University of North Carolina
Remember the "McLuhan Moments"? There's a scene in "Annie Hall" in which Woody Allen starts lecturing some pedantic academic in a movie-theater line about how little he knows about Marshall McLuhan. When the guy protests, Allen brings the actual McLuhan over. "You know nothing of my work," the scholar says.
This dynamic appears in politics with some regularity -- politicians cite someone else's work for support, only to find that this person doesn't agree with the politician at all. Take yesterday, for example.
House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) sent a letter to the White House with a transparently ridiculous debt-reduction offer, claiming it was based on the work of Erskine Bowles, the former Clinton White House chief of staff who helped lead the unsuccessful Simpson-Bowles Commission. Within a couple of hours, Bowles issued a statement effectively telling the Republican leader he knows nothing of Bowles' work.
"While I'm flattered the Speaker would call something 'the Bowles plan,' the approach outlined in the letter Speaker Boehner sent to the President does not represent the Simpson-Bowles plan, nor is it the Bowles plan. In my testimony before the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, I simply took the mid-point of the public offers put forward during the negotiations to demonstrate where I thought a deal could be reached at that time.
"The Joint Select Committee failed to reach a deal, and circumstances have changed since then."
In other words, Bowles opposes the "Bowles plan," or at least John Boehner's manipulation of it. I suspect the Speaker hoped to capitalize on the credibility "Simpson Bowles" enjoys with the Beltway establishment, but that clearly failed once the co-chair of the debt commission was able to speak up for himself.
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Typo alert. Boehner actually referred to it as the "Bowels" plan, 'cause it's full of sh!t.
the "Simpson-Bowles Plan" is as dead as a road kill armadillo in the Texas sun.
Terminally ill at conception, the coup de grace was administered by Commission Member Paul Ryan, with a Caesar- like Thumbs Down at the call for the vote.
I think perhaps you may be in need of a timeout...Bad liberal Butt kissing troll...BAD!!
Look at little Scotty, how heculean his task, coming here every day to demonstrate for us how ignorant stupidity has to be, to be a wingnut moron.
That's a bit premature. I suspect the Villagers are made of sterner stuff: they're not about to let facts get in the way of their preferred narratives.
And Hussein looking for tax increases AND 50 Billion in payola..err..."stimulus" spending. This guy is just lost...and has been since the day he lifted his hand.
Good morning Scott w/a bazillion numbers! Such a pleasure to see you still offer non-sense disguised as FOXNEWS talking points, disguised as your own deeeeeep thought!
Thanks for the laugh! -Kevo
One can always get a cogent discussion of any issue of to a good start by the use of a pejorative.
Right, you dumbass MF'er?
(Filthy Fox troll, whose mother is a hamster and a father who smells of elderberries.)
Scotty the numbers guy! You're up and at 'em this morning I see, armed with your Limbaugh and Hannity talking points.
When are you going to answer the question I've posed to you on several occasions:
After 3 trillion dollars in tax cuts to the job creators, we suffered through the worst period of job creation in modern history. Why did this happen?
I'm just gonna say this troll must have hot pink hair, possibly a beauty school drop out.He apparantally, isn't fond of all those tax loopholes, either. He avoids stimulation, pretty dull.
Boehner,Cantor and the rest of the breast feeding republicans are still laying on their backs kicking their feet because they're not getting their way. Still trying to keep the economy from recovering so the President will look bad. This time their "job creator" bulls*it is'nt going to work. The majority of the people are with the President and they know it.
Attaboy, Erskine!
All y'all: I can only flit in and out intermittently at this time o' year. I do keep up as well as I can with y'all and enjoy y'all's comments and discussions.
Be well and fight the good fight.
What is the communications like among Republicans, that Boehner didn't even discuss his "plan" with the man whose name he felt free to use? Isn't that false light?
Now THAT is great....4 years in, employment and job situation worse than ever and it's STILL not Hussein's fault. Will ANYTHING EVER be "on HIS watch"?
One more thing, chillun: DNFTT!
Now, if only Jesus, Ayn Rand, Ronald Reagan and Lincoln were around to set the record straight.
Our modern Republican leadership seem to be akin to that Twain boy named Sawyer - they just don't wanna grow up!
I'm a bit tired of their petulant insistence we all paint that picket fence for them! -Kevo
Just as I tire of this Welfare maven with his elbows out and palms up waiting for a handout. It astounds me that because "Hussein WON his popularity contest" that now he should be allowed to continue his decimation of the American economy off the backs of the American taxpayer unabated. You guy's are just too high!
Scott: "circumstances have changed since then", Bowles said.
Yeah, Romney lost.
Oh, and while I'm at it Scott w/a bazillion numbers - Your sentence, "You guy's[sic] are just too high!" is incorrect grammatically!
You know studies have shown sloppy grammatically construction comes at the height of emotional distress. I hope you are not about to pop!
And, Scott, a literary allusion such as the one I used can't really be accomplished with such elan when one is high! Did you even get the value of the allusion? -Kevo
When I heard that the real Bowles said it wasn't even "his plan" I immediately thought of that "Annie Hall" moment; and you'd think that the GOTP would be embarrassed by their flub (yet again) but it doesn't seem to faze them one bit! These people aren't acquainted with shame, humiliation, reason, logic, reality - maybe the "Stepford Wives" really are real?!? It's either that or the Manchurian Candidates.....
More like "The Kenyan candidate". 4 years of nothing but fiscal disaster and Liberals think ANYBODY is going to roll over to this financial idiot?
In order to reach an agreement, both sides need to meet each other in the middle of the White House lawn. Get a rope and start playing tug-of war. The winner takes all. That would mean, in simpler terms, they asked where is the President, one too many times, when the President has been staring at them the whole time, waiting for an invitation, well, there will be nomore invitations being handed out by the President. You either take his help, or you don't, if you don't you lose, either way they have lost. Stop obstructing, stop resisting, sit down and eat your vegetables. Stop attacking our President. We have bigger fish to catch. The Republicans are impeding our growth. Ask Caine, cigarettes do stump our growth.Ask Trump, Government and Hollywood don't mix. He needs to face reality, he's been playing that role for far too long. I rescind if it was sabotage.
You are a blind babbling buffoon. What has this failure done SUCCESSFULLY? 47 MILLION on food stamps,Manufacturing contracted to it's LOWEST POINT since this failure has taken office....are you BLIND? Get out of the way so he can FINISH his demolition of American industry...WOW!
Romney lost.
Using large print is your comeback?
Bye................................
Little Scotty must have a truly enormous bladder, to be able to drink that much Kool-Aid and then come over here and urinate all over the fire hydrants like he does.
Scott, I'm sorry, I wasn't talking to you.
Amazing. They're just grasping at willow-o-wisps of congressional testimony? It's a top-down dumb down event. It doesn't even qualify as obfuscation.
I am so sick of this whole mess. We talk about how the Democrats have to hurt as much as the Republicans do. What we need to talk about is how much the people are going to hurt who lose their medicare or who have to choose between meds and food. Please get real everyone. Figure out who can stand some more pain and save everyone else. I really, really ache for the people who we talk about so cavalierly. They need our concern.