Dubya has "jumped the couch" ? (Mo Dowd)

[kentuck]

Bike-Deep in the Big Muddy
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/27/opinion/27dowd.html


<snip>
W. has jumped the couch.

Not fallen off the couch, as he did when he choked on that pretzel.

Jumped it.

According to UrbanDictionary.com, "jump the couch" has now become slang for "a defining moment when you know someone has gone off the deep end. Inspired by Tom Cruise's recent behavior on 'Oprah.' Also see 'jump the shark.' "


The former stateside National Guardsman who was sometimes M.I.A. jumped the shark by landing on that "Mission Accomplished" carrier. (With Tom Cruise cockiness

....more

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. I recommend everyone read this

it is very funny and right on the mark.

[MaineDem]

2. Excellent!

I love this line... "Iraq, it turns out, is the one branch of American government that the Republicans don't control."

[Joe Chi Minh]

61. Yes, brilliant! And her terse concluding shaft,

"I feel safer already...!"

[FourStarDemocrat]

3. I love this line:

"Iraq, it turns out, is the one branch of American government that the Republicans don't control."

It's not surprising that groups of idiot reporters that were invited fawned over Bush's every step, and then they wonder why 90% of the public doesn't trust the press corps.

[LWolf]

15. I loved this one:

You'd think that by now, watching the meshugas in Iraq, the Bush crowd would have learned some lessons about twisting facts to suit ideology, and punishing those who try to tell the truth. But they're still behaving like Cinderella's evil stepsisters, who cut their feet to fit them into the glass slipper: butchering reality to make the fairy tale come out their way.

Those paying attention saw them butchering reality in the 2000 campaign, before the first selection. The farther from truth they get, the bloodier the butchery gets, with no quarter given.

America's evil stepfamily on a planet-wide rampage.

[flakey_foont]

4. Read it!!

Mo is on target this time

[BlueJac]

5. Right On

The pressure must stay on the chimp, he will soon crumble! :kick:

[peekaloo]

6. LOL

recommended

[YDogg]

7. I enjoyed it ...

... but I wonder whether anyone new is listening? Perhaps the tide is turning, and this reiteration of what we on DU accept as fact will begin to make sense to fence straddlers.

[zippy890]

8. Great read - 'jumped the couch'

:thumbsup:

[ChowChowChow]

9. DITTO

[ClayZ]

10. SWEEEEEET! GO MO!

:kick: :kick: :kick:

[Paradise]

11. Excellent! Thanks kentuck :)

My favorite line...

"Iraq, it turns out, is the one branch of American government that the Republicans don't control."

[DemReadingDU]

12. Mo is great!

[FreedomAngel82]

39. I've become a fan since I saw her on Bill Maher

:)

[rasputin1952]

13. Excellent read, and as usual, Mo gets it right...

:D

[kath]

33. Mo gets it right only once in awhile, definitely not "usually".

She wrote TONS of stupid articles about Gore wearing earth tones, being wooden etc. Certainly didn't go into Bush's record during the 2000 campaign. Also spent lots of time going after Clinton.

[Zen Democrat]

42. Mo's job is to go after whoever is in power. But she's made it plain --

she ain't never seen nothing like the fascist Bush gang.

[lolly]

56. Why is that her job?

Is a journalist really suppposed to just "go after" whoever is in power?

Or is to find out who is abusing power? Who is destroying our country?

C'mon, Maureen. Put it in print: "Good God, did I ever f**k up. I was so obsesessed with proving how Kewl I was and how much I belonged with the Kidz in the White House Press Korps that I lied about, defamed, and ridiculed the Clintons for utterly trivial (or even non-existent) offenses. Thanks to me and the rest of the totally-fer-sure Kewl Kidz, close to 2000 American soldiers are now dead. How will I ever get this blood off my hands?"

All the "OOOO, look, I hate the bastard now too" crap she writes can't undo what she helped bring about.

[ClayZ]

14. Email this far and wide from the writ site....

Let's have it be the most emailed from NYT today!

:bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

[ElectroPrincess]

16. All of the Neo-Cons Expert Handlers ...

Will not be able to "cover up" the fact that GW Bush has, IMO (and many others!) PRE-SENILE DEMENTIA.

