GOP Bloggers… oh, and the Attorney General

13th June 2007

GOP Bloggers… oh, and the Attorney General

posted in Politics by themaiden |

Why is it that so many right wing blogs go for names that ring of ‘bossy’, ‘dogmatic’, ‘go tell it on the mountain’, and just plain ‘arrogant’? Take, for example, The Cold Hearted Truth, Great Minds Think Right, The Right Stuff, Obviously Right (Because we’re Right, obviously), and The Bull Speaks. Doesn’t this violate the dictum that the comedian not laugh at his own jokes? I mean, if you’ve got to tell people right in the headline that you are right about being right and trump up the truthiness of your ‘truths’ by telling everyone that those truths are true, then maybe you just aren’t as right about it as you think? Could be? Maybe?

You don’t see those kinds of gung-ho, chest beating blog titles at the Independent Bloggers Alliance or at Liberal Oasis. You find some tongue-in-cheek there. You find some ’shock value’. But little of this ‘I’m a great big silverback hear me roar’ nonsense.

So what is it?

What is it, while I’m at it, with the bathroom humor? And the juvenile attempts at sarcasm? And the sexual innuendo?

Perhaps they could subpoena the restroom attendant to see how many time Alberto takes a crap in a normal day? Perhaps they can call the local deli workers in for testimony on whether or not the Attorney General sticks to a balanced diet? Maybe they can confinscate his hard drive to see if he has been surfing for porn or god forbid reading Foxnews online?

Coldheartedtruth - GOP block vote of “no confidence” on Alberto Gonzales

And the name-calling?

Fortunately, there isn’t enough Demoncrats in the Senate to muster enough support for the bill to pass.

Republicans stop Dems dead in their tracks

Ironically, this last quote comes from a site with a tag line that reads “Everyone has their own opinion– these are ours, please respect them and we’ll respect yours”. Hmmm… ? Something doesn’t add up.

Sigh…

But on to the attorney general. The GOP blocked “the Senate’s no-confidence vote on Attorney General Alberto Gonzales…” Practically speaking, this is no real loss. As the article notes, “Congress has no authority to oust a Cabinet member” other than by impeachment. This debate was fluff anyway, which is annoying in itself. In other words, either way…

Bush and Gonzales could care less.

No Confidence

What is disturbing though is the respect that Bush and Gonzales have shown for the mechanisms of government.

“They can have their votes of no confidence, but it’s not going to make the determination about who serves in my government,” Bush said in Sofia, Bulgaria, the last stop on a weeklong visit to Europe.
….
“I am not focusing on what the Senate is doing,” Gonzales said at a nuclear terrorism conference in Miami. “I am going to be focusing on what the American people expect of the attorney general of the United States and this great Department of Justice.”

GOP blocks Gonzales no-confidence vote

Translation: “I spit on the will of the American people. What do their wishes mean to me? Nothing.”

Bush, peculiarly, thinks the government belongs to him while Gonzales has a case of ‘head in the sand’. Sorry Mr. President, the government belongs to the people and by extension so do you. And Gonzales, you can’t possibly believe that you are doing what the “American people expect of the attorney general…”

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 13th, 2007 at 6:56 pm and is filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

1 On June 13th, 2007, Wally Lind said:

A pox on both of your houses!

2 On June 13th, 2007, themaiden said:

Ummm… Ok, Wally. Now what does that mean?

3 On June 14th, 2007, JR said:

A lot of it seems to be the authoritative personalities of conservatives, in terms of respect for the rule of law and its checks and balances. In terms of the right-wing blogs however, they’ve tried to extend right-wing radio onto the internet and are failing badly. You can fact-check someone in seconds in the internet. They don’t get the significance of that yet, but congresional republicans do, as they are on record as more or less ignoring the right-wing blogs as anything other than a propaganda arm.

One thing I’ve found is that when conservatives complain about the lack of a level playing field, what they are really complaining about is the level playing field themselves. When they complain about phantom liberal bias, what they are really complaining about is the lack of conservative bias. But arguing that things like Medicare and Social Security are bad for the country is at best nothing more than a campaign slogan. Once they’re in office their constituents expect them to bring home the bacon, and they do. So when the fail, as they inevitably do, it’s not conserva tism that failed, but conservatives. Thus Bush is not a ‘real’ conservative.

Finally, it’s a sense of tribalism within the republican party. The studies are interesting. People who grow up dependent, insecure and with a tendency blindly follow a leader, any leader, almost always end up republican. It all adds up to a puzzle of hypocritical hypocondriacs.

4 On June 14th, 2007, themaiden said:

JR,

Truly great analysis.

I am very pleased that you have decided to visit this blog so often.

The politicians might ignore the right-wing blogs, but I’d bet that the secretly appreciate the propaganda so long as the deniability is maintained.

5 On June 14th, 2007, Friendly Neighborhood DJ said:

JR–

Very well put. However, while right-wing politicians likely do view winger blogs as mere propaganda organs, they aren’t going to ignore them as such anymore. Witness the new directives for “getting the message out.”

No longer are they to go through the media or any other traditional route. Now, they merely send their talking points to friendly bloggers, who will dutifully distribute those talking points (also, wingers are supposed to create fake viral campaigns behind those talking points).

Concurrently, they are supposed to paint liberal blogs as illegitimate and unworthy of respect, whereas conservative blogs are to be portrayed as paragons of honesty, virtue, intellectual rigor, and profound thought (and hey, these bastions of brilliance just so happen to align exactly with GOP talking points–who woulda thunk it?).

As to your second point, the best statement I’ve seen on that subject is a simple question: “When’t the last time you ever heard a conservative argue for diversity or equality and not mean himself?”

