2009 January | buzz twang

Rush Limbaugh: Pied Piper of the GOP

January 30, 2009 by DJ Lanphier

The Conservative media icon is leading his brethren to their demise. Last week on Campbell Brown’s show on CNN, Republican Strategist Ed Rollins was asked about Rush Limbaugh and the perception by the public that the GOP is a “bunch of white guys”, and that Obama won, according to Limbaugh, because he was black, and [...]

green economics is our man on the moon

January 23, 2009 by DJ Lanphier

green economics is our man on the moon: An excerpt from Obama’s inauguration speech that I captured with my phone. It’s actually probably the most important part… the new economy.

gnarled old tree

January 23, 2009 by DJ Lanphier

What I see in NYC. Central Park near the Great Lawn.

obama nation or abomination

January 22, 2009 by DJ Lanphier

Those are the two competing perspectives. It says a lot about where the USA is at, and where it is headed in the days to come It should be said though that those who support the new president are being positive, and forward looking. Those who do not support President Obama are being negative and [...]

Progressive Revolution

January 20, 2009 by DJ Lanphier

Quote of the year: The entire history of American political debate can, in some sense, be described as the argument between the hope of progressives for a better future vs. the fear of conservatives who want to protect the way things are now. Alternet has an excerpt from the new book The Progressive Revolution: How [...]

start your whining early, avoid the long lines

January 19, 2009 by DJ Lanphier

Sure to be the main theme of all right wing intellectual thought the next four years (and beyond) the jingosphere gets to whining early and often so as not to be caught without forks and knives once Obama is duly sworn in. The current completely made up scandal du jour? “What recession? The $170 million [...]

u2 at the lincoln memorial

January 19, 2009 by DJ Lanphier

It was kind of cool to see the boys from Dublin up on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial playing “Pride (in the name of love)” and “City of Blinding Lights” at the pre-inauguration event, televised on HBO. Pretty amazing performance, considering how cold it was… The juxtaposition of a rock band in front of [...]

out with the old…

January 19, 2009 by DJ Lanphier

…in with the new. When an old GOP loyalist and operative like Ed Rollins says that Bush is out of touch, it can pretty much be chalked up to be a harsh truth. A man like Rollins doesn’t bite the hand that feeds him unless presented with pretty extraordinary circumstances. I’d say that the outgoing [...]

do we torture?

January 16, 2009 by DJ Lanphier

There’s a lot of historical revisionism going on with regard to US torture policy. Some go so far as to say we’ve only tortured a handful of people… Let’s get it right… So, I dug up an oldie but goodie… From the Jakeneck Archives in 2005: Of course the US tortures people Admitting that fact [...]

dubya morality syndrome

January 16, 2009 by DJ Lanphier

The term “moral clarity” gets tossed around a lot in political rhetoric, especially from the conservative side, but it’s pretty difficult to find it actually being practiced. It’s as if the very definition of morality has been turned on its head to mean what Bush (and his followers) want it to mean, rather than adhering [...]

the israel and gaza show

January 12, 2009 by DJ Lanphier

(Updated below) One hundred years from now the great lesson of the past 60 years of violence between Palestinian’s and Israeli’s will be brutally simple: violence begets violence. For when that simple truth is forgotten (or ignored), violence becomes the only language that is understood. Violence becomes the dialogue and thus the reason for fighting [...]