Blogoland

Obama's Magic Foreign Bus

2011-08-17T13:53:00.003-04:00

Apparently, two reporters from ABC were dispatched to follow up on a HUGE story by The New York Post implicating President Obama for riding in a bus that -- get this -- was partially made in Canada. Devin Dwyer and Ann Compton with the shocking details.

The $1.1 million jet-black rumbling bus that has been carrying Obama through the Midwest this week was designed in part by Prevost, a motor coach manufacturer based in Quebec. The New York Post was first to report this, and Provost [sic] officials confirmed this fact to ABC News.

"We just build an empty shell of a bus, and then sell them to a converter for outfitting," Prevost's Steve Zeigler told ABC News.

The U.S. Secret Service said it purchased the vehicle from Hemphill Brothers Coach Co., which is based in Nashville, Tenn.

Hemphill, which declined to discuss the presidential bus or its business generally, assembles custom motor coaches and customizes the interiors before selling the finished product directly to individuals, businesses or the government.

"We just make the shell. We don't know anything about the end user," said Christine Garant of Prevost.

Several industry sources speculated that Hemphill may have installed an American-made engine, such as a Detroit Diesel, in the presidential bus, though that could not be immediately confirmed.

Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan said the agency based its purchase on bus design, looking for the coach with the most available space to accommodate state-of-the-art custom security modifications.

What did Obama know about the shell and when did he know it? What else of his is foreign? This will clearly sink his presidency. Thanks, Ann and Devin.

Supreme False Equivalency

2011-02-13T08:03:00.005-05:00

Noah Feldman, writing in The New York Times, informs us that all Supreme Court justices are partisan tools:

Justice Antonin Scalia, for his part, naturally spends time with like-minded conservatives including Representative Michele Bachmann and Charles Koch. But when the brilliant, garrulous Justice Scalia hobnobs with fellow archconservatives, he is not being influenced any more than is the brilliant, garrulous Justice Stephen Breyer when he consorts with his numerous friends and former colleagues in the liberal bastion of Cambridge, Mass.

Exactly. Because Stephen Breyer lives in Cambridge and probably has liberal friends over for dinner, it's EXACTLY THE SAME as the "brilliant" Antonin Scalia acting in a very public and very partisan way by appearing at Tea Party gatherings organized by kooks like Michelle Bachmann and being a speaker at a conference funded by our Galtian heroes the Koch brothers. As for Cheney and Scalia duck-hunting together? Well, they weren't in the same blind! Also: Harry Truman played poker with a justice. So it's all on the level.

Breaking!!!!!From the NYTimes!!!!

2011-02-07T20:40:00.002-05:00

College Professors are overwhelmingly liberal.

I sure hope this doesn't happen on the field!

2011-02-05T19:29:00.010-05:00

In an otherwise humdrum article about how Aaron Rodgers is ACTUALLY battling both the Steelers and the legacy of Brett Favre, Washington Post columnist Mike Wise unleashes this paragraph:

"If Aaron Rodgers can pull this off, if he can lead the Packers to a Super Bowl victory over that Steeler defense and really have the kind of game people remember, then he basically knocked Brett Favre out," said Ross Tucker, the former NFL offensive lineman and now one of the game's most candid and sharp analysts. "Right now I see Brett Favre in some imaginary boxing ring, holding onto the top rope like a bloodied and tired fighter. And Aaron Rodgers is coming in for the donkey punch to end it. If he wins Sunday, he just landed that donkey punch."

That is candid! Though I'm guessing neither Ross Tucker nor Mike Wise know what a "Donkey Punch" is, or well, maybe they do, and if they really believe that Rodgers is going to do that to Favre -- metaphorically, of course -- then, Ew.

[helpful but disturbing and kinda NSFW animation at link]

VERY IMPORTANT UPDATE! They've now changed it to "[knockout] punch." But the donkey is forever preserved here...

Exclusive! Republicans plan on investigating Obama for Bush misdeeds!

2010-08-27T11:02:00.003-04:00

Darrell Issa and Lamar Smith are gearing up for exciting, but definitely non-witch-hunty investigations of Obama should Republicans win back the House this fall. Politico relays us the news that they'll be looking into the following:

Bailouts, Bailouts, Bailouts. No investigation poses a more significant political danger to Obama than a no-holds-barred GOP probe into TARP, the AIG bailout, the Freddie-Fannie sinkhole and the administration’s de facto takeover of GM and Chrysler.

Yes, no investigation poses more danger for Obama than a probe of the transgressions of his predecessor. Hopefully, Darrell Issa will subpoena Hank Paulson and grill him over what, exactly, he was thinking when Senator-Dictator Obama ordered him to create TARP and bailout both AIG and Fannie-Freddie.

Now, I don't know whether the author, Glenn Thrush, is a flaming idiot or whether his GOP sources sold him this bill of goods. But oh, hey look, remember this Pew Poll?

Sherrod tape review: Yup, she was railroaded UPDATED: Transcript of comments

2010-07-20T19:51:00.010-04:00

Just had a chance to watch the full tape over at the NAACP's site (it's also on YouTube). First, it's clear (as many suspected) that her tale about not helping the white farmer to her fullest was, in fact, a story about how she eventually concluded that she was wrong to have thought that way, and in fact, she needed to overcome her own biases. She goes on to describe how she personally intervened to help save the farm when the original lawyer for the farmer had decided to throw in the towel. Here are some quotes from various points in the talk:

I have come to realize that we have to work together. And it’s sad that we don’t have a room full of white and blacks here tonight. Because we have to overcome the divisions we have. We have to get to the point where – as Toni Morrison said – race exists but it doesn’t matter.