And finally, “Demoncrat” is so passe. All good wingers know that the preferred term is “Dhimmicrat,” and their leader in the House is Nancy Peloshiite. Sheesh.

6 On June 14th, 2007, JR said:

I’ve seen it, and there’s nothing in there they haven’t already been doing for the past s everal years. It doesn’t change the fact that they can easily be proven wrong, and readers can view a liberal site with no effort at all. Identical talking points on multiple conservative blogs will look as ridiculous as the form letters to the FCC by James Dobson’s group. It won’t work. Trying to be a propaganda machine does not work in the age of google, lexis-nexus and cached webites. That’s why they’re running around screaming liberal bias on sites like youtube and wikipedia. Both sites show conservatives making asses of themselves and require facts to back up entries. So they claim liberal bias as an excuse to create Conservapedia and Qubetv, lest their readers stumble across a counter-argument or, god forbid, the truth. Until they start addressing issues in an intellectually honest manner on their websites they’re gonna continue being the laughing stock of the web. But they can’t, because their current gameplan is built on nothing but slogans and lies.

7 On June 15th, 2007, Deep Thought said:

So you aren’t aware of places like Brutal Truth, The Naked Truth, the Thinkery, the Adventures of the Smart Patrol, Big Swinging Blog, all Liberal? And why are there so, so MANY Liberal blogs with ‘angry’, ‘mad’, ‘rant’, etc. in their blog titles? Or curse words ranging from your own to Bitch, PhD? Why are so many Liberal commenters so angrily-named?

And before you go off, please go to my page and read *why* I chose ‘Deep Thought’ as a screen name.

8 On June 15th, 2007, themaiden said:

Deep Thought,

I am aware of some liberal blogs with similar titles to the right-wing blogs I mentioned, but it is a matter of scale. It seems to me that far more Right Wing bloggers than left pick the kinds of titles I described. It is fine, really. They can pick the titles they want, but I do think it reveals something about the participants. You probably think that left leaning blog titles reveal something about the left. Sure, they probably do.

Why you mention “Big Swinging Blog” I’m not sure. It doesn’t seem to apply. And “Adventures in the Smart Patrol” sounds like a cartoon, so I’m not sure about that one either, but that is interpretation. I also didn’t complain about things like “angry”, “mad”, or “rant”, so those are superfluous. You may object to those things. I don’t. I also didn’t complain about such sites as “Xtreme Right Wing” which is cleanly descriptive and its meta-description “Scratching the Rash of Liberalism” is actually kinda cute.

As for curse words, not an issue for me. I do feel the need to point out that when “hell” refers to the mythological place of fiery torment, it isn’t profanity any more than it is profanity for a preacher to say that “God will damn you to hell for your sins.”

I didn’t mention you in the list, Deep Thought. I kind of assumed your blog title was a “Hitchhiker” reference. Turns out I was right, now that I’ve checked.

9 On June 15th, 2007, Deep Thought said:

Well, you’re making my point for me. I live in Atlanta; do you know how many stores around here have ‘Dixie’ in the title? Dixie Supply was founded by two Bengalis; Dixie Beverage is owned by a group of investors from New York; etc. I would never dare ascribe seccessionist or racist tendencies to a store in the South just because it was Dixie Something. I think it is easy to read a lot into the various names, etc. associated with blogs, but I doubt it means much. Sorry, but if you want to point to the Right and say ‘Well, those blog names sure do look like they are insecure!’ you have to also say ‘and the Left looks awfully neurotic’. I just don’t buy either.

10 On June 15th, 2007, themaiden said:

Deep Thought,

I’m not sure how you think I’m making your point for you.

In the South– I grew up in Texas, which almost counts– “Dixie” is pretty ubiquitous. I wouldn’t ascribe much to it either. It more or less just means “South” or “Southern”. Nor would I ascribe much to most occurrences of things like the Confederate flag. If that flag was hanging next to a sign for “Kody’s Kar Kare” I’d start to wonder, though.

You chose your blog’s name for a reason. So did I. You can’t go too far with the inferences but it is not unreasonable to think that people put some thought into the title of their blogs. Conversely, it isn’t unreasonable to think that that title in some way reflects the personality(s) behind the blog. If I named a blog “Jesus Hating Atheist” I’m pretty sure you’d draw some conclusions about the blog and the blogger. I’m not sure what is controversial about that idea.

11 On June 21st, 2007, Deep Thought said:

But you are trying to take the specific and streeeeeetch it to cover the general. Sure, the guy in downtown Kennesaw, Georgia with the Flags of the Army of Northern Virginia, the ‘the South shall Rise Again’ stickers in the window, the books talking about the crimes of the NAACP, and the DVDs of “Birth of a Nation” on sale for $1 is, probably, a bit racist. Sure. But the ice cream store across the street with the same flags year round is probably just taking advantage of the Confederate Battlefield and Locomotive Museum across the park from them - especially since it is owned by Jamaican immigrants and largely employs Hispanics. Why the flags? ‘Cuz of the other, non-racist commentary and context.

Sure, this is a narrow point I am making. But if I were to, say, try to extrapolate that the spate of language associated with Progressive sites means that Progressives are, in general, wimpy or fearful, I would be (and should be) taken to task.

12 On June 21st, 2007, themaiden said:

Deep Thought,

Your first paragraph: Pretty much the point I made in my previous response to you.

Your second paragraph: I disagree. People choose their language. There are numerous factors, some of which are simply artifacts of culture or of location or such. Still, vocabulary is chosen and it does reflect thought. Exactly what can be inferred might be debatable, but that language reflect thought seems a given.

13 On July 5th, 2007, Conservatism, Burke, Republican mental disease... | hell's handmaiden said: