O’REILLY: Okay, now he shows up on Saturday at the most hateful - there is not — and I’m including the Nazis and the Klan in here — there is not a more hateful group in the country than these Daily Kos people . . . Hateful, hateful, hateful. The rhetoric that they use and the rhetoric that the Klan and the Nazis use are the same rhetoric. It’s hate. Everyone knows that.
Note: Blow Riley asked me if I would post this for him, and since I didn't have another diary planned for today, I agreed. Evidently, he attended NN'08 in Austin, and was so excited by what he saw there that he immediately registered on Daily Kos. When he found out he'd have to wait a week before he could submit a diary, he got frantic. I figured posting this was the least I could do for him. From the looks of it, it seems like The Bill O'Viator had a somewhat different experience than the rest of us had. But let's let him tell it in his own words and pictures, shall we? - o.h.
NOTE: CONTAINS GRAPHIC IMAGES WHICH MAY SHOCK SOME READERS.
While it's fresh in everyone's mind, I thought it would be worthwhile for those who attended Netroots Nation - and even those who didn't - to toss in their $.02 about what was good, what was great, and what can be done to improve the convention next year.
Well, Adam B just beat me to it, so I'm scratching the "suggestions" part of the diary (I've instead posted that as an extra-long comment in his thread) - but let's have some fun with the trivial, insubstantial, juicy, scandalous time-wasting gossipy stuff from NN'08, shall we? Please, feel free to dish on whomever and whatever in the comments . . . - o.h.
Nancy Pelosi landed in hostile territory here in Austin, and made her way to the lectern greeted not by flowers and little Bosnian girls, but by Gina Cooper and a list of pointed questions.
No body armor, circling Black Hawks or evasive maneuvers.
UPDATE:Okay, Nancy, the cavalry's here. You can relax. Al Gore just came onstage. Well played, too: In a Giuliani-esque bit of stagecraft, Pelosi looked to her Blackberry, and started to "read aloud" an "e-mail" from a friend, when Gore's recorded voice came over the convention center's speakers, whereupon he strode out onto the stage. Nicely done, nicely done.
And, more to the point - Pelosi's question period is done, I think. We'll see . . .
Not much to report here. During a police car chase the other day, the car being driven by the suspect struck and killed two as-yet unidentified people on Hollywood Boulevard here in L.A.
It turns out that the man police arrested for driving the fleeing car is an ex-Marine who served in Afghanistan. His sister says his experiences during the war changed him.
Don't ask me how, but somehow John McCain found out that DemocraticLuntz was looking for people to round out his team for this year's Netroots Nation Pub Quiz.
. . . all I got left is cynicism, snark and recycled outrage.
See, it was easy back in '06 - when things were soooo bad. I mean, outrage was running, what – buck-and-a-quarter, maybe six bits a gallon back then, right? I was livin’ large, drivin' the Escalade of outrage – we all were. And it was easy back then to figure out who our collective outrage should be aimed at:
Those filthy, nasty Republicans
- who, after all, were actually running things, so blaming everything on them was totally legitimate.
And I was committed to taking Congress away from those cretinous bastards so we could put a stop to the occupation of Iraq, and to warrantless wiretapping of Americans, and to the whole idea of the President as king. You know, like we did 230 years ago, right?
Madame Speaker, inasmuch as you have elected not to pursue impeachment against any member of the current administration for anything whatsoever, in spite of significant evidence of malfeasance, one can only assume that, in your estimation, the activities of the current administration do not - whether individually or collectively - rise to the level of "impeachable offenses." Can you, then, so that we will know precisely what to look for in the future, please detail for the American public exactly - exactly - what constitutes impeachable offenses?
How cool is that? Netroots Nation is featuring an "Ask the Speaker" forum, wherein attendees can submit ideas for questions to be asked of Madame Speaker at next week's events! Awesome!
I can assure you that the diary I was going to post today was a treasure of erudition, snark and insight, and would have redirected the political discourse in this nation to a higher plane. But screw that – I’ll post it tonight. This is more important:
So Former Naval POW John McCain walks into the American Presidential audition room and proceeds to shuck and jive through his entire schtick, twirling his POW flag around while telling you that he's not, and trying to convince America to vote for him because everybody tells him he'd be a swell president.
Gen. Wesley Clark, sitting in Simon Cowell's chair, can't take any more and raises his hand to stop the music.
"You're a terrific juggler," Gen. Clark says, "but
Well, after the Supreme Court’s stellar 5-4 decision today in D.C. v. Heller(PDF file), I am saving all my pennies for the day when Antonin Scalia decrees that I can legally possess a TOW missile – because, as his majority opinion makes clear, he gets to decide what weaponry I get to own.
While I must say I'm mildly encouraged by Russ Feingold's rather circumspect hinting that he might maybe sorta filibuster the current FISA billnever mind - there's a possibility that the Senate won't even get to the bill before the recess - BUT WHATEVER: I still think we need to be prepared in case this steaming turd passes. And - entrenched as I firmly am in the when-it's-inevitable-you-might-as-well-enjoy-it camp - I figure we should try to make the best of what will otherwise be a bad situation. To wit:
It’s the 1970s all over again! I swear to god, I just saw David Frost – or was that Dick Cavett; no, no, I’m sure it was David Frost – interviewing Richard Nixon – or was that Rahm Emanuel; no, no, I’m pretty sure that was Richard Nixon, ‘cause listen to what he just said:
When the president does it that means that it is not illegal.
Some of you with memories longer than a fruit fly’s may recall that, oh, last week (and, for that matter, every week since September 11, 2001), every right-wing neocon legislator screamshow host Supreme Court justice BushCheney clone was fulminating about how Islamofashionists posed an imminent threat to your personal safety and that of your children and dog.
The guy behind the ultra-successful marketing campaign known as "IRAQ HAS WMDs!!!! IRAQ HAS MOBILE WEAPONS LABS!!!!" believes he should have been better-rewarded for his efforts.
In a series of interviews with Los Angeles Times reporters John Goetz and Bob Drogin, the Iraqi Intelligence Salesman Formerly Known As Curveball whined about how he isn’t appreciated in his own time.
The guy has a point. I mean, when you think about how much money has been made by leveraging the dubious-at-best assertions made by a guy who graduated with a D average from university – and, just to be clear, I’m talking about Curveball here, not any leaders of the free world – you’d think someone, somewhere could’ve seen fit to at least throw the guy a half a pallet or so of shrink-wrapped $100 bills, right?
Sunday is Fathers’ Day. I know, I know, it might be a cooked-up holiday and all (or maybe not), but I still buy into it, a little. So yes, I still have the construction-paper necktie that my older daughter made when she was 5 (the one with her photo in the middle of it and the string from which you hang it on your neck), and the little origami "box" with the goodies inside made by my younger daughter a few years later (now minus the goodies, of course), and all the cards, homemade and store-bought before and since.
And it’s not just my relationship with my own children that chokes me up on Fathers’ Day – I also get a lump in my throat when I think about my late father.