AND

"But you know God will show you things and he'll put things in your path, so that you'll realize that the struggle is really about poor people."

AND

"Working with him [the farmer] made me see that it's really about those who have vs. those who do not. And they could be black, they could be white, they could be hispanic. and it made me realize then that I needed to work to help poor people -- those who don't have access the way others have."

First things first:

1) Breitbart is a race huckster of the lowest kind -- a liar, a hypocrite and completely depraved. But we already knew that.
2) Ditto for Fox News
3) The NAACP should be ashamed of itself. They've since apologized. They should publicly apologize to Sherrod if they have not done so already.
4) Tom Vilsack should be ashamed of himself and should resign.
5) If what Sherrod has said -- that pressure was applied by the Obama administration USDA to fire her -- then they are a bunch of spineless nitwits who deserve all the vitriol being hurled at them.

UPDATE:

Here's a transcript I've roughed out:

[16:45]

But you know God will show you things and he'll put things in your path, so that you'll realize that the struggle is really about poor people.

The first time I was faced with having to help a white farmer save his farm -- He took a long time talking, but he was trying to show me he was superior to me. I knew what he was doing. But he had come to me for help. What he didn’t know while he was taking all that time trying to show me he was superior to me was I was trying to decide just how much help I was going to help him.

I was struggling with the fact that so many black people have lost their farmland. And here’s I was faced with having to help a white person save their land. So I didn’t give him the full force of what I could do. I did enough so that when he – so that when I assumed that the Department of Agriculture had sent him to me –[unintelligible] the Georgia Department of Agriculture –

And he needed to go back and report that I did try to help him. So I took him to a white lawyer that had attended some of the training that we had provided. Because Chapter 12 bankruptcy had just been enacted for the family farm. So I figured if I took him to one of them, that his own kind would take care of him. That’s when it was revealed to me that it’s about poor vs. those who have. And not so much about white – it is about white and black – but it opened my eyes. Because I took him to one of his own. And I put him in his hand, and said ‘OK, I’ve done my job.’

But during that time we would have these injunctions against the Department of Agriculture, so they couldn’t foreclose on him. And I want you to know that the county supervisor had done something to him that I had not seen yet, that they had done to any farmer -- black or white. And what they did to him caused him not to be able to file Chapter 12 bankruptcy.

So everything was going along fine, I’m thinking, he’s being taken care of by the white lawyer. And then they lifted the injunction against USDA, in May of ‘87. For two weeks – and he was one of thirteen farmers in Georgia who received the foreclosure notice – he called me. I said, ‘Well go on and make an appointment at the lawyer, let me know when it is, and I’ll meet you there.’

So we met at the lawyer’s office on the date they had given him. And the lawyer sat there – and he had been paying the lawyer, ya’ll, that’s what got me – he had been paying the lawyer since November, and this was May. And the lawyer sat there and looked at him and said, ‘Well ya’ll getting old, why don’t you just let the farm go?’ I could not believe he said that. So I said to the lawyer I told him ‘I can’t believe you said that.’ I said it’s obvious to me if he cannot file a Chapter 12 bankruptcy to stop this foreclosure, you have to file and11. And the lawyer said to me, ‘I’ll do whatever you say -- whatever you think,’ that’s how he put it. But he was paying him, he wasn’t paying me any money. So the lawyer said he would work on it.

And then about 7 days before that man would have been sold at the courthouse steps, the farmer called me and said the lawyer wasn’t doing anything. And that’s when I spent time there in my office calling everybody I could think of to try to help me find a lawyer who would handle this. And finally I remembered I had gone to see one 40 miles away in [unintelligible].

[gap]

[LATER]

I have come to realize that we have to work together. And it’s sad that we don’t have a room full of white and blacks here tonight. Because we have to overcome the divisions we have. We have to get to the point where – as Toni Morrison said – race exists but it doesn’t matter.

Football writer wants to tell you who the real culprit is in the economic meltdown

2010-07-18T15:55:00.007-04:00

In an otherwise interesting profile of Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers, ESPN's Tim Keown unleashes this head-scratcher:

We've tried to eliminate disappointment, run it off like a deadly virus. The world's most potent economy collapsed when too many people decided they couldn't bear to be disappointed. They bought houses they couldn't afford and cars they didn't need. They believed that a parent's most appalling failure is a disappointed child. Oh, no, we can't disappoint the children. Lord forbid we allow our kids to be deprived. The dirtiest word in the English language: no.

Tim, I hate to break it to you, but the world's most potent economy didn't collapse because some people bought mortgages and cars they couldn't afford. If that was all that happened, we'd have a minor problem in the housing and car loan sector of the economy. The reason everything turned to shit in 2007-08 is because insane people on Wall Street used those garbage mortgages and loans as play money to make crazy, Ponzi-scheme-type "products" called Collateralized Debt Obligations and Credit Default Swaps, which, if you didn't know any better, looked like they were programmed to fail. The nitwits who ran our large financial institutions were either clueless or complicit in the scam, and the American taxpayer was ordered to foot the bill for their stupidity.

