appoint him as Commerce Sec. He voted to abolish the Commerce Dept in the 90's and to underfund the Census Bureau for the 2000 census. He wanted only actual counts and not any other option for obtaining a final count that would correct for undercounted minorities.
I could not imagine how he was going to fit in to the Obama cabinet. I could only see problems for Obama. If Gregg could not vote for the stimulus plan, how could he contribute anything positive for the welfare of the country?
Why was he not making constructive speeches on the Senate floor that would appeal to others than just Republicans?
President Obama can thank his lucky stars that Gregg pulled out. He would have had to fire him eventually, anyway.
Posted by bmclean35 at 02/13/2009 @ 1:05pm
Here's a tip for the president: Don't pick someone with whom you have "irresolvable differences." And, even more important, don't pick someone who takes the better part of a month to figure out that those differences are "irresolvable."
He picked him for an excuse to move the census...
Senator Gregg was named commerce secretary on 2/3/2009...hardly the better part of a month.
Posted by Really_Really at 02/13/2009 @ 1:51pm
I am a joke. Posted by CPhanson at 02/13/2009 @ 11:58am | ignore this person | warn this person
Posted by emile duBois at 02/13/2009 @ 1:51pm
Senator Gregg was totally unqualified to be a member of Obama's cabinet---he paid his taxes!
Posted by DoctorEp at 02/13/2009 @ 2:04pm
Posted by crabwalk at 02/13/2009 @ 12:46pm
It is interesting...While none on the Left refer to Obama that way...
ask your typical Rightie about Reagan and he does come off rather "Messiah-like" to those chaps.
Posted by Mask at 02/13/2009 @ 2:12pm
everyone's a comedian
Posted by emile duBois at 02/13/2009 @ 2:54pm
Posted by Mask at 02/13/2009 @ 2:12pm
"ask your typical Rightie about Reagan and he does come off rather "Messiah-like" to those chaps."
Yeah, and if you lived through Jimmy Carter's Presidency, you would have a clue why.
By the way, it was a nice touch when Obama raised the temperature in the WH to 76 so he could go around in shirt sleeves, while telling other people that they would have to save energy by turning down their thermostats. In contrast, Carter told people to wear sweaters to ward off the cold in their homes, and actually wore one himself. Such is progress in the Democratic Party!
Posted by pontificus at 02/13/2009 @ 3:07pm
"irresolvable differences" the reason for many divorces.
In this case Gregg decided he was not the marrying kind, in fact if going to the alter it is doubtful he could say I do to the vows, given he could not even say yes or now on the vote on the recovery package.
President Obama when he nominated a Republican clearly did not expect Gregg to agree with the President across the board, Gregg just could not stomach having to be placed in a position of explaining himself, I guess even to the people from his State.
The good news is Gregg is not going through with the marriage and you can bet there will be no alimony, a loss to Gregg and the people he pretended to represent.
Posted by geek at 02/13/2009 @ 3:27pm
The concept of irreconcilable differences provides a possible ground for divorce in a number of jurisdictions.
Posted by emile duBois at 02/13/2009 @ 3:32pm
Senator Gregg was totally unqualified to be a member of Obama's cabinet---he paid his taxes!
Posted by DoctorEp at 02/13/2009 @ 2:04pm | ignore this person | warn this person
.
I wonder if he's qualified to be in the Republican party?
Quick, can somebody check to see if he's used his old campaign funds to make bogus payments to his sister's defunct company?
Posted by Lillian at 02/13/2009 @ 4:00pm
Senator Gregg was totally unqualified to be a member of Obama's cabinet---he paid his taxes!
Posted by DoctorEp at 02/13/2009 @ 2:04pm | ignore this person | warn this person
.
I wonder if he's qualified to be in the Republican party?
Quick, can somebody check to see if he's used his old campaign funds to make bogus payments to his sister's defunct company?
Posted by Lillian at 02/13/2009 @ 4:05pm
Gregg admits he embarrased himself - as well he did.
