Now granted, I’m not one to suggest that Bush is some sinister facist-in-training, but even I have to admit this idea just comes off as being too creepy. Loyalty Day? That has even more bad overtones than the "Department of Homeland Security". Note to Mr. Mehlman and Mr. Rove – this stuff is not the kind of thing you want to be associating the President with. Yes, the idea may be fine, but someone really needs to work on the whole naming thing…
Bush’s Tone Deaf PR
Published
Joseph McCarthy is smiling tonight….from his new address in hell.
Mark,
Are you some kind of stalker?
The world wants to know.
TWC
Stalker?
Is that in reference to my comment about Joseph McCarthy or my frequent presence as a desperately needed agent of dissent here? If it’s the latter, I feel an obligation to offer alternative viewpoints to the Al-Jazeera style editorializing offered here. Perhaps if more people followed my lead and challenged some of 2,394 right-wing talk show hosts who control the “liberal media”, the nation’s current state of narrow-minded and self-serving policymaking would have enough balance to keep us from destroying our state and our country.
Mark,
Thanks for answering my question. You’re a stalker with a grossly misdeveloped sense of proportion.
THIS IS A BLOG! So, if you feel you’ve struck a blow for some twisted version of diversity of opinion by posting – well, good on ya, pallie!
By the way – even if there are 20,000 “right wing talk show hosts” (where on earth do you get that number? That figure yields roughly eight conservative talk show hosts for every talk radio station in existence), talk radio is exactly one medium, and the only one with a conservative majority.
Keep that level of attention to fact up, and the whole WORLD will be like Jay and I!
And what a wonderful world it’ll be!
I wouldn’t have thought my obvious satire would have been wasted on anyone, but let me try to explain it in terms even you may be able to understand. “2,394 right-wing talk show hosts” was never meant to be a specific number relative to a specific medium, but rather a metaphor for the large pool of conservative commentators on radio as well as television and print media who have come to take over political editorializing in recent years. The “liberal media”, if it ever existed, has been completely transformed in the past decade and the loudest voices with the strongest opinions are coming from the conservative side. This is a small and rather inconsequential venue for that worldview, but one that I have the capacity to challenge and do so. Ideally, every other venue offering one-dimensional conservative rhetoric would be taken on in the same way that I am taking it on here.
Your final statements do an excellent job of your personal weakness of character and the weakness of character inherent among those who worship at the shrine of other people’s viewpoints rather than forge their own. You align yourself completely with one person’s values and profess to monopolize the truth through your “ditto to what Jay said” platitudes. Then you go on to infer that the world would be a better place if everyone was a pitiful follower like yourself, embracing a single set of conservative values that were crafted by someone else and never challenging their legitimacy.
I will, however, applaud you for coming up with a new method of muting dissent. By challenging conservatives perceived monopoly of the truth in current times, liberals and moderates have been called unpatriotic, traitors, and Saddam-lovers, but never “stalkers”. That may very well have been the most original thought you are capable of, so we should all savor it.
Hello All,
just going back to “loyalty day”, there is one sentence of the article I really like:
“I also call upon government officials to display the flag of the United States on all government buildings on Loyalty Day”
If Mr Bush went down any street in the US, he would notice that it’s already displayed everyday of the year, on every house, building, or anything else that fits!!
but that’s not a reason to call him a nationalist.
god bless america
Mark,
When you’re done typing, can I see the stigmata on the palms of your hands?
Sheesh, put it in your pants, lil’ fella. Nobody’s “stifling liberal dissent”. I have demonstrably more respect for reasoned liberal dissent than anyone you’re likely to meet – I’m a former liberal!
Where do I “align myself with Jay’s values”? I’m not agreeing or disagreeing with him. As to everyone being a “pitiful follower like myself” – jeez, relax, lil’ buddy. It’s not that important. Because…
…all I’m doing is pointing out the complete self-inflated comedy of a guy who posts endless comments on a blog thinking he’s striking some great blow for freedom of thought. You should take your skull-crushing wisdom to a bigger forum, Mark!
Today “Jayreding.com”, tomorrow the world!
But no – maybe this IS your niche. Your life’s work. Your calling. To “correct” a conservative blog in Minnesota. It’s a little job, but dammit, it’s YOUR job! And you’ll do it every stu-damned day, dadgummit!
It puts a lump in my throat.
Where do you align yourself with Jay’s values. Hmmm…let’s see. “Keep that level of attention to fact up and the whole WORLD will be like Jay and I…and what a wonderful world that would be!” You know, as I read that statement again, it is rather ambiguous. I shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions about a statement that the whole world being like you and Jay as being any sort of alignment with his values. Clearly you could have meant that the whole world would be like you and Jay since you’re both magicians…or mountain climbers…or Libras….or shuffleboard coaches. It could have meant any number of things other than identical political viewpoints…but it just so happened on a political message board within the context of a debate about political issues.
And as far as my dissenting comments being so inconsequential, you sure seem to know an awful lot about them. If I am to be branded pathetic for posting replies to one person’s editorials, how low must you be for reading them all?
I guess ridiculing other people’s beliefs is a far cry easier than representing your own. Your first appearance on this board (at least since I’ve started posting) is not related to an issue of pressing importance to you. It’s not to take a stand on something either supporting or refuting what Jay said. It was to accuse someone else of being a stalker for expressing their views. Many people would be effectively silenced by such a cowardly act, but I’m not one of them. If you are to do it to any or all dissenting voices that may emerge on this board in the future, your bully tactics may work.
Congratulations. Democracy is worse off for having known you.
I think I heard the trumpets in the distance.
I do, in fact, put my opinions forth in a forum similar to this. Who knows – perhaps you’ve been there.
I have absolutely zero interest in “silencing” you, or anyone else. I’d fight to the death to protect your right to speak (which is more than 90% of liberals would do in return). I’m just puzzled by your seeming obsession with “correcting” Jay Reding. Seems…unseemly.
Carry on.
C’mon TWC is this really necessary. If it weren’t for Mark there would be almost no dialouge whatsoever here. Jay should almost be thanking him for making his site more interesting. If you find his dissent so disturbing you do not have to read it.
Who says I find it disturbing? I just find it funny.
Comment away, Mark!