Tag Archives: john kerry

Democracy & Elitism 3: burning down the straw man, and who are these out-of-touch “liberal elites,” anyway?

Posted on by 12 comments

Let’s begin with a quick trivia question. What legislator’s Top 20 donor list includes the following? Blackstone Group (Financial Services) Bain Capital FPL Group (Energy) DLA Piper (Corporate law firm, representing Global 1,000 and Fortune 500 companies) Kindred Healthcare Beacon Capital Partners Comcast Corp Brownstein, Hyatt et al (Corporate law firm) Venable LLP (Corporate law firm) Hummer Winblad Venture Partners

Read more

Democracy & Elitism: an introduction to the American false consciousness

Posted on by 9 comments

Part one in a series. Is there a more radioactive word in American politics today than elitist? Admit it – you saw the word and had an instinctive negative reaction, didn’t you? If not, then count yourself among the rarest minority in our culture, the fraction of a percent that has not yet had its consciousness colonized by the “evil

Read more

Democrats to Progressives: We’re just not that into you

Posted on by 40 comments

A modest proposal, perhaps. It’s been entertaining watching American public “discourse” since the election. (I use that word in its broadest, most ridiculous sense, since nothing that hinges so completely on self-absorption, rank ignorance and pathological dishonesty can be accurately characterized by such a noble word. But indulge me. I’ve been working on my irony lately.) On the one hand

Read more

Beware celebrity negroes raising your gas prices for Satan!

Posted on by 13 comments

I’m beginning to get a bad feeling about Campaign ’08. A nasty, sinking feeling that we’re a’fixin’ to spend the next three months obliterating ever record for dirty, dishonest, unethical, immoral electioneering in the history of American politics. I don’t say this casually. I remember the Bush I “Willie Horton” ad. I lived through multiple Jesse Helms campaigns in North

Read more

Good cop/bad cop: the tasing of Andrew Meyer and remembering Officer Bubba

Posted on by 13 comments

How much do you trust your local neighborhood law enforcement authorities? Hopefully a lot, and hopefully with good reason. Today, though, events at a John Kerry speaking engagement at the University of Florida have sparked another round of debate over the conduct and capability of police officers (both those on the scene and in general) and the conversations I’ve seen

Read more

The Truth About the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth

Posted on by Leave a comment

Much has been made lately of the group calling themselves the “Swift Boat Veterans for Truth” (SBVT) and their little slander campaign against John Kerry. Kerry initially tried the old “I won’t dignify that with a response” tactic, but in doing so dramatically overestimated the intelligence of the electorate (I mean, come on, when has that one ever worked?) This

Read more