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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JohnM who wrote (6288)	8/29/2003 1:43:23 PM
From: Neeka	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 793838

Why do liberals find it so necessary to insult and denigrate the right? Do they really think they will be believed or admired? They are slowly losing support from people not willing to go down that belittling road. Yawnnnnnnnnnnnn. M

To: JohnM who wrote (6288)	8/29/2003 1:56:43 PM
From: Rollcast...	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 793838

it's very clear he's angling for the Krugman role. Would that be the role of a shill or just a liar?

To: JohnM who wrote (6288)	8/29/2003 4:14:29 PM
From: LindyBill	Respond to of 793838

it's very clear he's angling for the Krugman role. He sure is. That column is a "Hack Job" worthy of Klugman!

To: JohnM who wrote (6288)	8/29/2003 5:01:06 PM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793838

Miami Joke: "Castro dies and goes to heaven. When he gets there, St. Peter tells him that he is not on the list and that, no way, no how, does he belong in heaven. Castro must go to hell. So Castro goes to hell, where Satan gives him a hearty welcome and tells him to make himself at home. "Then Castro notices that he left his luggage in heaven and tells Satan, who says, 'No hay problema, I'll send a couple of little devils to get your stuff.' "When the little devils get to heaven they find the gates are locked, St. Peter is having lunch, and they start debating what to do. Finally, one comes up with the idea that they should climb over the wall and get the luggage. "As they are climbing, two little angels see them, and one angel says to the other, 'Would you look at that? Fidel has been in hell no more than ten minutes and we're already getting refugees!'"

To: JohnM who wrote (6288)	8/29/2003 5:35:47 PM
From: Sully-	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 793838

What? Another left winger who is willing to lie & distort just about anything & have it repeated by countless liberal media outlets as though it were the gospel truth? I guess 8 years of Clintonesque untruths & the politics of personal destruction actually did give the US a lasting legacy to emulate.

To: JohnM who wrote (6288)	8/29/2003 7:18:44 PM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793838

Podhoritz is on to something, John. And explains Tomasky's position. A LEFTY BOOM By JOHN PODHORETZ - [New York Post] August 29, 2003 -- THE rise of an ardent, passionate, angry and engaged left is the most important political story of 2003. The hottest book of the new publishing season is Al Franken's "Lies (and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them)." Joe Conason of the New York Observer has a fast-selling tome called "Big Lies." At the end of September comes "The Lies of George Bush" by David Corn of the Nation magazine, which will likely hit the bestseller list as well. The triumphant success of Howard Dean's once-quixotic presidential campaign in marshaling genuine grass-roots support and money over the Internet demonstrates that there is a large and hungry audience in the land for a leftist political-cultural message. The Dean campaign is a more mainstream outgrowth of the popular demonstrations against the Iraq war organized last winter by the Stalinist anti-Semites of International ANSWER. This is how movements begin. Pamphleteers like Franken, who often use ad hominem humor as a potent weapon, give fuel and intellectual ammunition to activists like those who marched against the war. The combination of emotion and enthusiasm gives a serious political candidacy like Dean's the turbo-charged momentum to zoom ahead of more conventional rivals. Part of what fuels this alliance is a feeling of powerlessness ? of not being heard, of not being paid attention to. Note the rise of what I like to call "Foxanoia," the lunatic theory popular these days in leftist circles that the Fox News Channel has become the dominant voice in all of America and is controlling every piece of information that gets out to the American people. Now, as a contributor to the Fox News Channel and an employee of the corporation that owns it, I consider Foxanoia very helpful to my supervisors' ability to keep paying my salary. But it's absurd to claim that, because Fox has bested CNN and MSNBC in the cable-news race, its influence surpasses the combined might of the three broadcast networks, the news magazines and the editorial guidance given at most of the major daily U.S. newspapers. It's so absurd, in fact, that few on the right genuinely believe that people on the left genuinely suffer from Foxanoia. My fellow conservatives tend to think the argument that there's no liberal media anymore is simply a smokescreen, a sophistic dodge. It's not. They do believe it, because they believe so ardently in the power of the media that they figure their inability to stop the Iraq war from happening can only be explained by the rise of a pro-war media. In fact, they lost an argument about the nature of terrorism, rogue nations and world power after 9/11. But they can't bear to admit that, so they instead argue that Bush only prevailed because of lies he told, that Fox and Ann Coulter only succeed because they lie. These folks believe a grotesque, nearly cosmic unfairness is going on ? a wrong that must be righted. Everything ? everything ? has gone wrong since 2001. "The Bush administration has done virtually nothing good for the country," says Michael Tomasky, who as editor-elect of the American Prospect magazine will be making the more cerebral versions of the arguments offered in Franken's unabashed screed. That is a powerful glue, the perfect opinion for the rise of a mass movement. The problem for the Foxanoia axis is this: What, aside from hating Bush and the Fox News Channel, do they believe in? Is there anything positive they can say about America? And I don't mean about George Bush's America ? I mean about America in general. Take almost any subject. On race, can a Foxanoid leftist say anything other than the relations between the races are in disastrous shape? On the environment, does a Foxanoid have anything to offer other than that the sky is falling and the earth is melting? On economics, the Foxanoid mantra is always the same: There is a growing gap between rich and poor, a growing deficit that will eat away at everything, a growing job loss. Oh, and tax cuts are evil. And don't even ask about the War on Terror, which according to the Foxanoids is a) going badly because we haven't been tough enough on al Qaeda and b) going badly because we've been too tough in the application of anti-terror laws and c) going badly because the world hates us and d) going badly because we deserve it that the world hates us. What can the Foxanoids offer as a message of hope for the future? Cheaper prescription drugs? Please. Yes, the left is rising. But for the left to truly challenge the right for dominance of the intellectual debate, its leaders and thinkers will need to be able to offer a picture of a better, safe and wealthier United States. And the problem for those who describe themselves as "progressives" is that they can see no progress anywhere. All they see is misery stretched out far into the future. Their failed philosophy has blinded them, left them incapable of conceiving of a positive future or offering even a road map out of their own misery. Except, maybe, if somebody would come along and invent a rival to the Fox News Channel. nypost.com