He knew going in that he and the President had differences of opinion. And, he knew going in that the President wasn't going to ask him for agreement. The President asked for his participation - not his capitulation.
Gregg thought he was 'mature' enough to work in that environment for the good of the country. Evidently, his Republican colleagues...
...convinced him his party would have NONE of that!
Posted by Lillian at 02/13/2009 @ 4:15pm
"Happy" the troll illustrates the precise problem.
He scribbles, "Like it or not, we have a `community' here ... and each of us despise many of those with the opposing ideology . . ."
So the same group of "regulars" have been allowed to feel that THEY own the blog. Which drives away so many more people who would like to partake in an intelligent, thoughtful manner, but the trolls are too busy slinging right-wing mud and joking among themselves.
As a person who leans to the political left, which is the type of person that The Nation owes its existence to, MY preferences, OUR preferences should be of more concern to the editors who are supposed to be monitoring this blog.
In addition, the presence of the Tragic Twenty drives away FAR MORE traffic than it could ever claim to generate. They mistake verbosity for content, vehemence for analysis.
It's pitiful and damn annoying to have to wade through all of their right-wing cant and utter BS to try to sift-out the worthwhile comment or two that is sandwiched among all of the bile coming from the Tragic Twenty.
I have sent my Letter to the Editor, and I have responded enough to amplify and defend my point of view. If The Nation does not clean up the garbage, I won't bother to tell them how much it sticks anymore.
Dr. Lightning
Posted by Dr_Lightning at 02/13/2009 @ 4:22pm
Dr. Lightning
blah, blah, blah,
you're ignored.
Posted by emile duBois at 02/13/2009 @ 5:01pm
(resending the last sentence)
I have sent my Letter to the Editor, and I have responded enough to amplify and defend my point of view. If The Nation does not clean up the garbage, I won't bother to tell them how much it STINKS anymore.
Dr. Lightning
Posted by Dr_Lightning at 02/13/2009 @ 5:01pm
"Happy" the troll illustrates the precise problem... the same group of "regulars" have been allowed to feel that THEY own the blog. Which drives away so many more people...
As a person who leans to the political left, which is the type of person that The Nation owes its existence to...
...the Tragic Twenty drives away FAR MORE traffic than it could ever claim to generate....
Posted by Dr_Lightning at 02/13/2009 @ 4:22pm
You come across with your upturned nose, very sure of yourself! You just flat out know:
That my presence "illustrates the precise problem", the regulars "drives away so many more people" and to emphasize, "the Tragic Twenty drives away FAR MORE traffic than it could ever claim to generate".
Seems to me, you're the prototypical ASSHOLE whose `ALL KNOWING' just can't be wrong or, when presented in a forum, be challenged! You even just KNOW, since it doesn't pleases YOU, The Nation doesn't know how to run its own blog for however many years (probably since Day 1).
While you clearly have political leanings....you also clearly have NO capability to figure out business, specifically, the blog pit here! Try this:
All Left-wing blogs heavily censor non-conforming posters of the HAPPY variety.....which means what? Few conservatives will visit those blogs!
The Nation, on the other hand, is unique....allowing our presence here, to constantly challenge both what TN's writers put up and to debate/argue with its like-minded supporters in this open forum.
Our presence just may attract the largest number of right-wing visitors (among Lefty blogs)...the bulk of whom (just like on the Left, do NOT post, but do come here to see us battle you folks. This then, means TN is able to have a wider range of visitors....which attracts advertising! Plausible?
Posted by Happy at 02/13/2009 @ 7:33pm
Posted by Dr_Lightning at 02/13/2009 @ 5:01pm
My goodness, but you have a high opinion of yourself mr. lightning.
May I suggest that most of the regulars here would make very short work of you in any debate, on any subject.
While there is not much left of you after this first little engagement, I would encourage you to try, try again.
