Here’s Obama’s speech on patriotism

2 comments July 1st, 2008

Was Ronald Reagan unpatriotic? No, but this conservative guy seems to think so

11 comments July 1st, 2008

This is pretty funny:

Conservative scribbler Jonah Goldberg has DECLARED in one of his writings that Barack Obama is somehow unpatriotic for having said, “I’m going to try to tell the American people what I believe will make this country great…”

That Obama guy sure has a lot of nerve to suggest that this country is not already great. He must be some kind of anti-American Muslim or something, just like the guys at the water cooler were saying this morning.

Oh, but wait! When Ronald Reagan accepted the Republican presidential nomination in 1980, he said: “For those who have abandoned hope, we’ll restore hope and we’ll welcome them into a great national crusade to make America great again.”

Well, Jonah, are you going to apologize to Obama or to Reagan’s many admirers or what?

John Roberts is a Bob Dylan fan? Say it ain’t so

10 comments July 1st, 2008

I’m sorry, but people with whom I fundamentally disagree on political matters are not allowed to enjoy the kind of music that speaks to my mind and soul. I think there’s some kind of cultural rule written down somewhere about that sort of thing.

That’s why I’m forced to demand that Chief Justice John Roberts (he of the right-wing bent, you know) cease and desist in the favor he shows toward the lyrics of the incomparable troubadour Bob Dylan.

Dylan’s words and music belong to me and like-minded people who can fully appreciate their meaning, not to conservative zanies. If Roberts wants to wax ecstatic about Toby Keith or some other musical jingoist, that’s fine with me.  But he should leave Dylan to those of us who really understand him.

This matter arises with NEWS from The New York Times that Roberts quoted a Dylan song in rendering an otherwise boring ruling in some boring case.

The Times quoted the following passage from Roberts’ opinion:

“The absence of any right to the substantive recovery means that respondents cannot benefit from the judgment they seek and thus lack Article III standing. ‘When you got nothing, you got nothing to lose.’ Bob Dylan, Like a Rolling Stone, on Highway 61 Revisited (Columbia Records 1965).”

Typically, Roberts didn’t even get the Dylan quote right. It’s supposed to be, “When you ain’t got nothin’…”

The Times also reports that Dylan is the most oft-quoted rocker in judicial opinions. But I have to wonder how many of those opinions are of the right-wing variety and thus are disturbing to me —  and presumably to Dylan, too.

As Bob himself might say to these conservative jurists: “You’ve got a lot of nerve to say you are my friend…”