I surmise within six months we'll be lock stepping for President Cheney. He'll get lots of sympathy for stepping up to the plate, but I hope (and pray) that it don't last. The truth always comes out sooner or later. Bank on it Neo-Cons ... your time to "pay the piper" will come. :P

[City Lights]

17. The press corpse "fawned" over **.

Dan Froomkin wrote on the Washington Post Web site that many of the reporters "fawned over Bush, following him around in packs every time he moved."

Fuck every last one of them. :mad: :grr:

[Joey Liberal]

18. Great article!! n.t

[Tin Man]

19. I'll recommend

it's just an Op-Ed, but it's such a gewwwwd Op-Ed!

[NJCher]

20. slacker-in-chief

"Jumped the couch" is so good because it emphasizes bush's laziness.




Cher

[mcar]

21. Jumped the couch! I love it

:7

[Burried News]

22. I got a letter for George ...

[Burried News]

23. OK George now that you're limbered up. One more jump...

[deminks]

30. Bwahahahaha! I was just going to ask.

:spray:

[BattyDem]

24. "Jumped the couch"

LOL! I haven't heard that one before! :rofl:

Mo's great! This has got to be the quote of the year:

Iraq, it turns out, is the one branch of American government that the Republicans don't control.

[Festivito]

25. Sadly, I think *Bush is on schedule.

He's done in '08, can't run again. (Cruise will run in another movie. False parallel.)

Bush expends life-capital for which some will paint him a hero and suspect the rest as sad-sacks.

Bush has nothing to lose FORCING the most rediculous ideas, except for one thing.

HE MAY NEED PARDON.

[BlueIris]

27. See, I followed you until the end.

"HE MAY NEED PARDON."

Honestly? If it ever gets to that point? I don't think that many people are going to paint him as a "hero." I just have doubts at this point that it's going to get to this stage. Rightwing control is simply too extreme.

[Festivito]

35. Some still love McCarthy.

And Sen. Joe just plainly fell from grace.

Ollie North is still the hero. Nixon redeemed himself in later life.

If it had not been for pardons GHW Bush could have been indicted. But, the pardons he gave the lower criminal patriots assured they'd have no incentive to testify -- and every reason not to testify.

Just as CONs do with the Reagan naming commision, the CONs will justify their existance by recalling moments of W's reign by noting worthless buffoonery such as W was the first president who started us on a course to a different planet. Others around a TV station table will be too stunned to recall that W offered nothing more than a speech and actually reduced funding to NASA, but their stunned silence will be taken as assent.

He'll be painted a hero because they have to do it.

[Nothing Without Hope]

26. Great article! I hadn't heard the story about the suppressed report on

racial profiling:

Eric Lichtblau reported in The Times this week that the administration was dumping the highly respected Lawrence Greenfeld, appointed by President Bush in 2001 to head the Bureau of Justice Statistics, because he refused superiors' orders to delete from a press release an account of how black and Hispanic drivers were treated more aggressively by the police after traffic stops. The Justice Department study showed markedly higher rates of searches and use of force for black and Hispanic drivers, compared with white drivers.

The rest of the article expands on this and points out how the person who suppressed the information has been promoted to a position in Homeland Security.

This is an outrage on so many levels, and I'm glad it's been picked up and publicized. We need to publicize it more - when the GOP say they support civil liberties, they are so obviously lying. This should go on the list of counter-proofs.

[Maestro]

28. That isn't the only thing to be suppressed.

I am currently a school administrator in a predominately Hispanic school with over 60% of the children learning English as a second language. I was also and really still am a bilingual educator. We have fought the rethuglicans for years as their propaganda machine simply rakes bilingual education through the coals even though all academic research points to its efficacy in teaching children the academic English that they need using both the native and second language. Apparently pretzelnut's education department is hesitant to release its own research on bilingual education report because it supports what we have been saying: long term use of both languages helps children learn a second language better. Sink or swim doesn't work when talking about academics. More here

http://www.susanohanian.org/show_research.html?id=91

[Nothing Without Hope]

31. Yes, excellent point - we need to publicize the report on bilingual

education. Who could possibly think that denying children who speak little or no English and have a mastery and history in another language education that takes advantage of and encourages their communication strengths? And indeed, the evidence goes against what the Rethugs want to believe and regularly lie about. It's one more form of bigotry, and it harms the children.