Posted by Benchrest at 02/13/2009 @ 7:55pm
There is nothing I have said that is really subject to debate. If I sound confident of what I say, its because the Internet has a long history, going back to he beginning of the old style "listserves", about what had to be done with trolls.
They have to be managed, reined in, restricted; otherwise, the site inevitably became an incestuous semi-private chat room among the adolescent "regulars".
It's a very old argument, and "best practice" for any good web site is to banish the trolls. Being a bit of a softy, I say let them have their pathetically needy one post a day. The trolls don't have a legitimate reason to be allowed to spew their silly stuff over and over and over on The Nation's blog, and that is not debatable.
Here at The Nation, what makes it even worse, is that the trolls, the Tragic Twenty, are openly hostile to anyone who is to the left of Ron Paul, and they ADMIT (read Happy the Troll's post again) that their purpose is to create a crescendo of malice toward any left or progressive viewpoint.
You guys have lost your mojo, lost the last election, and you have lost this argument.
Now, just get lost. I have no sympathy for the fact that you may have to find something else to do with your lives, if you will soon not be permitted to ruin The Nation blogs every single day of your pathetic lives.
There has to be a medical term that describes the sickness of anyone who does what you guys do each and every day, for hours and hours. Anyone know what it is?
Seriously.
Dr. Lightning
Posted by Dr_Lightning at 02/13/2009 @ 8:43pm
John Nichols is playing hooky with the truth. Sen Gregg's "irresolvable differences" had everything to do with the administrations early indications that the very non partisan census bureau will now become a leftwing partisan vehicle, a goal of the left for a generation now. They wanted the bureau out from under the commerce debt control and folded into the administrations control. Gregg saw through it and pulled his name.
Posted by hughm8 at 02/13/2009 @ 8:50pm
"The trolls don't have a legitimate reason to be allowed to spew their silly stuff over and over and over on The Nation's blog, and that is not debatable."
Posted by Dr_Lightning at 02/13/2009 @ 8:43pm
Why is it not debatable?
Simply because you say so?
What are you, a freshman college student?
Let me guess. A psych major, right?
Run along now.
Posted by Benchrest at 02/13/2009 @ 8:57pm
Seriously.
Posted by Dr_Lightning at 02/13/2009 @ 8:43pm
Seriously?
Since this blog apparently is out of your age group, you may wish to visit one more to your liking.
May I suggest Nickelodeon?
Posted by Benchrest at 02/13/2009 @ 9:11pm
Another troll wants to know "why it's not debatable."
It's like this, once the entire rational world became convinced that touching a red hot piece of iron would cause significant burns to unprotected human flesh, nobody had to debate the question any longer; it wasn't debatable.
Almost as definitively, the people who have had sufficient experience with the Internet, and blogs, and trolls, determined that Trolls were a noisome stench that had to be banished, for the good of everything sacred and holy.
It's official. Look it up.
So, begone, you nasty and vile creatures. The Internet has long ago issued the proclamation "Trolls Suck".
Show them no mercy, and God shall smile upon your endeavors to smite them into something approaching a normal life, where they do not perpetually post their crap to an unappreciative audience.
I am tired of responding to the lamebrains. I intend to get high, go down to The Strip, gamble until I lose my limit, and THEN I'll see what I can do about getting lucky.
Adios.
Dr. Lightning
Posted by Dr_Lightning at 02/13/2009 @ 9:27pm
"I intend to get high, go down to The Strip, gamble until I lose my limit, and THEN I'll see what I can do about getting lucky."
Posted by Dr_Lightning at 02/13/2009 @ 9:27pm
Well, that explains that.
I swear, you cannot make this stuff up.
From what frickin gene pool do these people come from?
Posted by Benchrest at 02/13/2009 @ 9:46pm
. . . From a gene pool a far sight higher than yours, Troll.
Let's call each other names for a while now. While the other trolls - - - - what are the other trolls doing now? Is this the hour they sleep?
Thank you for your compliment re. my humorous finale. The truth is that YOU can't make up lines like that.
