Back from the Anti-Military 70s style Love-in

by: Matt Stoller

Thu Jan 17, 2008 at 21:41

So that picture was in the Capitol Hill Hilton bar, where I was having drinks with some friends. As it turns out, the Republican National Committee is meeting there, and we snapped this picture. Just above my shoulder, you can see this Republican girl stroking her Republican boy pets.

Anyway, Andrew Sullivan nominated both me and Chris for something called a Moore award because we were mocking Reagan and mocking Republicans in general. Congrats, Chris! Congrats, Matt!

And it's on to Vegas, where the Reno Journal-Gazette endorsed Obama and cited his brave stance to laud both JFK and Reagan as agents of change. Barack, don't ever say we didn't do anything for you. When you needed someone to triangulate against, we were happy to get annoyed and provide the proof you want that you transcend ideology.

Onward!

Matt Stoller :: Back from the Anti-Military 70s style Love-in

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Back from the Anti-Military 70s style Love-in | 23 comments

The Moore award .. (0.00 / 0)

is named after Michael Moore .. and it is obviously given to someone who Sully thinks said something shrill ... I think you get the point

by: Calvin Jones and the 13th Apostle @ Fri Jan 18, 2008 at 03:01:25 AM UTC

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Are You Sure??? (4.00 / 1)

I feel pretty certain that it's named after British philosopher G.E. Moore, the decadent connection between the atheist, anti-war philosopher Bertrand Russell and the gay philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein on the one side, and the utterly hedonistic Bloomsbury Circle on the other--whose membership included that notorious pinko economist, John Maynard Keynes.

Conservatives are such Anglophiles, you know. They'd never name an award after a lowly Yank. Not even a derrogatory one.

"You know what they say -- those of us who fail history... doomed to repeat it in summer school." -- Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Season 6, Episode 3

by: Paul Rosenberg @ Fri Jan 18, 2008 at 16:46:56 PM UTC

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Well .. (0.00 / 0)

I am not 100% sure .. but since I do read him every day .. I'd say it is named after Michael Moore .. heck .. Andy even named an award after Yglesias(and that was before Sullivan and Yglesias worked at the same place)

by: Calvin Jones and the 13th Apostle @ Fri Jan 18, 2008 at 21:10:21 PM UTC

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Nah, I'm Just Pulling Your Leg... (0.00 / 0)

Or, in Spanish, your hair.

It just seemed like such a neat idea is all.

"You know what they say -- those of us who fail history... doomed to repeat it in summer school." -- Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Season 6, Episode 3

by: Paul Rosenberg @ Fri Jan 18, 2008 at 22:47:56 PM UTC

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Ha! (0.00 / 0)

The "Family Values" Party indeed. Hilarious Matt!

http://www.ProgressFlorida.org

by: Ray Seaman @ Fri Jan 18, 2008 at 03:25:53 AM UTC

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Stoller Award (0.00 / 0)

For those who try to follow OL Ideology.

Johnny Carson: More to Come...

by: Benny @ Fri Jan 18, 2008 at 03:33:44 AM UTC

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The one thing is a fascist society you can NEVER criticize is the military. (0.00 / 0)

Oh, and Ronald Reagan.

Funny how Sully gets really hot if anyone shall dare send a negative word towards Reagan, but he never seemed to care that Reagan allowed a communicable disease to ravage his nation for five fucking years before even uttering a word about it.

Andrew Sullivan is a sleazy hypocrite. Johnny come lately ostensible defender of gays. But it was fine when gays were dying at the hands of his beloved dear leader, Ronald Wilson Reagan.

For some reason, it seems that Obama has some pathological and deep-seated psychological need for Republicans to like him. Seriously. It's weird.

by: avenged savant @ Fri Jan 18, 2008 at 03:40:49 AM UTC

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I'm confused (0.00 / 0)

Doesn't the fact that Obama praised JFK for the same reasons he praised Reagan show how completely off-base your interpretation of his comments was?

