Saturday, January 31, 2009

The Problem With Oregon Republicans, Part 1

So, you're in a state that, through the years that mattered the most in the 20th Century, was reliably, almost (you'll excuse the hoary old term) "rock-ribbed" Republican. Perhaps the most famous and beloved Governor in your state's history–the great Tom McCall–was a Republican. Some of the most honorable modern public servance in the state's recent history–men like Vic Atiyeh–were Republican.

And people liked you!

But recently you and your party succumbed to the sweet, sweet song that the national party did: win at all costs, treat Democrats like the evil you deep down know that you are. Boy, that reactionism is to the political sould like Red Bull.

You get majorities in the state house. You make it impossible for those evil Democrats (who were once your neighbors you just disagreed with; now you see them for what they are–sinister invaders from God-knows-where) to get anything done. You put someone from the entrepreneur class of Portland conservatives in charge of the State House of Representatives who takes pride in shutting down anything she doesn't like. You let Representatives run around telling lies about and attacking the public employee unions (who serve him even though he loathes them).

For about 10 years, it works just fine. The people drink the Kool Aid and are sure that you've found the cause to the Oregon's ills, all forgetting the famous dictum of H.R. Mencken that said:

There is always a well-known solution to every human problem--neat, plausible, and wrong.


And you've been selling them that solution. It sold like hotcakes. Success was on the horizon for as far as the blinkered eye could see.

But eventually the population tired of the budgets that never quite supplied the needs their taxes paid for and got tired of the Legislature that never worked and tired of the Kool Aid because, after more than 10 years of drinking it, the taste had gone real sour.

In 2008, you have no candidates for major office with a hope of winning. In 2009, all state offices belong to The Evil Democrats, including one occupied by a man who used to be one of you.

The handwriting's on the wall. You're in a hole. What do you do? Keep digging? Or admit to yourself that maybe you've gone down the wrong path, one that's made you a minority party with a multi-hundred-thousand-dollar debt, few prospects, and the laughing-stock of Oregon politics, with The Enemy having a supermajority in the Oregon State Senate?

Ah, if you've not been following this story and you figure the answer is to stop diggin' that hole, you haven't sampled the fine, heady wine that is the intellectual treasury of Oregon Republicans today.

I give it away, of course, but will provide the answer and expand on that thought in Part 2, coming up next.

Schadenfreude, Episode 1

Now that Pajamas Media is going all PajamasTV and sh*t, guess they don't have any use for the foot soldiers any more ...

PJM to Jeff Goldstein of Protein Wisdom (amongst other prolix waste):

As you know, last September Pajamas Media began a new initiative in Internet television called Pajamas TV. When we started with our RNC coverage from Minneapolis, we noted that we would be in a Beta Phase through the first quarter of 2009. In the last few months we have strengthened the PJTV lineup with shows covering Media Bias, Education Bias, Middle East Update, Sharia and Jihad, Powerline Report, Ask Dr. Helen, Hugh News, Poliwood, Conservatism 2.0, Economy and Finance, National Security, and others.

As the end of the first quarter approaches and we near the production phase of Pajamas TV, we will continue to build our emphasis in this area. As a result we have decided to wind down the Pajamas Media Blogger and advertising network effective March 31, 2009. The PJM portal and the XPressBlogs will continue as is.

Jeff reacts:

What this means is that as of April 1, I am officially out of work. So save going to a pay model, this site will likely have to shut down.

Small price to pay for helping PJM pick up an audience and credibility during its “formative years.”

Yeah. Wank in public for free and what thanks do you get?

And you thought that liberals were the only people who threw their own under the bus. Actually, this seems more like a movement eating its own young, but still.

BTW, by "crediblity" I think you actually meant to say "risibility". Hope that helped.

(Via ...)


I liked her better when she was bassist with The Bangles

Apparently, Michael Steele is now the Chairman of the RNC. Who knew?

PS:Hah! Gotcha!

Friday, January 30, 2009

An Oregonian. A Leftie. Another Damn Poliblogger

There are some things I'd like to put on the table, right off the bat here.

There are eight billion poliblogs out there. This is yet another. I intend on being sparkling and scintillating and brilliant, because that's just the way I am. It's inborn.

I am a native Oregonian, about MYOB years old, who was born and has lived his entire life in the Willamette Valley ... pretty much the best place in the entire benighted world.

I am a liberal. You bet, the "L" word. I've watched as time has gone on and Oregonians have mostly preserved and partially trashed it, but Oregon herself has stayed pretty much intact, though I wonder for how long.

I don't like the Republican party. The Republican party is an organization that strives to limit your rights and freedoms, particularly your Constitutionally-assured right to the pursuit of happiness, while telling people that they are, in fact, doing the precise opposite. One of the things I hope to do is to figure out why some of you foolish people continue to believe them.

Seriously, they just pay lip service. You guys need to wake up.

This blog is anonymous. I'm not, however, out to slime anyone or pull a Robert Canfield on anyone. I have been a reader of Portland, Oregon blogs for a great long time, and watched with vicarious trepidation as he shot himself in the foot over and over and over again in a slander campaign against the somehow-appointed dean of Portland Bloggers, Bojack The Man.

I think there is a way to be anonymous and to gore some oxen that badly need it, and maybe be a little rude and blunt, but without openly insulting anyone or threatening thier livelihoods. Free speech is a bitch, y'all. And that too is something I'd like to explore.

I want to make fun of the Republican party.

Of the above, all may or may not be true. The only thing I will guarantee is that I'm an actual Oregonian, and I live in Portland.

Let the travesty begin.