This might be my favorite comment ever. Such excellent use of sarcasm!:
Good. This blog should be hard. It should make you think.
I'm not here asking you to agree with me. Frankly, I could care less if you agree with me. I'm not a wingnut from suburban Milwaukee, trying to start a revolution. I'm not some moonbat from the Isthmus, trying desperately to save the world from itself. I'm trying to get you to do the one thing that absolutely terrifies politicians: think for yourself.
Be smart. Read books. Turn of that damn talk radio already - it's just filled with people who want to tell you what to think. Argue intelligently. Listen carefully, even to arguments that make your skin crawl. Go see "An Inconvenient Truth" even if you can't stand Al Gore and think you'll disagree with 95% of what you hear. Throw on your hemp sandals and walk out to the porch with your green tea to read Ann Coulter. For the love of God, just get the hell out of your comfort zone once in awhile. The Cheddarsphere is filled with a lot of political blogging that amounts to little more than support group ranting, people who want a bunch of praise from people who already agree with everything they say. Don't be that blogger.
If politics is short on one thing, it's intelligent people who think for themselves. Instead, we get hacks in leadership that want to sell everyone on the message of team; that politics is some kind of sport by which we define success based on the number of seats we pick up. For anyone who talks that way, I've got a swift kick in the nuts for you, if you can still find yours. Yours is the philosophy that has turned politics into a corrupt and hopeless hell. People win when government finds real solutions to real problems, not solutions to bullshit, made-up problems like flag burning and gay marriage solely designed to trick a bunch of rural evangelicals with a high school education into voting against their own economic interests. But I digress.
If I don't make you think occasionally, them I'm just another one of those half-assed spinmeisters or thought-free bloggers that swallows everything their party or Charlie Sykes or Air America tells them to. I have nothing against guys like Xoff and Brian Fraley, but do we really need a bunch of inarticulate, armchair wannabe pundits out here on the internet? More original thought, less partisan hackery, please.
And with that, I'll entertain a question:
Short answer: not really. When I vote, it's usually a matter of choosing better over worse. I write in a lot of candidates. As I told one person a few days ago, I've volunteered for Ron Greer and voted for Tammy Baldwin, and I don't think it's the least bit inconsistent. Ponder that for awhile.
Long answer: When I look at politics (and for that matter, most politicians), I mostly see a bunch of clowns who desperately are looking for that handful of smart people who will tell them what to do, what to say, and how to get re-elected. If the Republicans and the Democrats in the legislature seem pretty aimless right now, it's probably because their fearless leaders are all being sent to the hole for trying to save the sorry asses of the mindless masses who exist just to push the right colored button.
But here are 20 public officials that I respect. I'm not saying this is my top 20. It's just 20 that came to mind right now. I could name more, but 20 should suffice.
I'm not going to tell you what I admire them for, and by listing them, I'm not suggesting that they're perfect. Many of them are pretty imperfect. I will say, however, that if you locked these 20 people in a room for a week and asked them to solve the world's problems, they'd probably emerge with some pretty brilliant ideas.
With that, have a good weekend. And to those of you going to Summerfest tonight, I don't know how it is that you're supposed to choose between Styx and Cheap Trick at 10 p.m. Talk about a tough decision! I'm sure the legislature is forming a special select committee to figure this out for itself. It'll convene for 18 months and come up with a solution that nobody likes.
Please pick a label and stick with it so that we know whether to like you or hate you. It's confusing and frightening for us to have to consider individual issues and people on their own merits. I need to know what you think of something before you tell me what you think of it. Otherwise, what's the point of even listening to you?
This blog is too hard.
Good. This blog should be hard. It should make you think.
I'm not here asking you to agree with me. Frankly, I could care less if you agree with me. I'm not a wingnut from suburban Milwaukee, trying to start a revolution. I'm not some moonbat from the Isthmus, trying desperately to save the world from itself. I'm trying to get you to do the one thing that absolutely terrifies politicians: think for yourself.
Be smart. Read books. Turn of that damn talk radio already - it's just filled with people who want to tell you what to think. Argue intelligently. Listen carefully, even to arguments that make your skin crawl. Go see "An Inconvenient Truth" even if you can't stand Al Gore and think you'll disagree with 95% of what you hear. Throw on your hemp sandals and walk out to the porch with your green tea to read Ann Coulter. For the love of God, just get the hell out of your comfort zone once in awhile. The Cheddarsphere is filled with a lot of political blogging that amounts to little more than support group ranting, people who want a bunch of praise from people who already agree with everything they say. Don't be that blogger.
