August 11, 2009
The Uncivil War
As much as I admire Ace, and I really do, I truly hate it when he attempts to straddle the fence, and accuses conservatives of being too, I don't know, boisterous. I believe he thinks it's just a bit too unseemly.
His contention is that Krauthammer is right in saying the raw emotions people are showing at the congressional town halls are counterproductive, because they scare the undecideds, namely uncommitted Democrats. I really hate it when Ace walks it back like this, into Brooks/Frum territory, because it reeks of a need for acceptance, and I think it goes against his innate beliefs. Which is why he'll then spend two weeks walking back the walk back in an attempt to prove his conservative bona fides. But only after taking an ass whooping in his comments.
It doesn't matter if people are frightened by angry "mobs" screaming at congressmen at town halls. Those people aren't voting on healthcare reform. What matters is if congressmen are frightened by angry "mobs" screaming at congressmen at town halls. People aren't the fucking dependent variable here. The assholes voting for the bill are. And scaring the living shit out of them is the only hope we have of defeating this colossus of a buttfucking called Obamacare.
Ace acts as if he's having a friendly game of gin rummy in the garage, when he knows we are at the high stakes table in Vegas with the Bader-Meinhof Gang on the other side of the felt, and they're dealing off the bottom of the deck, slipping cards from their sleeves, and peeking at his cards while he's taking a piss. The time for civil discourse is past. That will get you a free well drink on the rubber and a single payer plan lying next to your fucking Godiva chocolate on your well-fluffed pillow.
These town halls are the most incredible wellspring of public opinion since the draft riots in New York in 1863. You can't buy that kind of electricity with a trillion dollar stimulus check. Therefore Ace thinks we must tone it down, lest we scare off a mythical Democrat, who, come election day in 2010 is going to pull the lever exactly as his yellow dog platelets compel him to anyway.
We lost those fuckers a long time ago, Ace. We need the ambient Democrat-leaners, the vote-as-the-wind-blows fools that elected the Cretinous One in the first place. But moreso the selfsame RINOs and moderate Republicans that are swilling the compromise kool-aid. And what excites them? Not civil discourse in a town hall where the side doors are opened for the union thugs, while the angry and upset are mostly denied entrance. Who sees them? Not civil discourse when the questions are as planted as the attendees, and the media crafted the questions in the first place as a favor. No, what excites them is seeing someone just like themselves standing up to a self-aggrandizing fool of a politician, and taking the fucking switch to his ass in public.
It's hardball time, Ace. No amount of faux hobo-killing or fake rotgut vodka drinking tales will save you when the gangsters take over your blackjack table. One can either man up and fight back when the gangster toadie slaps one's face, or turn around and look at the crowd watching one get screwed at the table and say We really need to find a more civil game. Too bad this is the only table in the house.
Sometimes you can't fold. Sometimes you have to play the fucking hand out. And then you have to play with the knowledge that there will be a winner and a loser, and I for one don't want to be the guy sitting there nodding while Krauthammer tells me that Given the odds against us, this compromise is probably the best we could have hoped for.
Because that is also know as the Losing Side.
That Indian at the edge of the woods with the extra horse? He isn't beckoning you to the Foxwoods Resort, Ace. Come back to the fold, man.
P.S. I'd love to play poker with you sometime, broheim. I generally carry my own deck, so that'll make it easier.
Who has been faking hobo killing again?
Posted by: JohnB at August 11, 2009 9:10 PMI have to agree, we have a groundswell going on right now, and most of the people that are really pissed off haven't ever heard of Ace or the blogosphere at all. We are the political junkies, not Granny, but Granny is getting pretty fucking concerned.
I think what Ace worries about is looking like Cindy Sheehan did while Bush was in office, we do not have that problem.
That is what worries these cocksuckers most of all, is normal people getting fired up. It is happening, what will happen now, and it will fucking happen is a catastrophe, that will give them cover.
These motherfuckers are praying for another Katrina.
I, too, think that the truly unhinged should remain at home. That said, I haven't seen a whole lot of them at these meetings. What we're seeing is real people who are real scared and the only damned thing we have on our side is the passion directed at all that the bastards conspire to commit.
Who doesn't have a dog in this fight?!
Seriously?
Aging parents: check!