To: JohnM who wrote (6288)	8/29/2003 7:26:27 PM
From: LindyBill	Respond to of 793838

Jeff Jarvis makes a couple of good comments on Podhoretz's column in the New York Post. The anti-Fox craze also reveals (pardon my standard screed here) an essential snobbiness to the left these days. The left used to be the people's cause, the Democratic party the people's party. But with the age of disapproving, PC snips, the left became a culture of snobs. Labor ties aside, they look down upon the mall masses. And that's why they don't understand the popularity of Fox and its balls-out opinions. That's why theirs has become a smaller movement. Podhoretz is right, though, to sense a spark of growth in energy if not numbers in the left thanks to George Bush: The left has become the negative side. That used to be the right's job: to resist change, to complain. (Now don't give me hell in my comments and email, you conservative gabsters out there. I know I'm oversimplifying. Let me make my point. And note that I'm agreeing with a conservative columnist here, ferchrissake. Step away from that keyboard!). Now the left is complaining about everything that's wrong and about its enemies, Fox and Bush. That won't get them very far, in elections or in governance. So Podhoretz suggests that they need to come up with a more positive agenda and he's right; it's the best advice the left can get from a sworn enemy. buzzmachine.com

To: JohnM who wrote (6288)	8/30/2003 4:34:25 AM
From: KLP	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793838

Didn't know much about Michael Tomasky..Don't know if you knew this or not...certainly explains his negative remarks about others.... Radical Alternatives on the Eve of the Millennium: The 1997 Socialist Scholars Conference March 28-30, 1997 Borough of Manhattan Community College,New York City soc.qc.edu About the Conference Speakers Co-Sponsors SSC 1998 Vendors and Program Advertisers About This Web Site Full Schedule Friday Night Plenary Saturday Plenaries Sunday Plenaries Tapes Available Each year the Socialist Scholars Conference, the largest non-sectarian gathering of the Left in the United States, attracts between 1500 and 2,000 intellectuals and activists from more than a dozen countries. At one hundred panels, plenaries, and workshops, scholars and militants debate and exchange ideas about struggles around the world and in our communities. Last year's Conference hosted spirited debates on the "end of work" vs. jobs for all; identity politics and the Left's universalism; Cuban economists on market reform; the Million Man March; and the war on drugs. This year panels will discuss changes in the labor movement at the top and bottom; independent politics and NY's race for mayor; struggles for survival and justice in Asia, Africa and Latin America; bringing culture back in; and dozens of others on race, ecology, gender, class, and building a better world. The Socialist Scholars Conference is a great place to renew old acquaintances, meet new comrades, and share ideas. We hope to see you there! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Confirmed Speakers: Barbara Ehrenreich Daniel Singer Bob Wages Stanley Aronowitz Manning Marable Barbara Epstein Sonia Sanchez Stephen Jay Gould Alexander Buzgalin Rep. Bernie Sanders Rep. Major Owens Doug Henwood Ellen Willis Leith Mullings Amy Goodman Aijaz Ahmad Ngugi Wa Thiongo Joel Washington Luciana Castellina David Belkin Istvan Meszaros Allan Nairn Bogdan Denitch Mimi Abramovitz L.A. Kauffman Hector Figueroa David Harvey Harry Magdoff Ellen Willis Carlos Vilas Ruth Sidel Robert Heilbroner Ellen Meiksins Wood Michael Tomasky David Abdulah Alan Sokal Joel Rogers Yoon Young Mo Elaine Bernard Joseph Uehlein Berta Lujan Joseph Buttigieg Meera Nanda Paul Sweezy Leo Panitch