If politics is short on one thing, it's intelligent people who think for themselves. Instead, we get hacks in leadership that want to sell everyone on the message of team; that politics is some kind of sport by which we define success based on the number of seats we pick up. For anyone who talks that way, I've got a swift kick in the nuts for you, if you can still find yours. Yours is the philosophy that has turned politics into a corrupt and hopeless hell. People win when government finds real solutions to real problems, not solutions to bullshit, made-up problems like flag burning and gay marriage solely designed to trick a bunch of rural evangelicals with a high school education into voting against their own economic interests. But I digress.
If I don't make you think occasionally, them I'm just another one of those half-assed spinmeisters or thought-free bloggers that swallows everything their party or Charlie Sykes or Air America tells them to. I have nothing against guys like Xoff and Brian Fraley, but do we really need a bunch of inarticulate, armchair wannabe pundits out here on the internet? More original thought, less partisan hackery, please.
And with that, I'll entertain a question:
Is there one, just one politician that kind of represents what you believe in?
Short answer: not really. When I vote, it's usually a matter of choosing better over worse. I write in a lot of candidates. As I told one person a few days ago, I've volunteered for Ron Greer and voted for Tammy Baldwin, and I don't think it's the least bit inconsistent. Ponder that for awhile.
Long answer: When I look at politics (and for that matter, most politicians), I mostly see a bunch of clowns who desperately are looking for that handful of smart people who will tell them what to do, what to say, and how to get re-elected. If the Republicans and the Democrats in the legislature seem pretty aimless right now, it's probably because their fearless leaders are all being sent to the hole for trying to save the sorry asses of the mindless masses who exist just to push the right colored button.
But here are 20 public officials that I respect. I'm not saying this is my top 20. It's just 20 that came to mind right now. I could name more, but 20 should suffice.
I'm not going to tell you what I admire them for, and by listing them, I'm not suggesting that they're perfect. Many of them are pretty imperfect. I will say, however, that if you locked these 20 people in a room for a week and asked them to solve the world's problems, they'd probably emerge with some pretty brilliant ideas.
- Dick Armey
- Tammy Baldwin
- George H.W. Bush
- Tom Campbell
- Chuck Chvala
- Bill Clinton
- Hillary Clinton
- Kathy Falk
- Russ Feingold
- Patrick Fitzgerald
- Newt Gingrich
- Rudy Giuliani
- Stephen Harper
- Scott Jensen
- John McCain
- John Norquist
- Colin Powell
- Paul Ryan
- Paul Soglin
- Eliot Spitzer
With that, have a good weekend. And to those of you going to Summerfest tonight, I don't know how it is that you're supposed to choose between Styx and Cheap Trick at 10 p.m. Talk about a tough decision! I'm sure the legislature is forming a special select committee to figure this out for itself. It'll convene for 18 months and come up with a solution that nobody likes.
14 comments:
Interesting response... I guess I can appreciate your respect for all of those folks as people. That's cool, I have liberal folks that I like and respect (Juan Williams is one who comes to mind, Pedro Colon close to home for another) but disagree with. But you still are not getting what I am asking...
Let me try it this way. If the Legislature is aimless as you said in this post (and I agree) the question is what should they aim FOR. You have no targets, except don't be too conservative or you are a nut, don't be too liberal or you are a nut. What issue does an alleged free thinker such as yourself actually believe in? This whole blog is about tearing down people who have the balls to say they believe strongly in something.
I also agree with you that calling GOPers who don't tow the line on everything RINO is sometimes counterproductive. (Mickey Lehman excepted, no surprise he is now working for the agency that collects taxes.)
Anyhow... just my last word on this- try to every once and awhile be FOR something, not always AGAINST everything.
I hope you chose Cheap Trick. Styx without Dennis DeYoung is like the house GOP without Gingrich and Armey. Sorta the same, but no, not really.
Not to say those that are on stage are bad, but they are missing a good front man.
For one who advocates "independent thinking," your list of down-the-middle centrist Herd members is ironic.
Off the top, I can't find ANY of them who would forcefully advocate less Government and more National Interest.
Yeah, I'm sure that Dick Armey and Tammy Baldwin would find lots to agree on. Nevermind that Tom Campbell was probably the most libertarian-leaning member of the Republican congressional caucus in the last 20 years. And it's good to know that Paul Ryan is too moderate for you. Perhaps you can run Attila the Hun against him in the primary.
If you think that's a list of "down-the-middle centrist Herd members" it either proves that you're a nutjob extremist or just an idiot. Step up, pick your label, and wear it proudly.
Right on, Brian. Cheap Trick would be the correct answer.
I've seen Dennis DeYoung before with his own band. DeYoung without Styx sounds way more like the real deal than Styx without DeYoung.
