michaelgoldfarb

posts about #michaelgoldfarb more →
Robert Gibbs: Most Americans Don't Care About Rush Limbaugh's Feelings
Republicans To Obama: Stimulate This!
The Senate May Get Caroline, But Biden Gets Carney And A Canine
The World Is Sexist, So I Can't Say Michelle Obama Looks Nice
McCain's Campaign Adviser Declares War On Media, New York Times
One Of John McCain's Birds Of Prey Falls Prey To Hopeless Dreams
So Many Abba-McCain Parodies, So Little Time
Would You Listen To Abba With This Guy?

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MizJenkins
05/12/09

In reply to Robert Gibbs: Most Americans Don't Care About Rush Limbaugh's Feelings
Um, not to spoil the mood but is there really an appropriate Terry Schiavo joke? That made me a bit uncomfortable.
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willwriteforfood
05/12/09

@MizJenkins: Yeah, I think I might leave that one alone.
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Wibbles
05/12/09

In reply to Robert Gibbs: Most Americans Don't Care About Rush Limbaugh's Feelings
So, Charlie Crist. What have you done for me lately that you want me to vote for you?

Didn't he want to cut Education, again? Because besides the fact that he got married, I haven't heard nothing.
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whynotshesaid
05/12/09

@Wibbles: I wouldn't put the blame for that at the feet of Crist. The Legislature did a fine old job of cutting education and social services while keeping the loophole on the intangibles sales tax wide open and making it easier for developers to plow over what's left of the state.

The problems in Florida extend way beyond our governor, and it would take more than a governor to fix them.
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Sputnik_Sweetheart
05/12/09

In reply to Robert Gibbs: Most Americans Don't Care About Rush Limbaugh's Feelings
The quote from Goldfarb made me realize what a relief it is to have grown-ups in the White House again.
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bitingfairy
05/12/09

In reply to Robert Gibbs: Most Americans Don't Care About Rush Limbaugh's Feelings
Just give them a tour of the UN building, Hillary. It's awesome in there.
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EkaterinaBallerina
05/12/09

@bitingfairy needs a job: Their security sucks though. I went to a documentary viewing with an ex who works there and I was appalled at how lax they were. They have checkpoints all over the place but at every single one of them the guard who give me this to-do about not being able to let me through, and then quietly say "My supervisor isn't around, just go through." TWICE. And they never once asked for id.
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TheFormerJuneBronson
05/12/09

In reply to Robert Gibbs: Most Americans Don't Care About Rush Limbaugh's Feelings
They're wasting so much energy when they could be doing something to improve people's situation. That's all I see lately, with the Repubs--wasted energy.
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morninggloria
05/12/09

@TheFormerJuneBronson: It's their own fault that they didn't upgrade themselves to become energy efficient while they had the chance.
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TheFormerJuneBronson
05/12/09

@morninggloria: We have all compact fluorescent Republicans around these parts. They give an odd light, but are functional in the strictest sense of the word.
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Grim Reaper of the Forest
05/12/09

@TheFormerJuneBronson: The problem is that the Republicans leak a significant amount of hot air out of their mouths. If we can just seal all their cracks up really tightly we will solve many of their problems - inefficiency, sex scandals, you name it!
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TheFormerJuneBronson
05/12/09

@Grim Reaper of the Forest: Good thing I still have that hot glue gun.
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EkaterinaBallerina
05/12/09

In reply to Robert Gibbs: Most Americans Don't Care About Rush Limbaugh's Feelings
Okay, once more with feelings Repugs--you don't get brownie points for waking up TODAY and saying "Whoa, fuck, this country is in deep shit!" You asshats let it happen, even SUPPORTED it, for eight fucking years. If this mess makes you so angry, and "so concerned for your constituents" then maybe you should have said something earlier. But interfering with the clean-up project, and the actions and duties of a responsible President is about as stupid and juvenile as you can get. Fuck off.