This needs to be pushed. Have there been recent DU threads on it? If not, I suggest DU and Kos threads on this subject. I'd be happy to give you my support with them if you want it.

[Maestro]

32. Definitely need your support

I am redoing my website currently or I would post it there. My website is through my school district so I have to be careful with the overtly political posts. My old website is here. http://www.irvingisd.net/~spollard2/ I also started a thread in the Education forum.

[Nothing Without Hope]

34. Later tonight I'll find your post in the Education Forum and post there.

I think that to get more viewing, a post on the broader issue of GOP bigotry as revealed in the racial profiling matter and in this bilingual education report - both situations where they ignore their own expert reports in order to pursue bigoted goals - needs to be made in General Discussion. It needs to be strong and passionate, because we need to MOVE people on this.

We can also post at Daily Kos. I have a diary there in case you don't.

Let me know how I can best help. Unfortunately I don't have my own web site. Is the ACLU thoroughly aware of these two cases? And there must be other groups who might mount a strong protest. And do you know of more examples that catch the GOPs red-handed ignoring their own best informants to push on with bigoted agendas?

[Nothing Without Hope]

41. I suggest we also write LLTEs about this article and point out that the

example of racial bigotry despite their own reports that she describes is only one example, give others - as you mention, the bilingual education situation is almost the same.

Here's the email at the end of the article in the OP:
E-mail: [e-mail]

Alternatively, Letters To The Editor can be written according to these instructions:

http://nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/lettertoeditor.html
Letters to the Editor

Letters to the editor should only be sent to The Times, and not to other publications. We do not publish open letters or third-party letters.

Letters for publication should be no longer than 150 words, must refer to an article that has appeared within the last seven days, and must include the writer's address and phone numbers. No attachments, please.

We regret we cannot return or acknowledge unpublished letters. Writers of those letters selected for publication will be notified within a week. Letters may be shortened for space requirements.

Send a letter to the editor by e-mailing [e-mail] or faxing [phone].

You may also mail your letter to:


Letters to the Editor
The New York Times
229 West 43rd Street
New York, NY 10036

To submit a letter to the City, Long Island or Westchester weekly sections, please e-mail [e-mail].

About Letters
Thomas Feyer, the letters editor, gives tips for getting your letter published. Click here for full article.

Additional Information?

Please call [phone] for recorded instructions.
See: Op-Ed Submissions.
To write the editorial page editor, e-mail [e-mail].
Other article submissions: Send your article to the editor of the department relevant to your piece (e.g. "News Editor," "Sports Editor") via regular mail to the address above.

[Captain Hilts]

60. It just came out this week. (nt)

[Skittles]

29. Daily Howler describing Ms. Dowd "jumping the couch"

still awaiting an apology for her bush-whoring before he was installed into the White House

http://www.dailyhowler.com/h081101_1.shtml

[kentuck]

36. I believe in redemption...

Especially with someone as brilliant with words as Ms. Dowd... :)

[lolly]

55. She hasn't asked for redemption

Redemption begins when one acknowledges wrongdoing.

I'll forgive her when she acknowledges what she's wrought.

[Captain Hilts]

40. She HATED Bush. (nt)

[jurassicpork]

51. Yeah, she made that plain

in BUSHWORLD, which I'm now reading. She knew he was an idiot from the time during the 1st campaign when he repeatedly referred to the East Timorese as the "East Timoreans."

JP
http://jurassicpork.blogspot.com

[Skittles]

54. not enough to not lie about Gore

and help get that bastard bush installed into the White House......like it or not, "MoDo" has blood on her hands and no amount of trashing after-the-fact is gonna redeem her in my eyes; she can go to hell.

[Knight of Ni]

57. Not just Gore! Look how she lied about Johnny the K !!

Does anybody remember last year and "Who among us doesn't like Nascar"? Kerry got slammed for this comment and he NEVER EVEN FUCKING SAID IT!!!