And triangulate? Um, the platform he's put out what've easily been to the left of everyone in the field in 2004 save Kucinich. If he's "triangulating" in policy, it's between the center/left and the far left...which isn't triangulating at all, it's just...being somewhat liberal, but not a hardcore liberal.

But keep up the demagoguery!

by: mopper8 @ Fri Jan 18, 2008 at 04:26:00 AM UTC

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JFK comments are no different (4.00 / 1)

I'd say his comments about JFK aren't any different than those about Reagan in that they essentially do nothing more than regurgitate the bullshit mainstream media mythology of both of them. If Reagan is the Right's myth, then JFK is the Left's.

Don't get me wrong, JFK was much better than Reagan, but he didn't change the direction of the country. He was a democratic president in a series of democratic presidents (except for Eisenhower) and at a time when democrats dominated Congress as well.

While he had a nifty name for his program - the New Frontier - his biggest domestic initiatives (including Civil Rights) didn't become law while he was President, they were accomplished under Lyndon Johnson. We can debate whether that was some failing on his part or the result of his early death, but either way, he wasn't a transforming or realigning president. He did, however, use a lot of very pretty words.

by: BDB @ Fri Jan 18, 2008 at 04:49:13 AM UTC

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that's actually true (0.00 / 0)

JFK didn't have time to be an anything President.

by: Matt Stoller @ Fri Jan 18, 2008 at 04:50:48 AM UTC

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Shallow History (4.00 / 2)

The more video I see of that interview the more I'm struck by what a shallow view of political history Obama has. It's nothing more than regurgitating 30 years of MSM analysis.

Honestly, that scares me way more than the fact he invokes Ronald Reagan.

by: BDB @ Fri Jan 18, 2008 at 05:14:38 AM UTC

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Precisely--"Transformation" (TM) On Establishment Terms (0.00 / 0)

The insider's outsider. It's so.... sexy!

Boring is the new outrageous.

"You know what they say -- those of us who fail history... doomed to repeat it in summer school." -- Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Season 6, Episode 3

by: Paul Rosenberg @ Fri Jan 18, 2008 at 16:50:25 PM UTC

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Genau! (n/t) (0.00 / 0)

by: konopelli @ Fri Jan 18, 2008 at 16:58:02 PM UTC

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Oh, Barack, that shallow phony (0.00 / 0)

Damn, until Obama starts citing the names of obscure philosophers, he is clearly fake and probably dangerous. I agree!

I yearn for that day when our Savior Intellectual arrive and deliver mass entlightenment via politics. The people are all just waiting for this moment! The evidence is everywhere, it's not just me!

Ah, on misty mornings we'll all sit on hilltops and talk about earmarks and particle physics and economic theory and.......

by: Crab Nebula @ Fri Jan 18, 2008 at 19:27:42 PM UTC

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Oh, Fuck Off! (0.00 / 0)

Is that earthy and unpretentious enough for you???

"You know what they say -- those of us who fail history... doomed to repeat it in summer school." -- Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Season 6, Episode 3

by: Paul Rosenberg @ Fri Jan 18, 2008 at 22:49:06 PM UTC

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Cuban Missile Crisis (0.00 / 0)

Kennedy deserves history's gratitude for the way he handled the Cuban Missile Crisis. Given that he was being advised to launch an invasion of Cuba, and the US was not aware that there were Russian tactical nukes in Cuba, and one of the Russian officers stationed there said that they would have used the nukes and "let the politicans sort it out"....

Legislatively I would say that Kennedy was a failure. Johnson's success no doubt owes something to sympathy for Kennedy, but LBJ deserves a lot of credit for having the political savvy to get his legislation through.