On a lighter note, my grandmother told me this weekend how relieved she felt to have Obama as her president. How relieved she felt to have him handling everything. Her President Barack Obama mug sits on her mantle next to family portraits, so she "can see him every day".
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morninggloria
05/12/09

@EkaterinaBallerina: I relate to your grandma's presidential adoration. I would probably take a bullet for any member of the first family. I say "probably" because I'd only do it for the dog if it did a really cute trick right before.
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PinkSoxHat
05/12/09

@EkaterinaBallerina: I love your grandmother! I had to go to federal court for the first time since the innaugration last week, and seeing Obama's portrait there really struck me. It's amazing what we have in the White House right now.
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ritualtheory
05/12/09

@EkaterinaBallerina: Your grandmother just broke my heart.
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NefariousNewt
05/12/09

@PinkSoxHat: It never gets old. I still have a hard time believing he's President. I hear "President Obama" on the TV, and for a moment, I'm confused. Of course, that may be simply the advancing decay of my brain...
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Ipomoea
05/12/09

@EkaterinaBallerina: I like seeing him every day, but you know what? Sunday night, I dragged my laptop into the bathroom to watch his WHCD speech, and it is WEIRD AS HELL to look at my lovely President while I am naked in the bath. Creeptown.
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willwriteforfood
05/12/09

@NefariousNewt: Not just you! I wake up to Morning Edition every day and it still gives my crabby heart a little lift when the announcer says, "Today, Pres. Obama..." It's nice to wake up to a government led by a man I actually believe has the country's best interests at heart, rather than the interests of his cronies and favorite lobbying groups.
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TinkishDelight
05/12/09

In reply to Robert Gibbs: Most Americans Don't Care About Rush Limbaugh's Feelings
Little known fact, Bush lead the largest marine conservation effort in history and as a result has the title of protecting more oceans than any other president.
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NefariousNewt
05/12/09

@TinkishDelight: Which goes to prove that not everything he did was evil... just most things.
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morninggloria
05/12/09

@TinkishDelight: Yeah, that happened right at the tail end of his term and made me think that the proclamation was accidental and maybe Bush thought that it was Opposite Day.
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dreamweave
05/12/09

@morninggloria: someone told him that part of the Pacific is actually filled with whiskey.
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AtomiClash: humanitarian misanthrope
05/12/09

@TinkishDelight: that confuses my sense of righteous indignation.
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TinkishDelight
05/12/09

@morninggloria: See I don't know, it kind of makes me wonder what kind of president he would've been on his own had he not had such powerful puppet masters. After his term was over pretty much everyone that knew him gushed about what a great guy he was on a personal level.
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Ipomoea
05/12/09

@TinkishDelight: I just finished reading Scott McClellan's book What Happened, and while I thought he was maybe too forgiving towards Bush, he does make a good case (I don't know if this was on purpose) that most of the shitty things (permanent campaign, 50%+1, lack of partisan cooperation) didn't spring from Bush, but Cheney, Rove, Rumsfeld, etc. Bush supposedly worked well with many Democrats in Texas over the years, but when he got to DC, Rove was running things, and we've all seen how polite and well-done that is.
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morninggloria
05/12/09

@TinkishDelight: If he wasn't strong enough to stand up to his puppetmasters, he wasn't ever cut out to be the President. Part of the job is having people trying to influence you one way or another every day. Bush couldn't hold his own; he was a shitty president.
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whynotshesaid
05/12/09

@TinkishDelight: While I liked that he did that, I also thought it was interesting that he chose a parcel of ocean that is pretty much not at all valuable in terms of economics. If he really wanted to impress me, he would have done something about, say, the Mississippi River.
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morninggloria
05/12/09

In reply to Robert Gibbs: Most Americans Don't Care About Rush Limbaugh's Feelings
So, during the presidential campaign, Obama doesn't have enough experience, and now that he's in office and the rotton fruits of years of corruption/mishandling of both the public and private sector are revealing themselves in this economic clusterfuck, Obama was there all along? Which is it? Is he a newcomer or has he been doing this for years?