Here are the details (everybody else here seems to be using the Howler, so why not me?):

http://www.dailyhowler.com/dh092104.shtml

[Skittles]

58. this f***ing fawning over Ms. Dowd is making me ill

very short memories

[gumby]

37. Can't stand MoDo.

Thanks for the pertinent reminder Skittles.

However, "jumping the couch" is definitely a keeper.

[leesa]

43. She has written many anti-Bush articles looooog before others got on board

She has done a good job. If she slammed Clinton and Gore, perhaps they had earned it?

[lolly]

45. "Perhaps they had earned it?"

Yeah, sure. Hillary deserved to have MoDo "Kewl Kid" make up utter lies about a supposed "bridal registry" that she was creating upon leaving the White House.

The story was picked up and reported ad nauseaum on both right wing and "mainstream" news. Ask any wingnut, and he'll probably tell you it was a fact that the greedy, grubby Hillary set up a registry of gifts she wanted from people.

Of course, it was all crap. MoDo was just "imagining" what Hillary must be doing in her final days, but she was sure the horrible, evil, greedy white trash b++tch MUST be doing something like grubbing for goodies.

She's never made a point of setting the record straight, or apologized for her absolutely shameless anti-Clinton whoring.

FWIW, she never attacked him for any of his actual shortcomings or mistakes, just for being icky and not cool and lying about a blow job.

I don't read her; I'll give her the time of day when she delivers a full mea culpa.

[Skittles]

53. THANK YOU

I can't stand her

[jurassicpork]

52. She did slam Clinton

during his impeachment. That's how she won her Pulitzer. And it should come as no surprise to anyone that her articles are getting more scathing of Bush because, like Homer Simpson, Bush seems to get stupider as his madministration progresses, or degresses, as it were.

JP
http://jurassicpork.blogspot.com

[Joe Chi Minh]

62. Yep, brilliant as this article is,

you could scarcely exaggerate the shamelessly cynical bad faith and plain imbecility of joining the neocons in that truly infantile witch-hunt after Clinton.

[Captain Hilts]

59. She regularly eviscerated GWB and Hillary in 2000. (nt)

[FreedomAngel82]

38. I think Bush

lost that couch a long time ago. Before he could control it and fool us, but now it's painfully obvious. We have a mad-man "leading" our country.

[PinkyisBlue]

44. Oblivious

"W. chatted about sports and the twins, still oblivious to the cultural shift that is turning 2005 into 1968."

Either he's oblivious about everything beyond his own little sphere of existence or he just doesn't care, I haven't decided which.

[Arkana]

46. MoDo's articles are getting more and more scathing.

I enjoy reading her stuff. I have her book, "Bushworld: Enter At Your Own Risk."

[lolly]

47. Does she take any responsibility?

As I said above, I refuse to give her any of my business.

Does she mention anywhere in her book that she shares a chunk of the responsibility for foisting this Simian Sociopath on us? Or does she ever admit that, hey, maybe the Clintons and Al Gore weren't quite as terrible as she incessantly portrayed them?

[Arkana]

48. I don't really remember reading anything like that.

I just enjoyed the book--it basically described how Junior lives in a bubble, pretty much oblivious to anything else that goes on. :shrug:

I wasn't a MoDo reader or even that into politics until late in the Clinton admin.

[gumby]

49. I'm with lolly and Skittles

MoDo "jumped the shark" a looooong time ago. Snarkiness is not a pertinent quality.

Here's what she did to Gore:
http://www.google.com/custom?q=dowd%2Bgore&cof=AH%3Acenter%3BAWFID%3Ac32a032061318778%3B&domains=dailyhowler.com&sitesearch=dailyhowler.com

[jurassicpork]

50. I'll link to this article

on my blog when I do my new Top Ten Assclowns of the Week. It makes me sick that the MSM just drove right past Camp Casey on their way to chew catfish with the Boy in the Bubble. They lulled us into a sense of false security.

JP
http://jurassicpork.blogspot.com

[Stand and Fight]

63. Wow.