Cheap Trick was very good last night. Great thing about a glorified bar band is that their live shows have a great feel because that's what they do. No highly produced tracks from those guys.
And, damn this is pathetic. Styx was the first concernt I went to. 1982 or 1983. At the Arena. Gulp...Kilroy was Here tour.
Domo Arigato, Mr. Supervisor.
Domo.
To the first commenter... if you'd read through the archives, you'd see that I'm for lots of things. Things like...
Loyalty - 11/11/05
Coupon clipping - 11/14/05
Dave Magnum getting a clue - 11/15/05
Not letting religious nuts set textbook standards - 11/24/05
Mark Belling explaining his campaign contributions to Mark Meyer - 12/1/05
MILFs - 12/2/05
Legal rights to privacy - 12/5/05
Abolishing the death penalty - 12/12/05
Legislators behaving responsibly on the floor - 12/14/05
Charitable giving - 12/31/05
Coherent, intelligent press releases - 1/5/06
Wisconsin being less boring - 1/9/06
Farmers paying their fair share of property taxes - 1/11/06
School choice - 1/16/06
Steve Nass being less of a media whore and hypocrite - 1/20/06
Legislators who don't scam the per diem system - 2/8/06
Substantive and comprehensive health care reform - 2/21/06
Telling the truth about the medical malpractice "crisis" - 3/8/06
Acknowledging that the smartest people in the Legislature have to draft the stupidest bills - 3/9/06
Scott Jensen - 3/14/06
Lazy legislators giving back their committees if they don't actually do anything - 3/25/06
GOP self-awareness - 4/7/06
Legislators realizing they are the ones with ethical issues, not staff - 5/2/06
Truth in polling - 5/3/06
Collecting taxes that are owed to the government - 5/27/06
Reasonable restrictions on firearms purchases - 5/31/06
Rational, thoughtful discussions of race issues - 6/2/06
Practical policies on stem cell research - 6/10/06
Democrats calling Republicans out when they try to hide behind the flag - 7/3/06
See, I'm for lots of things. But above all, I'm for reasonable and practical policymaking that recognizes the importance of compromise in actually developing solutions to problems. Extremists on the right and left bitch and scream like little babies, but those who recognize the importance of making the deal are the ones who actually get things done.
Tom Campbell? Can you spell RON PAUL?
Tammy and Dick Armey are outliers in your group.
And since when is small Government and the national interest "nutjob" or "extremist?" Seems more like the Founding Fathers' ideology to me.
So accept your poison--looks like you're an Elitist Leviathan Globaloney party member...
I'll stick with the fringe nutjobs, thanks.
Glad to see you're using the off summer to write more, RS.
Funny thing about centrism is that when you take away the red-meat kabuki performances (conscience clause, concealed carry), the job of governing starts to look a lot easier. Makes you wonder why it is that we need a full-time legislature.
I agree with you on Scott Jensen-the man had a vision for success, a positive forward thinking outlook. The current Speaker John Gard is the Phil Bengston to Jensen's Vince Lombardi. Great defensive mind- he was a pitball as Joint Finance Chair, but lacks creativity or spark he is now Speaker of the Same Time, Next Year Caucus.
I was disappointed that Mark Gundrum wasn't included. He has a bright mind, media smart, able to pick hot issues and a nice guy. A Mark Gundrum/Kitty Rhodes as majority leader combo would great. Kitty is tough as nails and able to always close the deal. Mike Huebsch? Nice guy, but he is the Scooter McLean of the Assembly- he will lose a bunch of seats and still smile. Scooter was 1-10 as the Packers coach before Vince Lombardi.
Having worked in politics for a number of years, the observations that the recess supervisor puts out are really not that impressive. Certainly a bright guy, but one who would rather lob personal bombs from an anonymous seat from Senate gallery.
I have yet to see any specific recommendations on issues, any real solutions. Obviously privvy to inside information, you would think a solution every now and then would appear. But then again - we don't really get than many solutions from his boss. Pontification - yes. Soultions - no.
Stephen Harper? Completely packaged politician, with his head up Dubya's butt. Successfully exploited the sponsorship scandal and muddied Paul Martin. He thinks he's Jack Kennedy. He's not even Dan Quayle.
Playground Politics shouldn't be Issue & Answers-its a blog not the CATO/Reason Foundation/Heritage Foundation policy forum. Its about thinking and maybe a laugh or two. Perhaps Mr. 9:15 AM policy wonk could do a blog with their solutions. Isn't that the great part of the internet-different values and views. I am sure that you are the person in the meetings who is always putting further brightest ideas and not saying its for the team-its ok.
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