I hate it when people who don't understand how the economy works are given microphones upon which to talk about the economy.
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willwriteforfood
05/12/09

@morninggloria: This is the downside of a democracy that values (well, sometimes) free speech. Any yahoo can open his piehole and pontificate on whatever he wants. And sadly, we elected some of them to do just that.
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morninggloria
05/12/09

@willwriteforfood: They absolutely have a right to do it; I'm just disappointed that everyone feels that their opinion has any merit, just because they say it aloud.
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willwriteforfood
05/12/09

@morninggloria: Maybe that's a result of raising kids to think, "We're all equal! We all have a say! This is America!" without clarifying that you can say all you want, but that doesn't necessarily mean you know what the hell you're talking about. Clearly, from the last eight years we've all seen that knowledge of a subject doesn't make a damn bit of difference and ignorance rules if you're loud about it.

When I was little, I thought elected officials were the smartest people in the world because they got to go to Washington and enact laws and talk to the president (who, in my 5-year-old mind, obviously HAD to be the smartest person in the world, 'cause why would anyone vote for anyone but the smartest person in the world?). Adulthood really is sobering.
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morninggloria
05/12/09

@willwriteforfood: My spawn are going to be taught that if they don't know what they're talking about, ask questions. That way, if the other person doesn't know what they're talking about and cannot answer your questions, they look like the chump, not you.

My kids' life focus will be all about not looking like chumps.
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NefariousNewt
05/12/09

@morninggloria: Good luck with that -- I'm about to get our boys signs like the one Sandra Bullock had to wear in 28 Days: "Challenge me if I don't ask for help." They simply refuse to ask questions in school, even when it's clear to them that they don't know what the teacher is talking about. And when they can't find or do something at home, they simply do whatever occurs to them (usually the wrong thing), rather than just asking us for instructions or help.
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hydrogen_jukebox
05/12/09

In reply to Robert Gibbs: Most Americans Don't Care About Rush Limbaugh's Feelings
And why would anyone want to be against the UN?

I mean, isn't uniting all the nations of the world, oh I dunno...THE POINT OF HUMAN EXISTENCE?!
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whynotshesaid
05/12/09

@hydrogen_jukebox: No, that is where you are wrong. The point of human existence is to get as much stuff as you possibly can while telling those who don't have as much stuff as you that they are failures as human beings. Duh.
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sportz.star
05/12/09

In reply to Robert Gibbs: Most Americans Don't Care About Rush Limbaugh's Feelings
It seems to me that Perez Hilton level empathy is well represented on the Supreme Court Mr. Steele. Try again.
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dreamweave
05/12/09

@sportz.star: oooooh BURN on Scalia. It's true, some of the cruel bullshit that comes out of his mouth is the SCOTUS equivalent of drawing a penis on the plantiff's face.
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NefariousNewt
05/12/09

In reply to Robert Gibbs: Most Americans Don't Care About Rush Limbaugh's Feelings
Well, Joe, we're sick of you, too. So maybe you and Dick Cheney can't start a club -- Politicians Who Pissed Off America.
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AtomiClash: humanitarian misanthrope
05/12/09

@NefariousNewt: I'm from CT and keep hoping I will see Joe Lieberman skulking about so I can glove-slap him and challenge him to a duel.
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NefariousNewt
05/12/09

@AtomiClash is a ball-cutting cybersuccubus: Just do us a favor -- make sure nobody in CT votes for him in the next election. It's time he was put out to pasture.
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brinkswomanship
05/12/09

@AtomiClash is a ball-cutting cybersuccubus: Colonel: I agree to the duel, sir. I choose pistols at dawn.

Homer: Pistols at dawn? Oh why did I have to slap a guy that says stuff.
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AtomiClash: humanitarian misanthrope
05/12/09

@NefariousNewt: that's the understatement of the century.
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AtomiClash: humanitarian misanthrope
05/12/09

@brinkswomanship: that is exactly what I was thinking about. And the B-52s would be singing "glove slap" in the background when I did it.
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morninggloria
05/12/09

In reply to Robert Gibbs: Most Americans Don't Care About Rush Limbaugh's Feelings
There are a lot of people who actually think that the UN is unnecessary or somehow eee-ville. I used to have this coworker who would almost daily forward me spittle covered articles written by whiney, sexually angry, incoherent asshole Republicans who would rail against the body's existence. He'd sometimes pepper in articles about global warming being a myth, an attempt by the left to redistribute wealth.

