The Devil's Advocate

For Frank Luntz, 'devil's advocate' isn't a figure of speech. It's probably what it says on his business card. This malignant greaseball is what the media call a spin doctor - the guy who invents rhetorical cattle prods to point the mooing public in his clients' preferred direction.

Luntz came up with 'climate change' instead of 'global warming' to make the public give less of a sh*t. He also advised wingnuts to excise the term 'public option' and go with the more scary 'government option' at the height of the healthcare reform debate.

Now Luntz admits he's "frightened to death" of OWS and its effects on the public's perception of capitalism. To help out the "capitalists", he's advising new spin terms. From now on, 'taxing the rich' will be called 'taking from hardworking Americans' and the fat bonuses the greedy pr*cks on Wall Street award themselves will be known as 'pay for performance'.

If Luntz gets his way and his retooled terms enter the mainstream, public sympathy for OWS may decline because we really aren't that smart. But are we really dumb enough to fall for this? really..?

More Pretty Words

Obama gives a stirring speech in support of the beleaguered middle class:

"I believe that this country succeeds when everyone gets a fair shot, when everyone does their fair share, and when everyone plays by the same rules ... Those aren’t Democratic or Republican values; 1% values or 99% values. They’re American values, and we have to reclaim them."

With OWS in full swing, more people than ever are becoming aware of America's grotesque economic inequalities and looking for solutions. But what's Obama's big plan? Where's the "in conclusion" part of the speech where he details ideas to tackle the crisis? As usual... nowhere. For progressives, Obama continues to be the presidential equivalent of a pr*ck tease: all rhetorical foreplay, no action. Ever.

I'll own the error just like any honest lefty... I backed a loser in '08 and have spent the last four years wishing I hadn't hated Hillary. We were suckered by candidate Obama's pretty words and we've been stuck with an inspirer-in-chief instead of a commander ever since. This wounded country doesn't need a motivational speaker to gin us up. It needs a f*cking leader to bully and corral Washington, push solutions and get something done.

Bye Bye "Hermain"

Rather hilariously, TV Newser misspells Cain's name one last time for old time's sake. But still not as funny as Cain's own campaign misspelling 'Herman' on their (now corrected and redundant) site...

Coulter Pwned By Liberal Media

"OK, Ann... tuck that wiener in a bit more and... smile."

Gotta almost feel bad for Ann Coulter. First, MSNBC bleeps him when he refers to John McCain as a douchebag (really MSNBC? The word 'douchebag' could almost have been invented for John McCain... why the bleep?). Then Big Keith refers to Coulter himself as an "asshole" in full, un-bleeped glory on Countdown. That's gotta sting...

Cognitive Dissonance? Oops...

Got myself in a lot of trouble dropping that phrase into a comment thread about OWS the other day. Apparently, 'cognitive dissonance' is an annoying term to a wingnut because they have to Google it to find out what it means before denouncing it as a "trendy leftwing buzzword". Hmm... so that's how it works these days? We don't argue substance, we don't discuss the actual issues, we just denounce words? George Orwell's 1984 needs a re-write.

Let's see more of this crap in action...

So USA Today has a story about young entrepreneurs who've opted to start businesses instead of trying to get employed in today's non-hiring economy. Good for them, I said. But with one caveat:

It's great that more young people are starting up businesses, but the implication of the story - that this is what 'smart people' should be doing rather than trying to get jobs - is offensive and stupid. Working people are one half of the capitalist equation: they are the real wealth creators who make entrepreneurs wealthy by producing and buying the stuff they make.

I thought it was a reasonable point to make but... no. See, them RW folks now believe "no-one owes anyone a job" and that starting your own business is the only way to go. Wow. We've reached a point where the rather modest expectation that you can graduate from college and get yourself a job is now viewed as an "entitlement" with all the negative implications the word now carries for the RW?

You might think my argument might be pretty sound:

1) Businesses need employees to make stuff
2) Businesses need customers to buy the stuff
3) Employees and customers are the same damn people

But no. In our crazy Ayn Rand/Ron Paul world of high-fallutin', small-minded nonsense, businesses are supposed to somehow thrive without 'greedy employees' and without a market. I'm still waiting for a conservative to explain how their capitalist equivalent of the immaculate conception works... though I'll probably be waiting a long time.