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arcas commented on the diary post Rep. West Afraid of Q’s At Town Hall. Questioner Arrested. by spocko.
I was able to read all but one word of the probable cause affidavit. I don’t know if it’s any help, but here’s my reading of it: Arrested was at a Town Hall Meeting for Congressman West when she became very disruptive and loud, interfering with the meeting. Her behavior caused many of the audience members [...]
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arcas commented on the diary post Wisconsin Farmers Passionately Fight Walker by TobyWollin.
That was a superb speech—great buildup and release of tension.
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arcas commented on the blog post President Obama Takes Ownership of Torture of Bradley Manning (VIDEO)
Tapper: Do you disagree with PJ Crowley?
Obama: I think I gave you an answer to the substantive issue.
Obama’s tendencies of appearing noncommittal never cease to amaze me, and this event, where Obama was asked a question he surely had little to no time to prepare an answer for, is a glowing example. You cannot ask Obama a yes-or-no question and be answered with a simple “yes” or a simple “no”; he’ll instead answer with some hazy nonsense like he did here that makes him appear as noncommittal as possible, even when he’s obviously anything but.
This tendency towards seemingly noncommittal speech conveys the stances he takes on the issues he discusses in only the most indirect ways. As if his stances weren’t insulting enough, having to process this noncommittal speech, only to realize that what this speech conveys is obvious, and much better expressed using simple, direct speech, is a higher-order insult to any half-intelligent person.
That, coupled with his horrid treatment of Manning, and his horrid treatment of this nation and the world in all sorts of other respects, make it difficult for me to even look at Obama’s smug, insipid, revolting, con-artist face.
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arcas commented on the blog post Glenn Greenwald on Lawrence O’Donnell
O’Donnell doesn’t realise that the show he wrote was fiction.
I don’t know about that. It seemed as if the whole idea behind L O’D'oh inviting GG onto his show was to show that West Wing clip, knowing full well that the West Wing was fiction, and counting on his viewers to fail to make that realization. That is, it seemed as though O’D'oh was saying “hey everyone, look at this dramatic and provocative clip that shows you should be proud to be labeled ‘liberal’ — GG should be ashamed to disavow it!”
I suspect O’D'oh thought the ‘liberal’ ‘progressive’ labeling thing was his most cogent argument and he wanted to use it to make a rhetorical show against GG. That would explain why he denied GG the opportunity to more directly counter O’D'oh’s claim about labeling and why he downplayed the allegation that GG misrepresented his election night comments. Regardless of O’D'oh’s motives, what he did was sleazy and odious in the extreme.