For my money, JFK gets kudos for the Apollo project, probably the crowning achievement of mankind. When you think of what technology was like in the early 60s, that took real audacity. It is an amazing testament to human ingenuity and the American can-do spirit that it succeeded. The fact that it was driven by cold-war rivalry is beside the point.

by: Taylor @ Fri Jan 18, 2008 at 14:47:36 PM UTC

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Kennedy Was A GREAT Tactician (0.00 / 0)

There is no doubt of that, and the Cuban Mission Crisis proved that in spades.

But his very strength was his source of fatal weakness as well. He was so good under pressure with his closest advisors (brother Bobby above all) that he neglected to restructure the larger bureaucracy, which is why he got mucked up in Vietnam, despite repeatedly rejecting more extreme advice from the leftover Eisenhower apparatus. This story is told in American Tragedy : Kennedy, Johnson, and the Origins of the Vietnam War by David E. Kaiser, although Kaiser is much less crtical of Kennedy than I, so the critical point is not really driven home. But all the pieces are there.

"You know what they say -- those of us who fail history... doomed to repeat it in summer school." -- Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Season 6, Episode 3

by: Paul Rosenberg @ Fri Jan 18, 2008 at 17:10:18 PM UTC

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Amphetamines (0.00 / 0)

are a double-edged sword, I guess. The prescription drugs likely gave him a boost during the crisis, but they tend to make one lose sight of the bigger picture.

"It sounds wrong...
...but its right."

by: SpitBall @ Fri Jan 18, 2008 at 21:03:53 PM UTC

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I Don't Know If We Have A Clear Enough Picture (0.00 / 0)

I've never done primary research, so I have no idea if there is sufficient evidence to know, but from the material I've seen quoted in books, we simply don't know enough.

Still, it seems like he assumed he was paying attention to the big picture, as he was dealing with world strategy. What he wasn't paying attention to was transforming the bureaucracy, since he felt he could fend them off whenever he really needed to.

"You know what they say -- those of us who fail history... doomed to repeat it in summer school." -- Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Season 6, Episode 3

by: Paul Rosenberg @ Fri Jan 18, 2008 at 22:52:06 PM UTC

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Sometimes I don't know Matt... (0.00 / 0)

Are you are really so obsessed with progressive purity that it makes you bitter? Or are you more self-aware than it seems? Is some of your shrillness is just an act of self-parody?

This post gives me a little hope that it might be the latter.

Anyway, congrats on the Moore nomination. Give yourself a pat on the back. You and Chris had better start up your campaigns to win the actual award at Sullivan's ceremony. Do you get a statue or something?

by: geothenes @ Fri Jan 18, 2008 at 09:09:11 AM UTC

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Tattoo (0.00 / 0)

That is a very impressive question mark tattoo Matt Stoller has on his forearm -- very telling and appropriate for someone who admits he has -quote- "lost credibility" -unquote-.

And for those who say this is a shadow cast by serving tray in the foreground, I remind you that there is no evidence that Matt Stoller does not have a question mark tattoo has on his forearm.

And if by some unlikely chance it is a foreground object, there is no way someone as cunning as Matt Stoller would pose for, let alone publish, a photo with such an explicit subliminal message.

Just who is this "Matt Stoller," and what is his agenda?

/snark

A brief essay on the perils of out-of-context decontructionism.

by: -ck- @ Fri Jan 18, 2008 at 16:56:09 PM UTC

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He's Not Really Matt Stoller (0.00 / 0)

Just who is this "Matt Stoller," and what is his agenda?

But someone else with the same name.

And his secret agenda is to get you to ask that very question!

Mwwaahahaha!

"You know what they say -- those of us who fail history... doomed to repeat it in summer school." -- Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Season 6, Episode 3

by: Paul Rosenberg @ Fri Jan 18, 2008 at 17:13:16 PM UTC

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All in black (0.00 / 0)

The Republicans are dressed all in black. Are they going to a funeral? Whose? Romney's? Giuliani"s? McCain's? The American people's welfare?

They can't be Johnny Cash fans, he had too much heart.

by: David Kowalski @ Fri Jan 18, 2008 at 19:33:26 PM UTC

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