Also, Tim: No one forced anyone to take out a mortgage they couldn't afford. Loan originators resold their stuff up the chain, and didn't have to worry whether what they "originated" was good or not ("Liar Loans" anyone?) -- In fact, if you believe Michael Lewis's new book, the people in charge of packaging this stuff actively sought out suckers like recent immigrants with thin (but decent) credit histories so that the ratings agencies would give their stamp of approval on the package. Is that the fault of the mortgage-holder?

Stick to football, dude.

Choke that Mixed Metaphor in the Bathtub

2010-06-07T09:19:00.003-04:00

Mega-critic David Carr offers Newsweek some advice:

To stick out, Newsweek needs less top-spin on current events and far more curve balls with fewer steps back and more looks forward.

Interesting. In a similar vein, next week, Carr plans to solicit advice from Tom Friedman on how to write in non-gobbledygook.

BONUS FUN: Three paragraphs later, the same David Carr -- and not a malfunctioning cyborg lacking self-consciousness -- criticizes Newsweek writer Fareed Zakaria for bad writing.

Going All Inigo Montoya on Them

2010-05-24T13:10:00.005-04:00

TS demonstrates a hideous wingnut circle jerk in action, but I'm more struck by the fact that two law professors and a psychologist apparently don't know the definition of "blackmail."

Get Howard Kurtz An Anatomy Textbook!

2010-05-24T12:53:00.003-04:00

Thigh-high boots.

Bwoop! Bwoop!

2010-05-18T10:22:00.002-04:00

Failed Attempted Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad also wanted to be a failed attempted bomber of four other targets in NYC, CT.

Bring Guns, Guns and Guns

2010-04-15T09:53:00.005-04:00

Slightly shorter InstaPundit: The idea of creating state-run militias isn't absurd at all! In fact, there's a great history of armed groups overthrowing tyrannical governments that overstep their bounds! I mean, not that we should do that here... yet.

Corruption everywhere!

2010-03-24T08:30:00.007-04:00

Did Obama buy John Boehner's and Mike Pence's "no" votes on health care reform?

The right-wing blogosphere has seized on Stupak’s Friday announcement that three airports in his district received a total of $726,409 grants as the possible reason behind his last-minute "yes" vote.

“Did Stupak compromise his supposed principled stand against taxpayer funding of abortion in exchange for taxpayer dollars for pet projects?” asks one posting on Deal Watch, the National Republican Congressional Campaign Committee’s latest blog.

[...]

The Airport Improvement Program, which has existed since the early 1980s, awarded grants in 47 states this year. At least six of the districts receiving the funds are represented by Republicans, including Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Conference Chairman Mike Pence, whose districts received $108,738 and $75,000 respectively.

So if I understand this correctly, Bart Stupak was bought off with a grant program that's existed since the early 80's, the same grant program that this year awarded tens of thousands of dollars to airports in at least six Republican districts. I guess those GOPers are made of sterner stuff than Mr. Stupak!

Elsewhere... Dear Tea People: This video may be in need of a re-shoot.

LATER: How did we miss this??? Apparently, Bush was trying to buy Stupak's health care vote back in 2007 in an elaborate scheme whereby the Michigan Congressman would receive over $1.4 million for airport improvements in exchange for the promise to make wingnuts look like idiots. Oh, and it gets worse! He received nearly $3 million in 2006.

Grants awarded, 2007:

Alpena -- $707,750
Acquire Snow Removal Equipment, Improve Airport Drainage, Security Enhancements

Delta -- $304,000
Construct Snow Removal Equipment Building, Install Taxiway Lighting

Chippewa International -- $316,350
Acquire Snow Removal Equipment, Rehabilitate Runway Lighting, Rehabilitate Taxiway

Grants awarded, 2006

Alpena $162,000
Improve Airport Miscellaneous Improvements, Install Airfield Guidance Signs

Delta -- 1,666,361

Conduct Environmental Study, Environmental Mitigation, Rehabilitate Runway, Update Airport Master Plan Study

Chippewa International -- 749,420

Install Miscellaneous NAVAIDS, Install Taxiway Lighting, RehaBuilding

Chippewa International -- 305,900

Acquire Snow Removal Equipment

Psst- wingnuts...I know this story is one of those "too good to check" things, but try looking up "grant histories" -- it's almost like real reporting!

Alex Chilton

2010-03-20T18:44:00.003-04:00

My friend Louise did a fantastic interview with the notoriously media-shy artist in 2000. He talks about his drug use, his songwriting (which he thought sucked), the media. Read it here [and, yeah, the website for the Hudson Current is horrendous, and the intro to the interview is duplicated for some reason, but try to ignore that]. Here's an excerpt:

LT: So you must get a lot of people that request Big Star and Box Tops songs at your shows. Does that bother you?

AC: I don't care. If people pay their money to come in, they could pretty much do whatever they'd like. There are [a few] Big Star songs that I play, but that's about all. I mean, a lot of times if people are really hollering out for Big Star tunes, then I'll tell them that they hired the wrong band, and what they wanted to see was Big Star and not me.

LT: Is it weird to have all these die-hard Big Star fans after the fact?