This was hilarious because he worked in the support staff for a large bank type place that does not pay its support staff well at all, so he would likely stand to benefit from a commie pinko wealth redistribution scheme. He also ended up getting fired. I wonder if he's sitting at his parents house railing against the unemployment check brought to him by the left wing? And if he's still reading conservative nonsense with his hand practically down his pants? But I digress.
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NefariousNewt
05/12/09

@morninggloria: The problem is: the U.N. is necessary, but it lacks teeth. And it lacks teeth, because very few nations like the idea of anything resembling a centralized world government, mainly because richer nations fear it would erode their power if they were answerable to poorer nations.
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musicpup
05/12/09

@morninggloria: I know people who are railing against the UN for different reasons, but railing against it nonetheless. Me? I attended a Model UN conference in Barcelona and then attended the Alliance of Civilizations meeting that same year and was fascinated. The UN could be incredibly efficient were it not for the internal squabbling and the corruption. As it is, I support its efforts and the intention behind it. But then, I AM a librul East Coast elitist.
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HarpMadness
05/12/09

@morninggloria: I don't often admit this, but I was raised by wonderful people who somehow were part of a very conservative Christian religion. They were my parents, btw. For a moment, it sounded as though I was abducted ... Anyhoo, my point is that they were all fearful of the UN. I mean, these people really are. They think they're going to establish a New World Order and like make the Anti-Christ the leader and turn everybody gay and ... oh, I don't know what else. And it's so telling -- because basically the UN is a place for nations to come together and try to get along. No, it doesn't always work, but people getting together and talking ... and these people see that as evil. Just very telling, IMHO.
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AtomiClash: humanitarian misanthrope
05/12/09

@NefariousNewt: yahtzee! bingo! canasta! Studying the UN is both motivating and terribly disheartening when you come to see that it is not the organization itself, but the lack of international political will that causes it to be so empty.
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Sputnik_Sweetheart
05/12/09

@morninggloria: To quote Fred Burns, "[the UN] is run by a bunch of foreigners." You know we are in trouble when the people who are running our country sound like the cartoonish villain on M*A*S*H.
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J.D.Regent
05/12/09

@morninggloria: it's like, we only wish the UN was as powerful as the haters would like to believe.
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morninggloria
05/12/09

@NefariousNewt: I agree that it lacks teeth and I agree that more wealthy nations fear to give up any of their power. It still doesn't warrant the kind of "OMG THE UN SUX!!!! COME ON GROW UP BE A REAL AMERICAN!" sentiment in the barely coherent articles written railing against the UN.
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NefariousNewt
05/12/09

@morninggloria: Of course it doesn't. But look at all the other things the Republicans rail at -- socialized medicine, equal rights, abortion, etc. They want everyone to be free... free to do what they think is best. This idea of all people, everywhere, having an equal say in what happens on the planet... that's just too radical!
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NefariousNewt
05/12/09

@HarpMadness: It comes from this idea that people fit into neat categories, and that power should be very hierarchical. Look at Roman Catholicism: power flows from the top. Look at our Republic: power flows from the top. You start giving everyone an equal say, and you're just asking for trouble! New and different ideas! Oh no!
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ritualtheory
05/12/09

@HarpMadness: That's a helpful insight, because I honestly couldn't imagine the justification for vilifying the UN. This one doesn't make sense, but it resonates.

Incidentally, I know plenty of wonderful evangelical Christians, but that's divinity school for you.
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PinkSoxHat
05/12/09

@Sputnik_Sweetheart: Haha, that reminds me of the SNL Sarah Palin sketch where she promised to put all those UN jobs back in Americans' hands. That was a parody. It's frightening that there are people out there who really think that though.
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NefariousNewt
05/12/09

@PinkSoxHat: I begin to think Sarah Palin did SNL because the stuff they wrote for her, which sounds ridiculous, is actually how she thinks. I don't think she understnads the advanced concept of satire.
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morninggloria
05/12/09

@NefariousNewt: They want everyone to be free to be a rich white man, unless you are not rich, white, or a man, in which case, sorry, but God says you're not as important. Please smile while you polish my silverware.
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NefariousNewt
05/12/09

@morninggloria: I'm surprised the Republicans have not called for stripping the Indians of their land so it can be turned into condos for settlers.
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Grim Reaper of the Forest
05/12/09

