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796 [lbo-talk] Reflections of a GOP Operative Who Left the Cult -- rank: 1000

On Apr 6, 2012, at 8:38 AM, Carrol Cox wrote: > Also, on Congressional voting. Doug's statistics are of course simply meaningless Of course. Simply. Doug

Document Size:	4908
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Apr 6 06:25:25 PDT 2012

797 [lbo-talk] Reflections of a GOP Operative Who Left the Cult -- rank: 1000

On Apr 5, 2012, at 8:43 AM, Dennis Claxton wrote: > Here's an insider yakking about the right. This helped me understand how, as the author puts it, "both parties are not rotten in quite the same way." I've just clipped the beginning. There's much more at the link: > > http://truth-out.org/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=3079:goodbye-to-all-that-reflections-of-a-gop-operative-who-left-the-cult I had him on the radio last September: http://www.leftbusinessobserv ...

Document Size:	5565
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu Apr 5 07:32:32 PDT 2012

798 [lbo-talk] yakking about the right -- rank: 1000

On Apr 4, 2012, at 9:38 PM, Michael Smith wrote: > On Wed, 04 Apr 2012 21:08:34 -0400 > shag carpet bomb <shag at cleandraws.com> wrote: > >> I'm taking a deep satisfaction in not reading a word of the source material >> and, instead, taking your word for it that it's just not worth the effort >> and none of spoke to the debate at hand. whew. waddarelief. > > I'm sure that Doug has read it all, probably more > carefully than I have. I'm not sure anyone e ...

Document Size:	5349
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed Apr 4 18:46:56 PDT 2012

799 [lbo-talk] yakking about the right -- rank: 1000

On Apr 4, 2012, at 6:34 PM, Dennis Claxton wrote: > As far as I can tell hardly anyone talks about blue dogs. They've been mentioned only 97 times here on lbotalk. We've talked about bdsm more than that (back in the day anyway). Shit, we're falling down on the job. Let's tie up Michael Smith and make him listen to the collected speeches of Hubert Humphrey. Doug

Document Size:	4879
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed Apr 4 15:43:50 PDT 2012

800 [lbo-talk] yakking about the right -- rank: 1000

On Apr 4, 2012, at 4:11 PM, Dennis Claxton wrote: > On 4/4/2012 1:06 PM, Michael Smith wrote: > >> This is hairsplitting at a positively Talmudic level. > > Why? In congress, as in Hollywood, if no one has heard of you it means no one is paying you much attention. You're fucking with his worldview. It will provoke a defensive reaction.

Document Size:	4905
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed Apr 4 13:16:40 PDT 2012

801 [lbo-talk] yakking about the right -- rank: 1000

On Apr 4, 2012, at 10:28 AM, Michael Smith wrote: > On Tue, 03 Apr 2012 23:58:20 -0700 > Dennis Claxton <ddclaxton at earthlink.net> wrote: > >>> Clearly the last statement is not true; cf. the notorious Blue Dogs. >> >> How notorious are they really? >> >> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Dog_Coalition > > Don't understand what their numbers have to do > with their notoriety. If voting records don't matter, why should the number of membe ...

Document Size:	5545
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed Apr 4 07:36:44 PDT 2012

802 [lbo-talk] yakking about the right -- rank: 1000

On Apr 3, 2012, at 9:14 AM, Michael Smith wrote: > What the research shows is simply that if you add up > the the votes, rated on a liberal/conservative scale, then > even a Blue Dog has a lower lifetime right-wing batting average > than the most liberal Republican. Mmm. So what does this > imply, exactly? Nothing, clearly. I give up.

Document Size:	4904
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Apr 3 06:21:27 PDT 2012

803 [lbo-talk] yakking about the right -- rank: 1000

On Apr 3, 2012, at 8:08 AM, Marv Gandall wrote: > There is a great deal of collegiality and bipartisanship at the top of both major parties. There is really not that much to choose between a Barack Obama and Mitt Romney or a Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell, nor between any of the other members of the three branches of government, nearly all drawn from the upper bourgeoisie. They may have differing liberal or conservative values, but the range of policy options open to them is narrow, as they q ...

Document Size:	5495
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Apr 3 05:16:15 PDT 2012

804 [lbo-talk] yakking about the right -- rank: 1000

On Apr 2, 2012, at 7:49 PM, Michael Smith wrote: > It's a little confusing, this material. It's really not hard to understand. The two parties used to have liberal and conservative wings. They don't anymore. The Reps are very conservative, with no centrists or liberals, and the Dems vary from centrist to liberal, and almost no conservatives. The most conservative Dem still votes to the left of the most liberal Rep. I know this violates your foundational assumptions, but it really seems to be ...

Document Size:	5133
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Apr 2 17:59:39 PDT 2012

805 [lbo-talk] yakking about the right -- rank: 1000

On Apr 2, 2012, at 10:11 AM, Michael Smith wrote: > On Mon, 2 Apr 2012 00:00:43 -0400 > Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote: > >>> Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote: >>> >>>> the partisan divide in Congress now is far greater than it was >>>> 30 or 40 years ago >>> >>> People often say this, but I can't quite figure out >>> what they mean by it. Is there any way to quantify it? >> > ...

Document Size:	5999
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Apr 2 08:10:26 PDT 2012

806 [lbo-talk] yakking about the right -- rank: 1000

On Apr 1, 2012, at 6:03 PM, Michael Smith wrote: > Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote: > >> the partisan divide in Congress now is far greater than it was >> 30 or 40 years ago > > People often say this, but I can't quite figure out > what they mean by it. Is there any way to quantify it? Yes. Political scientists do it all the time. It's late, otherwise I'd post examples.

Document Size:	5058
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sun Apr 1 21:00:43 PDT 2012

807 [lbo-talk] yakking about the right -- rank: 1000

On Apr 1, 2012, at 4:55 PM, Michael Smith wrote: > Couldn'ta said it better myself, nor half so well. The 'right' is a bogeyman. It doesn't have to be. None of us three is using fear of the right as cover for apologetics for Dems. Whom does the modern Republican party represent? Why did it move so far to the right? Is it elite opinion, demographic shifts in the electorate, some combination of the two? What is the mass appeal of right-wing politics, which are fundamentally about preserving the ...

Document Size:	5275
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sun Apr 1 14:04:08 PDT 2012

808 [lbo-talk] yakking about the right -- rank: 1000

On Apr 1, 2012, at 3:11 PM, Carrol Cox wrote: > A concern about "the right" is the obsession of lazy leftist. Yawn.

Document Size:	4631
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sun Apr 1 12:21:24 PDT 2012

809 [lbo-talk] yakking about the right -- rank: 1000

Christian Parenti, Corey Robin, and I talk about the right, tonight at 7: http://www.uniondocs.org/2012-04-01-a-discussion-on-the-new-old-right/

Document Size:	4695
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sun Apr 1 07:57:12 PDT 2012

810 [lbo-talk] two new blog posts... -- rank: 1000

...one with pix. Shaking a fist at the NYPD: http://lbo-news.com/2011/09/30/shaking-a-fist-at-the-nypd/ Bloomberg makes up crap about bankers: http://lbo-news.com/2011/09/30/bloomberg-sheds-a-tear-for-bankers-makes-up-bogus-numbers/

Document Size:	4892
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Sep 30 20:16:05 PDT 2011