AC: I don't know. It all makes perfect sense to me. We never really managed to grab the public's attention and our record company couldn't quite do the right thing with us to make us a success. So it's all sort of practical. The fact that the records are good and have some good stuff on it, it sort of stands to reason that, after a while, we would have some fans. But I'm not sure I understand the cult of Big Star.

LT:I read that you said that your Big Star songs were mediocre and that Box Tops was a farce.

AC: Well, I mean, there were good things about both groups. I listen to a Big Star record and I think it's pretty good, but I listen to, you know, 150 other bands and think that they're just as good or better. And I just don't see it as something super, super special, at least not especially good in my view.

LT: Do you think that's normal? Because most people in bands are pretty proud of their old work.

AC: Well, I'm pretty proud of it, but it seems to me that what's good about a Big Star record, is that it was kind of meticulously done, very well recorded and well produced. I really think that in a way, the guy who engineered and mixed our records is what's really great about it. I mean, some of the music is good, but we were also kind of lucky that we had a really good engineer. If we'd been recorded in another way, people wouldn't hear us the same at all.

So long, Alex.

Research is hard!

2009-08-06T10:07:00.021-04:00

At some point yesterday, Nancy Pelosi gave an interview in which she said about the recent town hall goon squads: "They're carrying swastikas and symbols like that to a town meeting on health care."

The super-sleuths of the internet were outraged! And after conducting a pathetic search, cyber-forensic expert Kevin Aylward of Wizbang proclaimed the Speaker's words "Bullshit."

Psst. Kevin. This search took 0.10 seconds.

The fourth result of this search leads you to a Washington Monthly post by Steve Benen who notes:

Let's not forget the protestor carrying a tombstone with Rep. Lloyd Doggett's (D-Texas) name on it -- at the same event with an activist carrying a sign with Nazi "SS" lettering.

Now if you follow that last link, you'll be taken to this page, which notes:

See, as one Dem points out, the much-watched Lloyd Doggett video today. Go to about a [sic] the 2:00 minute mark and you'll find a guy carrying a kid on his shoulders and hoisting a sign with the Nazi "SS" lettering.

And, lo and behold, at 2:03, there's this image:

Above: Patriotic American Cleverly Compares Health-Care Reform with Nazis

At the top of the photo, just to the right of the "Stop" sign there's a guy waving this placard that appears to say:

"SStop SSocialized Medicine!"

Nice touch with the SS lightning bolts! In case you're not familiar with the Schutzstaffel, it was the personal guard unit for Hitler, whose leader was Heinrich Himmler, the architect of the final solution. The SS was in charge of the concentration camps. They murdered millions. Here's a helpful primer in case you want to learn more! So if I understand the reasoning, the man waving the placard believes that health care reform is akin to Nazi death squads murdering innocent civilians. Okey-dokey.

Yeah, it's one guy, and it's not a swastika (let's be accurate!) But jeez, how hard is it to find this?

Above: No swastikas here! Alle ist gut.

LATER: Aylward is alerted by a commenter that he's all wet, and notes: "Verdict: Not Swastikas, Still Bullshit." I agree! Pelosi should come out and apologize immediately! I've drafted a statement for her:

"Yesterday, I said that Nazi imagery, specifically, a swastika, was appearing at rallies against health care reform. Sadly, I was wrong. The image was, in fact, of the SS, the Nazi Germany secret police, which was responsible for the administration of concentration camps, which resulted in the deaths of millions of innocents. I was wrong to mistake the image, and apologize profusely to any non-SS Nazi who may have been offended."

Also, right-wing groups would never, ever use swastikas or other Nazi-style imagery at rallies.

LATER: Obvious forgery

Civility!

2009-04-29T10:48:00.002-04:00

Michelle Malkin, recently seen wondering why liberals are so hateful, dreams up hilarious new names for the swine flu.

I’m all for helping keep businesses from being victimized by the uninformed (many voters can empathize because the same thing often happens to us on Election Day), so maybe another name is in order. But what should it be?

The Obama administration has already stopped using the terms “terrorism” (now “man-caused disasters”) and “war on terror” (now “overseas contingency operation”), so there should be no problem changing the name of the “swine flu.” How about “Virus caused disasters”? “Rosie O’Donnell fever”?

Get it? Rosie's a pig. Because she's fat! Hahahahahahahahahaha!

Courage, Fox News Style

2009-04-24T17:07:00.002-04:00

Listen to Jesse Watters bravely transfer a call to a spokesperson!

I will say that Gawker kind of screwed this up by announcing they would be ambushing the guy to begin with.

via

News you can abuse

2009-04-23T00:22:00.004-04:00

Shorter wingnuttia:

The New York Times is engaged in a fiendish plot to cover up an exclusive news story with potentially damaging reverberations for the Obama administration by printing the item in their newspaper and putting a longer version of it on their website.

Sure the body's only 12 hours cold, but that's the perfect time to engage in Vince Foster-style conspiracy theorizing!

2009-04-22T21:25:00.004-04:00

Let's just say these people are starting to wade into some very choppy waters right now.

LATER: Full dive!

...and now bodies are starting to surface.

Deep in the Weeds

2009-04-22T01:48:00.004-04:00

I don't really want to get in the middle of an inter-blog flame war, but I'll just note that Tom Maguire called another blogger essentially a coward for -- and I am not kidding here -- failing to directly link to a post of his (and instead sending his readers to another blogger who links to the original, brilliant Maguire post.)