Daughter striking out on her own: check!
Single, middle aged woman who takes 15 pills a day and will require very costly surgery every 5-6 years for the rest of her life: check!
As I said on Ace just a few days ago, I don't think it's much of a stretch to think that, at some point, the bastards will be flipping through the resume' that is our life and, when we stand in front of the panel, our lives will be decided by a simple thumbs-up or thumbs-down vote. And, those of us not in possession of an Ivy League education or not employed in the legal or 'community organizing' fields had better stock up on aspirin, bandaids and bourbon because that's about as good as it will get if the swine have their way.
Hey, Rankin Rob still around these parts?
How you liking things now?
Posted by: jmflynny at August 11, 2009 11:37 PMOh!
And...I have no idea how Teh Won is going to make it another 3.5 years in office. Really.
It is nearly incomprehensible to me.
He has fucked up so badly and in so short a time that I can't even imagine where he goes from here. What does he do, sit back and keep his Marxist ideals under wraps? Does he not attempt to push forward his despicable agenda and sit quietly by?
No. Of course not. It just isn't in him.
He will continue to push and push and push and should he meet his demise by way of being rendered an enoch in office, it will have nothing to do with his race, but with the fact that he is the most despised man in America. The self-serving Congress-critters will only go so far because, after all, they have their own hides to protect and, of course, losing their seat just might mean signing up their own families for Obamacare.
I truly do despise Obama and all that surround him. Except, oddly enough, Hillary Clinton.
WHo woulda thunk it?
Posted by: jmflynny at August 12, 2009 12:02 AMYeah, I have to agree with you ... that crowd in power makes Hillary look downright reasonable by contrast.
Posted by: PeggyU at August 12, 2009 1:05 AMAgreed - Ace does that; sorta pulls the punches for the sake of being nice when intellectual brutality is path for those in the right. Authentic anger and indignation from those that have been quiet is a shock to politicians that have taken silence as approval. There is the potential for the awakening of the American soul and should it happen, it will be awesome and it will shake the world again.
Posted by: Guaman at August 12, 2009 6:17 AMyep. The dim-a-crits are pissed because their own tactics are being used against them...and the dim-a-crits know these tactic work.
Next election I encourage everyone to take another page out of the dim-a-crit play book...vote and vote as many times as you can get by with.
Posted by: GUYK at August 12, 2009 6:27 AMI love dear Ace, and have been a fan since the git-go. I quit reading him after the election and I don't remember why. Now I do. I got tired of his post it now and walk it back habit, even on small factual items, much less larger opinion pieces.
I talked with a couple in their late 70's yesterday who had just returned from a Tea Party. Sweet gramps and granny were pissed as hell and quite proud of their newfound activist status.
Congress had better wake up soon.
And yeah, you may not like it folks, but when History smacks you in the here and now, this is pretty much what it looks like. Don't wait for a better hand
Posted by: Joan of Argghh! at August 12, 2009 7:30 AMOld 1950s 60s beatnick I am, but I pulled my yellow copies of William S. Bourroughs to revisit. I thought he was way over the top then but today he's like a hovering drone. Quote from "Ah Pook Is Here": "He thinks in terms of losers and winners. He will be a winner. He will take all.... He will eliminate all unpredictable factors. He will set up the AMERICAN NON DREAM."
Posted by: Mike Bailor at August 12, 2009 7:50 AMSad thing is...only about 435 people will vote to pass it or not.
Posted by: Sam at August 12, 2009 8:34 AMIt they are willing to stand at the podium offering platitudes in exchange for applause and adulation they must also be willing to stand at that podium and take it when their constituents loudly advise them they're on the wrong side of right.
"If you can't stand the heat stay out of the kitchen." Sounds almost political, no?
Posted by: ThomasD at August 12, 2009 9:03 AMWell said V-man.
The time for "polite" political discourse is over.
"...and begin slitting throats."
Hmmm, maybe not so much, eh?
Posted by: doubletrouble at August 12, 2009 9:39 AMAs Ace tried to say in the comments to that thread, it wasn't the anger and passion that was eating at him, it was the Jesus freak who told Specter that God would judge him for his actions that day...
...as he was being hauled out by security for speaking his mind.
Methinks Ace's professional peers hear something like that and use it as a club to beat Ace -- directly or indirectly.
