So writes Mary Burke in her first fundraising letter as a Democratic Party challenger to Walker, and I'm just wondering why it's okay to say "put another nail in the coffin." Whatever happened to civility? Remember when Sarah Palin was attacked for using a target image and tweeting "Don't retreat — RELOAD."
To be fair to Burke, targeting and reloading are metaphors of killing, but the metaphor of nailing down a coffin lid implies that one's victim is already dead. On the other hand, why bother to fight the Tea Party if it's already dead? I'm afraid the implication might be execution by burial, which is quite a disturbing topic. Excerpt from Wikipedia:
During the reign of the first Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huangdi it is said that approximately 400 to 700 scholars were buried alive near the capital. They were condemned for saving books from destruction after an imperial ban on the classics....
Tacitus, in his work Germania, records that German tribes practiced two forms of capital punishment; the first where the victim was hanged on trees, and another, where the victim was tied to a wicker frame, pushed face down into mud and buried. The first was used to make an example of traitors, the second was used for punishment of dishonourable or shameful crimes, such as cowardice or sodomy....
In medieval Italy, unrepentant murderers were buried alive, head down, feet in the air, a practice referred to in passing in Canto XIX of Dante's Inferno....
Posts
46 comments:
By "failing administration" they mean the teachers union membership is dropping.
Like a rock.
My property taxes went down for the first time since I have owned my home.
How much will Millionaire Mary want to raise them?
Those fundraising appeals, both right & left, are always about throwing red meat to the base. I had to tell a phone fundraiser for Al Gore's presidential run that if Bush won, they really weren't going to be hauling away Jews & blacks in cattle cars, so let's chill on the rhetoric. What did the fundraiser respond: "I know, Mr. YH. It embarrasses me to have to read that stuff to people."
But really, Ms Burke's letter does read as if it could have been written by a "Lefty trope" computer program.
Another rich heiress claiming to be the representative of the common man but only echoes the party line.
Burke rhymes with "twerk," which is probably not a coincidence. Also with "jerk."
Death, death, death. Wow. The Progressive Dems feel the need to kill...unborn, too old, Judeo/Christians, or just surplus people that take up space...kill them all.
They are feeling Obama leadership structure that rewards killers. Lenin and the Marxists sure enjoyed killing off the weak.
Well she has a point. I'm sure Walker is the Koch Brothers' favorite guv after he gave them a no-bid contract on a power plant.
Speaking of twerking, Miley Cyrus is on the list of the 10 finalists for TIME's Person of the Year, along with other luminaries like Bashar Assad, Kathleen Sebelius and Barack Obama.
No, I'm not kidding.
There was never an intention to limit the rhetoric of pols on the left.
The Koch Brothers live rent free in liberals' minds. They remind me of an article I read many years ago that claimed if the Nazis had not existed, writers would've had to create them to represent evil in the world.
This makes me appreciate living in the San Francisco bay area, where civility reigns.
The Koch Brothers live rent free in liberals' minds
David Koch: "We're helping him, as we should. We've gotten pretty good at this over the years," he says. "We've spent a lot of money in Wisconsin. We're going to spend more."
Employees in Wisconsin: Koch Brothers 2,800
Trek Bicycle: just under 1,000"
The Koch Brothers--those evil billionaires who want to LEAVE YOU ALONE--backing the Tea Party--those evil rebel tax-serfs? Horrors! If Darth Soros and his minions don't act fast, freedom could break out!
The Koch Brothers--those evil billionaires who want to LEAVE YOU ALONE--backing the Tea Party--those evil rebel tax-serfs? Horrors! If Darth Soros and his minions don't act fast, freedom could break out!
"garage mahal said...
David Koch: "We're helping him, as we should. We've gotten pretty good at this over the years," he says. "We've spent a lot of money in Wisconsin. We're going to spend more."
Well after getting the no bid contract on the power station it is the least they can do for Walker.
Do these critics of the "Tea Party movement" ever articulate what it is that deserves their banishment from the public discourse?
And this Burke quote isn't about some particular extremist faction, but the "movement" overall, presumably about ideas of limited government.
It's not about debating ideas, but making the term Tea Party radioactive.
Maybe those Alinskyite tactics will work for them. Instead, I see liberals setting themselves up on the wrong side of an eventual preference cascade.
EDH said...
Do these critics of the "Tea Party movement" ever articulate what it is that deserves their banishment from the public discourse?
The Tea Party movement is a rejection of corrupt, out of control government spending. For this heresy, they must be destroyed. There are too many people in both parties whose power and wealth derive from buying and selling political favors. They will fight the Tea Party movement to their dying breath because it threatens their rice bowls.
The Koch Brothers--those evil billionaires who want to LEAVE YOU ALONE
They want unfettered access to government [which they have in Walker], and they want you to be powerless to do anything about their activities.
If the coffin holding the Tea Party movement is capable of propping up an administration, putting another nail in it is unlikely to change that.
The engraving of the scene from the Inferno leaves out the not-insignificant detail that in Dante, the soles of the feet of those so condemned are on fire. Dante really, really had it in for Simon Magus.
My property taxes went down for the first time since I have owned my home.
Same, by a kilobuck. But I petitioned for a re-assessment. Madison looks at homes as piggy banks to raid, I was happy to drop close to $8K for annual property taxes. We're adding to the house next year (Kitchen) so they'll likely go up again.
Whatever did happen to the civility bullshit? I don't means Ann's tag for such, but the request from the President and other Democrats that we all tone it down? Obviously it's not happening, and the escalation I see is mostly from the left side of the political spectrum. Doesn't anyone care about the subject any more?