I told you it was stupid.

So Maguire whines: 'He's prepared to call "bullshit', but not to my face - what's missing in his response to my argument is any link at all to me. He's a bold one! Fortunately, my spies are everywhere..."

Well then. Rules are rules, and who am I to question? Anyway, it's late and I'm going to bed .... but wait, what about this section at the end of Maguire's post.

And here is Atrios, who apparently is still blogging:

I'm so old I can remember when everyone would tell me that Tom Maguire was a "reasonable conservative."

That old? I feel bad for the guy.

Ha! Of course, what's missing from that passage, which is now almost two days old, is an actual link to that Atrios quip. So if I understand the rules right, Maguire didn't just slip up and leave out a link to Atrios, he's actually a complete coward who can't bring himself to say such a thing to his virtual face. Do I have this right? Is Maguire really this stupid?

Because!

2009-04-21T12:09:00.003-04:00

Shorter Michael Crowley:

When the troops cheered for President Bush, that was totally awesome, but when the employees at the CIA cheered for President Obama, that was really inappropriate and I don't like it one bit. Because!

Dear wingnuts

2009-04-20T13:04:00.008-04:00

Doesn't this photo just fill you with burning hateful rage -- that our president would have the temerity to grin and clasp the hand of a sworn enemy?

Above: President Reagan at a Plenary meeting with Soviet General Secretary Gorbachev at the Soviet Mission during the Geneva Summit. 11/20/85.

No? Then you just might be a hack.

LATER: A right-winger breaks with his brethren and offers more interesting photos from history, including Nixon and Mao; and Stalin, FDR and Churchill.

Because nothing is sexier than grasping a turkey carcass in the middle of the woods while wearing your wedding dress!

2009-04-20T10:59:00.005-04:00

Easily the most disturbing image I've seen in some time:

These are the times I feel like a stranger in my own land. Read the whole sordid tale, if you dare.

Power Line calls out WSJ op-ed for hackishness

2009-04-18T12:26:00.003-04:00

Is it the sign of the apocalypse? Kudos to Power Line for being honest, and noting that Coleman has no shot at winning an appeal to the State Supreme Court, but I'm guessing that the Coleman legal efforts are not really about winning anymore and more about being a dick -- backed by national Republicans -- by delaying the seating of Al Franken.

I can haz heven?

2009-04-17T10:44:00.002-04:00

Shorter Mike Mukasey and Michael Hayden:

Hey, we only tortured around 100 people. It's not like we're monsters or anything! Obama sucks!

On a serious note, this op-ed is top-shelf insanity the whole way through. Read it all to get an understanding of the people who were actually running this country.

Please Explain!

2009-04-16T20:54:00.003-04:00

Fox News brings the knowledge:

Teabagging, for those who don't live in a frat house, refers to a sexual act involving part of the male genitalia and a second person's face or mouth.

And now you know.

Oh Lordy I love Fox. Deeper down in the article, there's this:

Click here to join a discussion on teabagging.

Do not click link. Do not click link. Oh, crap:

well i see it took a puke bag liberal to make a disgusting sex act out of the words tea bag, go figure. these people are a bunch of sick sons a britches, only a liberal would want to chew through a ball sack! as far as msnb.ullc.rap with butch maddow and i sheet my draws keith obermueller they probably have first hand knowledge about this sack sucking process. wait a minute! butch probably watched ober and whats that other guy, oh! the tingle up his leg guy chrissy matchew, that tingle must have been keithy boys bottom lip.[he has no upper lip people] thanks fox for the coverage and keep up the good work i say. thanks

That's pure gold, folks.

Shakes Fist at Straw Man

2009-04-16T11:35:00.002-04:00

Some guy is very angry because the MSM just won't cover the great Right Wing Group Hug of 2009!

Nearly 200,000 Americans showed up to protest high taxes in hundreds of cities around the country today.

The New York Times and The Boston Globe ignored "Tea Parties" altogether. ABC and CBS reporters were nowhere to be found.

Well, that makes me very mad! And down with the corporate media for asking a man to explain why our president is a fascist!

Furthermore look at how the evil New York Times ignored the Tea Parties today! Look at them ignoring them again! Look at this ignoring roundtable discussion. Look at this ignoring from the Boston Globe! As for ABC and CBS, both were nowhere to be found with these reports.

Never let facts get in the way of a good rant.

[via, shockingly]

Fun with our Power Line pals

2009-04-15T17:08:00.005-04:00

Shorter John Hinderaker:

Obama said he didn't know about our amazing, awesome Tea Parties. He's a liar! Liaaaaar! Liiiiiiaaaaaaarrrrrr!!!!!! [Weeps uncontrollably, grabs gun]

I can't believe how much fun this is.

And, dude, Obama is tweaking you by feigning ignorance. Bush used to pull that stunt quite a bit. Get a grip.

LATER, FROM THE WISHFUL THINKING DEPT: Both Jammie Wearing Fool and InstaPundit think they've found a nut in a New York Post article that discusses a meeting inside General Electric castigating CNBC for becoming too anti-Obama. Buried deep in that article is this line:

One topic under the microscope, our insider said, was on-air CNBC editor Rick Santelli's rant two months ago about staging a "Chicago Tea Party" to protest the president's bailout programs -- an idea that spawned tax protest tea parties in other big cities, infuriating the White House.