@NefariousNewt: The U.N. is incredibly inefficient, and to expect it to solve any major international crisis is silly. The powerful countries are going to do what they want to do regardless. However, I think it has real value just in having a forum for world leaders to get together, discuss and attempt to cooperate, and allow poorer countries some voice. While the Kyoto Protocol has been only marginally successful, it has put pressure on countries to get there act together and come up with some sort of plan.
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NefariousNewt
05/12/09

@Grim Reaper of the Forest: The U.N. is not set up to govern anything, which was the point of the exercise. It was intended only as a forum. But I think the U.N. does need some teeth. I think we have to begin to take seriously the idea that we are all in this together, that what happens in one country has an effect everywhere, whether it is China burning more coal, genocide in Darfur, the Taliban trying to reassert control in Afghanistan, etc. Just look at the swine flu hysteria -- problems on this planet do not happen in isolation anymore.

While the idea of global government is probably two centuries away, I think the seeds for it need to be sown now.
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Texpat
05/12/09

@Grim Reaper of the Forest: Ok, I'm absolutely pro UN, BUT allow me to play devil's advocate here for a bit.

Part of the reason SOME Americans rail against the UN comes down to the disproportionate way the United States funds UN activities. I think it's understandable to demand accountability from an institution that depends on American taxpayers' funding. In 2004, the U.S. contributed $360 million toward the U.N.'s routine operating expenses -- 22 percent of the U.N.'s regular annual operating budget and more than the combined contributions of France, Germany, China, Canada and Russia. (This figure excludes U.S. funding for peacekeeping operations, and contributions toward the global AIDS fund.)

I think the more extreme of these UN critics are doubtful that many UN activities are in the best interest of the United States, even though it's the major contributor.

Obviously a logical, rational person would continue to think this through and realize that it's absolutely in the United State's best interest to have a diplomatically effective UN, but some of the criticisms aren't without a seed of legitimacy.

Just sayin.

With that said though, I would totally sell my first born child to land a job there.
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Grim Reaper of the Forest
05/12/09

@Texpat: I occasionally appreciate the right-wing arguments that the US is basically damned if we do, damned if we don't. We are expected to put up most of the money and firepower for international institutions and interventions, but then get bashed for acting in our national interest. But being able to get UN buy-in for many of our actions certainly gives us diplomatic cover and is in our interest.
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NefariousNewt
05/12/09

In reply to Robert Gibbs: Most Americans Don't Care About Rush Limbaugh's Feelings
Hey, Pete Sessions... STFU!!!! You know who's putting people out of business? Big companies. Big companies, who dined on caviar and champagne even as their flawed business models crumbled beneath them. Big companies, who couldn't see the forest for the trees. And you know who helped them -- POLITICIANS! People like you, Pete -- a person so concerned with getting elected and staying in power that he'd sell his soul for big corporate campaign contributions, to the tune of gutting this nations protections and destroying its natural resources.

[/rant]
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ritualtheory
05/12/09

@NefariousNewt: Well done!
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hydrogen_jukebox
05/12/09

In reply to Robert Gibbs: Most Americans Don't Care About Rush Limbaugh's Feelings
I want to believe Michael Steele was once a sane and upstanding politician, conservative though he may be. And then all of a sudden - or perhaps very slowly, it's hard to tell - he snapped and became a mere caricature of any sort of personality he was trying to portray.
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dreamweave
05/12/09

@hydrogen_jukebox: If by slowly you mean from birth to age twenty, okay. Otherwise, I am pretty sure he has been like this for a long, long time.
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mauvelous
05/12/09

@hydrogen_jukebox: When he was Lt. Governor of MD, he seemed sane, if not a little boring. I guess this might be his way of trying to liven up the GOP..
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WashingMyHair
05/12/09

@mauvelous: He may not have had as many memorable soundbites as Lt Gov of MD, but he and his boss, Bob Ehrlich, still were quite embarrassing as leaders.
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Sputnik_Sweetheart
05/12/09

In reply to Robert Gibbs: Most Americans Don't Care About Rush Limbaugh's Feelings
Just when I think that Michael Steele can't possibly say anything dumber, he goes and proves me wrong. Good job, Mike. I guess.
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