Humor is often a good barometer of intelligence too. Funny guys are usually pretty smart. Want to bet on which of us got the higher score on the GRE? Assuming that you ever tried to get into a higher grade of University and took that test, of course.
This really is my final public post about this. If anyone else agrees with me, now is a good time to write your own short Letter to the Editor.
'Bye
Dr. L
Posted by Dr_Lightning at 02/13/2009 @ 9:55pm
x that last from.
Allow myself to introduce...myself.
Posted by Benchrest at 02/13/2009 @ 9:58pm
"I intend to get high, go down to The Strip, gamble until I lose my limit, and THEN I'll see what I can do about getting lucky."
Posted by Dr_Lightning at 02/13/2009 @ 9:27pm
...I swear, you cannot make this stuff up.
Posted by Benchrest at 02/13/2009 @ 9:46pm
Jimmy2, you were off just a little......past the Nikelodian age...but hitting Vegas on his 21st B-Day, on the cheap, can't hold his liquor....mom gave him a low "limit" to lose but mom doesn't know he'll try to get "lucky" looking for a John....so he can go back in the casino.......LMAO!
Posted by Happy at 02/13/2009 @ 11:44pm
Happy, don't lump us, or Obama, in with them. I would much rather have discourse with a troll, or you, then with "an echo chamber".
Posted by !immutable at 02/13/2009 @ 11:58am
I had to reread my post. I didn't think I darted anyone other than who the post was aimed at with laser precision. Then I realized, you just might be referring to the Fairness Doctrine.....at least, I hope so...:~)?
Posted by Happy at 02/13/2009 @ 11:51pm
I guess "Happy the Troll" is happy that he can hold his liquor. He considers it an insult to say that someone else has a different drug of preference.
Happy is a wethead. Who would have guessed? Besides everyone. He consumes alcoholic beverages, and he's proud of that, dad gum it.
I'll bet all the Trolls are wetheads.
. . . and I was born before the Eisenhower administration. Take off your shoes & socks. You will need all of your digits to count how old that might make me. And you'll need to count your dog's toes too. Have you ever gone that high before?
(Watch. Now one of the Trolls will tell me that I'm too old, and should have learned to love the Fuhrer by now, or some variation of that BS.)
Over & out.
Dr. L
Posted by Dr_Lightning at 02/14/2009 @ 12:50am
Its time Obama quit messing with the idea of a bipartisan Cabinet and name progressives who are strong voices for reforming our country's economic and foreign policy direction. Already, he's been damaged by this economic team and The Nation's editors have done a good job of spelling out the calamity which confronts us if it can't envision the creation of a new banking system. These are defining moments in the Obama Presidency and he needs a team that will seize the moment and not fumble along trying to patch up what is broken.
Posted by jrutle at 02/14/2009 @ 09:58am
Dr. Lightning,
I agree with one facet of your topic: There seems to be a lot of right wingers here at the Nation.
But life wold be real boring without HAPPY, HUGO PIROVANO, PONTIFICUS, CHERMAK, DARRIN THE TROLL and others...
And even though you profess not to like what they are doing, with all due respect, you are doing it too. Going off topic, name calling (which everyone eventually does), and making long posts about the other bloggers. What happened to Gregg? Many long posts ago we were discussing that. If you like this blog at all it would be your task to mentally ignore the others and bring us back on topic.
I feel your pain. But the ignore button, as well as 'on topic' slugfests and getting your comments posted immediately is part of what makes this site so cool.
And I think almost everyone at this site can agree with that. We agree to disagree and we enjoy freedom of speech. To enforce the limitations that you propose would make you pretty much like 'them'. You are obviously pissed, but (I suggest) just channel that into objectivity. Being mad at reality will not change it.
Let's keep it just the way it is, with all of it's imperfections. Just use the ignore button until you see just what you want to see. La Vie En Rose.
Posted by ficheye at 02/15/2009 @ 2:32pm