A-ha, say Mr. Fool and Mr. Pundit, the president is infuriated by the Tea Parties! High five!

Uh, except this looks like some muddled writing on the part of the Post and wishful thinking on the part of the Teabaggers -- a deadly combination. Read the line again, and it seems to me that the writer was trying to say that it was the Santelli rant that infuriated the White House. Which would make sense, because, well, remember? Also, I'd think that if the Post had the goods on the president's 'angry' reaction to the glorious Tea parties, they would not have buried it in the third paragraph in a story about GE and CNBC in their "Page Six" gossip section. You know?

I realize this story is in the wingnut tradition of too good to check, but why don't we find out what's really going on? I've sent an email off to Page Six asking to clarify. Not a big deal, but would be interesting to know.

Does this make him objectively pro-rape?

2009-04-15T16:31:00.006-04:00

Lengthier Glenn Reynolds:

Our pathetic Tea Party protests are much, much more important than the basic human rights of those stupid women in Afghanistan.

I would say that these people have lost their minds, but that would give them credit for having any mind to begin with.

Also, ahem.

UPDATE: Holy crap.

Howard Kurtz: Clueless

2009-04-14T12:17:00.004-04:00

I continue to be amazed at the sloppiness and laziness of Howard Kurtz, alleged media critic at the Washington Post, and noted Limbaugh apologist. Here he is today, writing about the blowhard's reaction to the Somali pirate incident:

And Rush Limbaugh didn't want Obama to fail -- on this one:

"I think we all must agree, folks, that when Obama does something right, we gotta go out there and we've got to acknowledge it. We gotta say he did a great job, and we've gotta be open-minded to the fact that Obama's going to do some good things. . . . I would like to not only jump on the bandwagon of praising President Obama for a brilliant rescue, not only a plan but its execution."

Now let's gover over this slowly, Howard. This. Is. Called. I-R-O-N-Y. Limbaugh does not mean what he says. In fact, he means exactly the opposite. You linked to the text of his first hour. I suggest you actually, you know read it, because only a retarded 3-year-old sea turtle would conclude that this was a person who was happy that Obama succeeded.

Ladies and gentlemen, I realize there are some who are still obstinate and stubborn here, unwilling to openly admit what happened -- and that is that this crisis was solved brilliantly, single-handedly by the Obama administration.

[...]

Now, even though it is ridiculous here to try to cast this in any other light, other than the heroic actions of our brave new president, President Obama, there are still naysayers. And it's very sad to me to see this.

[...]

See, this is great humility on the part our young president. He knows these people had nothing to do with it. This is all his operation. This was all his leadership. This is all him giving the order after the result of a week of careful and cool, calm deliberation on this. But he's willing to share the credit with others. We gotta give Obama credit when he is deserved credit. He had a warning, though, for other pirates.

[...]

Now, as you all know, on Sunday, the US military ended the pirate hostage crisis very much alone on the brilliant orders of command and execution by President Obama.

[...]

President Obama single-handedly solved the piracy situation over there in the horn of Africa...

And, finally, Rush explains Why He Is So Very Upset at the rescue, after getting a call from Deborah who says she understands the "sarcasm" that Rush was employing, to which Rush responds: "Wink-wink."

RUSH: If you saw my e-mail, you would not be comforted. (laughing) Deborah, thanks for the call, I appreciate it very much. Let me tell you what bothers me about this, since I have been open in my praise, since I have agreed with Jonah Goldberg that we need to bite the bullet, praise President Obama when he does the right thing. What really bothers me with the way this brilliant rescue, performed by the Navy SEALs, really bothers me the way this is being reported. I love that captain. I love the Navy SEALs. I love the US military. This is a spectacular success, and the timing on Easter Sunday could not have been better. It was a great day yesterday. This was an event that everybody was very proud of. That being said, I have a low-grade depression that underlies all this, as I expose myself to this puking reporting by the Drive-By Media. Politico, New York Times, Washington Post have chosen the headline: Obama Saves Day, giving Obama all the credit for this. I know why Obama's being tied to this as if he is the lead and the man who made it all happen and not the heroes who were directly involved.

This result, this wonderful result, folks, is going to result in raising Obama's approval ratings. That's what all of this is about. It will result in a series of stories about bravery and military success, with Obama as the key player. These approval numbers that will result from this reporting will be used as proof, or as Lanny Davis would say, poof, that Americans are totally on board for Obama's liberty depleting domestic power grabs. While we're all celebrating the end of the day for these Somali pirates, we still have to deal with the Beltway pirates who are looking to take $10 trillion from us over the next few generations.

Finally, even Jonah Goldberg, a not especially bright man, understands what was happening to him when Limbaugh constantly mocked his "atta boy, Obama" comments.

Kill em all

2009-04-09T12:24:00.004-04:00

Thank goodness for people like Mark Krikorian:

...[I]f every one of those pirates on the lifeboat isn't sleeping with the fishes within the next day or two, then the ChiComs, the ayatollahs, Putin, and the rest will figure they were right about Obama's effete diffidence and will act accordingly. On the other hand, if our destroyer sends the pirates to their deaths, combined with the fact the American crew — the unarmed crew — actually took back the ship from the pirates, Flight 93-style, then the world's rogues might think twice in the future, the way that Reagan's reaction to the PATCO strike had salutary foreign-policy consequences.