And what the heck is so danged scary about the Tea Party? As recent grassroots political movements go, aren't they preferable to, say, OWS and its offshoots? They seem to hold the only mass protests in recent history where the protestors not only don't throw rocks, set stuff on fire, or defecate on other people's car windows, but actually pick up their own trash.
Gee Garage, what activities are those? Making toilet paper? Why do we need to fetter their right to make toilet paper for the good people of Wisconsin? Do you really think they operate in an UNregulated business environment? Are you really that stooooopid?
Since when do coffins prop things up? And how does adding nails make them bad at it?
Maybe she's talking about William Warren's Shelves for Life? But in that case, what she wants to do is take the nails out of the coffin so it stops supporting Scott Walker's book.
"By contributing today, you'll put another nail in the coffin of the Tea Party movement ..."
Not that I had any reason to hold out hope, but it's disappointing none the less.
garage mahal said...
The Koch Brothers live rent free in liberals' minds
David Koch: "We're helping him, as we should. We've gotten pretty good at this over the years," he says. "We've spent a lot of money in Wisconsin. We're going to spend more."
But you have no trouble with george Soros. Or hollywood money.
Michelle, I think "civility" was beaten over the head with a shovel and buried under a porch the minute Obama put out an ad personally blaming Mitt Romney for giving an employee cancer.
But you have no trouble with george Soros. Or hollywood money
Soros and Hollywood aren't buying politicians.
By contributing today, you'll put another nail in the coffin of the Tea Party movement
I think Mary Burke would do well to remember what happened to Joanne Kloppenburg in her Supreme Court run. Granted she was just another mostly unknown liberal woman from Madison, like Linda Clifford, but if you don't decry lousy things said in your campaign's behalf, well then people notice and don't like it and vote appropriately.
Burke is not telling me what she'll do. I am not inclined to vote against Walker just for the sake of voting against Walker. I realize she's trying to head off Vinehout in this letter, and will run towards the center after the primary, but that doesn't mean I have to like it.
Walker just for the sake of voting against Walker.
Your "vote out the incumbent" rallying cry doesn't apply to Walker. Quelle surprise!
More debt, less rights, no jobs, and less healthcare. What's not to like?
state debt reaches record levels in the 2013-15 budget.
This is why I hope Kathleen Vinehout gets in the race soon. She seems to be the only person capable of explaining the budget in a way average people can understand.
Curious George: I'm sure Walker is the Koch Brothers' favorite guv after he gave them a no-bid contract on a power plant.
Which state-owned power plant(s) has the state actually sold to the Koch brothers? I want links to reliable sources detailing the completion of the sale(s).
Prof. Althouse,
Dante was first, but Scorcese was compelling. See "Casino" (Nicky getting his just deserts).
"garage mahal said...
...
Soros and Hollywood aren't buying politicians."
I almost passed out from laughing so hard that I couldn't breathe.
garage: "They want unfettered access to government [which they have in Walker..."
un·fet·tered adjective \-tərd\
: not controlled or restricted
1) What evidence exists that the Koch brothers have "unfettered" access to Walker?
2) What nefarious/ malevolent/ negative outcomes from a public policy perspective have resulted from this imaginary "unfettered access"?
LOL
garaqe: "More debt, less rights, no jobs, and less healthcare."
Now that could have been obama's 2012 re-election slogan.
And it would have been if a single non-fox news organization had decided that, gee, maybe we ought to actually read the obamacare language and actually tabulate the number of americans no longer in the work force.
Of course they couldn't because "Tea party!!"
Michael: "Which state-owned power plant(s) has the state actually sold to the Koch brothers?"
Curious George was being sarcastic about a complaint lodged by the lefties regarding several "dogs" of power plants that the state can't unload since they are so technologically backward and non-profitable.
Your "vote out the incumbent" rallying cry doesn't apply to Walker. Quelle surprise!
One term, true, an incumbent. It's a strike against him.
Still, I'd like to know what Burke wants to do, other than be someone other than Walker.
My kvelling against Burke should not convince you I won't vote against her. I just think running as the anti-Gov is a losing strategy. Who is advising these candidates, I have to ask. Someone in Dane County?
Harold
if you can find any money that Soros spent electing Democrats in Wisconsin I would be curious to see it.
"Blogger garage mahal said...
But you have no trouble with george Soros. Or hollywood money
Soros and Hollywood aren't buying politicians."
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
garage: "if you can find any money that Soros spent electing Democrats in Wisconsin I would be curious to see it."
garage has taken a "principled" stand against anyone spending any money to elect politicians of their choosing.
LOL
http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2010/09/opensecrets-battle---koch-brothers.html shows Koch vs. Soros in political spending. I'm sure it's incomplete. Soros didn't spend >$32 million on 527 groups for no reason at all. How much was spent in Wisconsin? Who cares? He spends money electing liberals with a socialist bent.
Brando,
Michelle, I think "civility" was beaten over the head with a shovel and buried under a porch the minute Obama put out an ad personally blaming Mitt Romney for giving an employee cancer.
It works on so many levels!
Ann,
You know, I don't think Ms. Burke's metaphor suggests burial alive at all, at least not intentionally. I think the idea is more of the undead.
You know: Sweet, tidy little zombie grandmas, pretending to serve you nice homemade teacakes just so that they can get closer to your BRAINS!!!
And nice, thoughtful vampire granddads, who only want to coach your kids in Little League so that they and their blood-drinking vermin spawn can have an all-you-can-suck buffet every alternate Saturday.
But they still won't leave the ground strewn with litter. Gotta give 'em that.
Perhaps Koch Bros. are to Mary Burke as communists were to Joseph McCarthy?
There were plenty of communists around in McCarthy's day, but McCarthy saw them everywhere.
Just as Ms Burke sees Koch Bros. influence everywhere- the moral equivalent to McCarthy's "fellow travelers."
Post a Comment