He's sure that the fence-sitters will hear the God comment and run screaming the other way (90%!). Because Ace, apparently, became conservative when he ran screaming from the loonies on the Left.
Ace isn't calling for us to STFU or even to be more polite (though that's what Kraut advocated), he just doesn't want to be embarrassed by Our Side.
Of course, to be embarrassed, that means there's someone for you to be embarrassed in front of, which brings me back to Ace's professional peers.
He's hoping, perhaps, to serve God without offending the devil.
Good luck with that. Really. You'd be the first.
Posted by: dicentra at August 12, 2009 10:29 AMSpot on sir,
Ace did exactly the same thing with Rush Limbaugh's hope he fails comments.
And dropping the F-bomb on the Good Lady Dicentra was especially bad form.
If he knew anything about the struggles she endures and the extraordinary outlook she maintains he would be saying Thank-you not F-U!
Posted by: Danger at August 12, 2009 10:44 AMThat "Jesus freak" reminded me an awful lot of an bunch of other guys his age I know. God still has excellent market share in America and for those who are in or are vaguely familiar with that audience, "You're going to have to stand before God and answer for what you've done" is pretty fucking mainstream oldster smackdown. I doubt that people who don't spend a whole lot of time political naval gazing, marinating in identity politics and seeking out the meaning of "code words" would see that angry old dude and think "Boy, what a religious nutjob." Lots and lots of them are thinking either "I'm glad that wasn't my Dad/Grandad." or "I wish that was my Dad/Granddad." Everybody knows that guy, and most of them are quite fond of him, old fool though he may be.
And of course, Velociman is right. They don't matter right now. These thieving, self-aggrandizing whores matter and they do this shit because they know they can. They're not the least bit afraid of We The People. That needs work.
Posted by: Pablo at August 12, 2009 11:14 AMJoan did the right thing sending me here and sweet Jesus, you're right! This is our best, if not last, opportunity to take a stand. For once it's good to hear of some Christians, albiet fundies, doing just that.
Posted by: qp at August 12, 2009 6:02 PMAce acts as if he's having a friendly game of gin rummy in the garage, when he knows we are at the high stakes table in Vegas with the Bader-Meinhof Gang on the other side of the felt, and they're dealing off the bottom of the deck, slipping cards from their sleeves, and peeking at his cards while he's taking a piss. The time for civil discourse is past. That will get you a free well drink on the rubber and a single payer plan lying next to your fucking Godiva chocolate on your well-fluffed pillow.
Poetry.
Posted by: apotheosis at August 12, 2009 7:44 PMLook, the old farts at the Town Halls deserve to be cut a little slack.
a. They're old, and modernity among the aged has been known to cause the vapors. Hell, I've been a blognut since the First Gulf War, and for the life of me I can't see any sense at all in Twitter. And I will not text!
b. They feel a little guilty for voting for you-know-who, when there was plenty of data to the contrary available to anyone with a clue.
c. They've suffered and they've struggled and they used to get a goddamm orange and a quarter for Christmas when they were kids. Now they see their grandkids and great-grandkids with their wee little heads completely up each other's ass.
d. They had hoped for, and fought for, and died for better. Now, they're not about to let some little sissy, smarty-pants, chicago thug tell them any more friggin' lies.
Posted by: randall at August 13, 2009 12:01 AMYou cmooneted -
"Bader-Meinhof Gang on the other side of the felt, and they're dealing off the bottom of the deck, slipping cards from their sleeves, and peeking at his cards while he's taking a piss."
-
Actually, even that that, the Bader-Meinhoff gang would still have more honor than the collective bastards currently populating the offices of power.
Great work. Keep it up.
Ace demonstrates why it is that no current politician or mainstream pundit will lead a counter-revolution--if it ever happens. They are not tapped into the silent well-spring of liberty still left in some portion of the citzenry, or its anger. It was only a third with those balls and conviction necessary for the first revolution. It's long destruction was organized and maintained by a relative few intellectuals and their minions. They're not tough, just evil.
A bolting horse is not ridden, especially not by long and learned dissertations.
Remember what the dickweeds in Washington ordered done to that Volvo? You're next.
Posted by: Christina at August 22, 2009 6:46 AM