The above, of course, is full-on crazy. PATCO? The air-traffic controllers? Seriously? On the other hand, I'm having a hard time finding right-wing outrage at the Appeaser-in-Chief George W. Bush for say, not dropping everything to find contractors in Iraq who had been held hostage for two years (and were eventually executed) or three soldiers who were abducted just two years ago. Or soldiers who were, again, abducted in Iraq and found dead a year later. I don't recall a hue and cry over stuff like this.

Curious.

Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweethearts

2009-04-09T10:54:00.007-04:00

Shorter Roger L. Simon:

The glorious Tea Party Tax Day protests are going to be composed exclusively of good, clean, hard-working average Joes, so just remember that if you see anyone engaging in wild and inappropriate behavior like, say calling for the death of our President or spitting on, threatening, or even physically attacking reporters, these people are -- every single one of them -- liberal plants from ACORN and the Huffington Post and should not in any way be seen as a reflection of our group as a whole.

Rog further writes: "According to Newsbusters derived from the Cavuto Show and other sources..." This is Wingnut Reporting at its finest. The "sources" for this particular accusation of infiltration come from -- we kid you not -- some alleged woman named Kikki on some chatboard that no one has ever heard of who says, citing no evidence, that this infiltration is occurring. And that she's buying pepper spray. Later, after being echoed through the wingnut monkey cage, such firm reportage made its way to Neil Cavuto's Fox "News" show. Afterward, Cavuto's show was cited as "evidence" of the dastardly plot.

Pitchfork time!

2009-03-30T13:55:00.005-04:00

Today there is outrage over the Obama administration's firing of GM CEO Rick Wagoner. Justified anger! Incipient fascism! It's the end of capitalism, and I was reminded that these free-marketeers were equally outraged when the noted Marxist Bush also fired the CEOs of publicly traded American corporations:

The U.S. government has previously requested the replacement of chief executive officers at American International Group Inc., Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac when they received aid.

Then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson replaced Fannie Mae CEO Daniel Mudd and Freddie Mac’s Richard Syron when he put the two mortgage-finance companies into government conservatorship in September. AIG chief Robert Willumstad left after a government rescue the same month.

Oooh, remember? And yet, strangely, I am having a hard time finding right-wing garment-rending over these events. Why is that?

LATER: Do Conservatives Understand How Bankruptcy Works?

Think before you write!

2009-03-30T10:15:00.007-04:00

~~Shorter~~ Lengthier Perfesserman:

Because the widow of some dead TV producer -- who wouldncha knowit donated thousands to the political campaigns of Democrats like George H.W. Bush, Alfonse D'Amato, Alan Simpson and Arlen Specter -- is trying to sell the family home for $150 million, people should be outraged! Because! Wait, wait, lemme explain. See, this is a double standard for liberal Hollyweird, which everyone knows has taken huge amounts of taxpayer money in the infamous Brangelina Bailout of 200...Uhhhhh.. Oh, wait. Wait. I'm an idiot.

...LATER ON: Yahoo tells me

10 Winners in the Recession: No. 2 Hollywood

he number of subscribers to Netflix, the DVD delivery service, climbed 26 percent in the fourth quarter from the same time last year. That helped put the company's revenue up 19 percent from the previous year. And according to industry researcher Media by Numbers, 2009's box office sales are tracking 16.5 percent higher than the year before—at this rate, theaters will make $1.9 billion, versus last year's $1.6 billion—with attendance up nearly 15 percent.

Anger. Rising!

Doom and Gloom 4Ever!

2009-03-27T17:01:00.005-04:00

Lengthier InstaPundit & Co.

When the press starts reporting that the economy has begun to turn around, for God's sake don't believe them! What am I going to do with 5,000 Teabag protest signs in my basement?

Bonus comment:

No breadlines or Hoovervilles yet.

What planet these people are living on?

Bonus stupidity: We've gone from "Dude, Where's my Recession" to "Don't you dare believe the economy is turning around if it's reported by the press" in a mere seven months.

Might be a case of instinctive revulsion

2009-03-26T11:08:00.005-04:00

How can we be sure that Ann Althouse isn't manifesting racism by implying that Barack Obama is a lazy negro?

Michael Silence kant reed?

2009-03-15T20:43:00.003-04:00

Some guy who blogs for a newspaper in Tennessee is very upset!

MSM comes to the Tea Party's 'handful of protests'

Handful? Let's count 'em: Cincinnati, Nebraska, Tampa, Lexington, Ridgefield, Conn., Raleigh, Orlando, D.C., Staten Island, Pasadena, Boston, Rochester, N.Y., Jacksonville, Minnesota, Cleveland, Columbus, Mo...

Zzzzz. Well anyway, ZING! But, no, wait, what's the opposite of zing? Oh, yes, context:

She is behind one of a handful of protests around the country that aim to bombard the White House with tea bags and protest notes in time for the nation's April 15 tax filing deadline.

I know this is subtle, but lemme explain. The writer is not talking about those people who gather outside to protest, but, rather a smaller subset who plan to -- idiotically -- send tea bags to the White House in time for tax day. Get it?

If I were the uncharitable sort, I'd wonder why such a very brief, albeit clear, one-sentence paragraph wasn't even included in Silence's original post.

Spit-take

2009-03-15T20:25:00.009-04:00

Some noodlehead writes in to our favorite blogger about news coverage of an awesome Teabagger protest:

One of the local TV stations–WCPO– did a hatchet job on the Tea Party. The nerd said he had to leave the rally because a few people insulted him and spit at him due to media bias. The spitting, if it occurred, is of course out of bounds, but not unheard of in the Bush years, when the lefties had the saliva going. The station did a 30 second scan of the Square and then did its own internal Fairness Doctrine by highlighting the few Obama supporter signs and doing an interview with the local Dem Party chief. WCPO is a part of the soon to be Ch11 Scripps newspaper/TV empire. The WCPO website highlights the forthcoming second stimulus package and what people can get from it.

Hey, everyone likes to spit on one another! That wuss reporter should've stuck around and unleashed his own inner loogie. Or brought a gun.

In his dispatch, the reporter doesn't mention whether he was spat upon (I'm guessing he was trying to soft-pedal the incident by not mentioning specifics. In such cases, unfortunately, such good faith is usually reciprocated with idiocy).

Hilariously, most of the commenters at WCPO's site seem to think that the threats showered upon the news crews were somehow a mass delusion. "Are we to believe that three separate camera crews were threatened with physical harm to the point that they had to retreat to safety, and none of them recorded anything?" writes Joe Bayer. Uh-huh. I'm sure if such footage were aired, Mr. Bayer would not be the first to condemn such airing as a an out-of-context smear.

Such claims seem to be undercut a bit, since even the city's Fox station notes: "Television reporters and photographers left an area of the protest when a group of hostile people got in their faces..."

Readers should note that this type of behavior is nothing new.

LATER: From Channel 12

Several members of the media, including Local 12's reporter, had to seek police protection when a small group of people began harassing them. Several reporters and photographers were chased, spat on, and verbally harassed. No one was arrested.

I'm sure that reporter is just imagining it all. You can watch the video of her report here, in which the incident is mentioned at the very end, and the reporter takes pains to say that the protest was 'peaceful,' and goes so far to praise the organizer's PR person for coming to her aid.

LATER LATER: In comment section of this blog, we find a purported email from one of the organizers which claims the precipitating cause of the incident was a bunch of yahoos who were upset that the reporters had the temerity to attempt to interview an Obama supporter. "The true story is that they found the lone Obama supporter amidst a sea of 5000 and went to interview her. The crowd that was nearby noticed and was upset and let their displeasure be voiced, but were clearly peaceful." Of course, if you view all the news stations' reports, plenty of protesters were interviewed, and the Obama woman was given a mere second-or-two mention. Message-control achieved!

Just a thought

2009-03-13T16:02:00.001-04:00

I blame Obama for this week's market results.

A parallel parallel universe

2009-03-12T17:53:00.004-04:00

Shorter lesser Powerlineman:

This National Public Radio report -- which I was too lazy to look for -- almost certainly conveyed the overwhelming sentiments of Iraqis regarding the harsh prison sentence handed down to the guy who chucked his shoe at Bush and is, therefore, an obvious case of liberal bias.

Bonus Question: Can someone please explain what the hell this means?

It's hard to imagine how even George W. Bush could have converted a nation full of such patriotic, freedom loving, hospitable people into a hell hole.

Who wants to be careful and sober when it's more fun to hurl around accusations and snark!

2009-03-12T16:39:00.003-04:00

Mahablog nails it:

As far as anyone knows at this time, Vivek Kundra is not part of the investigation. We may learn otherwise in the future. Or, we may learn that Kundra was a whistle blower who led the FBI to the criminals. Or that he didn’t know anything about it. Whatever. In right-wing lore, Kundra will forevermore be a corrupt bribe-taker.

Dishonest, or psychotic?

2009-03-12T11:13:00.004-04:00

Here's Glenn Reynolds four days ago:

Tom Blumer complains of insufficient media coverage.
I suppose he’s got a point, but these protests are being well-covered in local media around the country. In terms of influencing Congress, I’d rather have a few hundred people march in each district than have a hundred thousand march in Washington, DC, even if the latter got a lot of coverage.

That actually sounds reasonable. Too reasonable! (and at the time, presumably smart: whining would have left the man open to hilarious criticism involving foxes). And yet today, we have Prof. Reynolds giving the ole tacit-approval linkage to a guy at Accuracy in Media who accuses the press of "a dereliction of journalistic duty" for not sufficiently covering the glorious Teabagger protests. The AIM post laments that...

The conservative-leaning Internet startup Pajamas TV is the only outlet consistently covering the protests...

...which is, of course, well-noted for its groundbreaking pimp-and-cover approach to journalism.

But why all the foot-stamping now? Wasn't the blog-revolution supposed to make the dread MSM irrelevant?

Laying down markers

2009-03-11T13:30:00.002-04:00

Michael Yon declares that Bush won the Iraq war, and Obama can only lose it:

Whereas the Bush-war ended in a new if messy democracy, this year we could see an Obama-war begin; the new President has sent a clear signal that we intend to mostly abandon Iraq during this crucial transition period. Today, the progress is obvious. But if Iraq descends back into chaos, the Obama-war, a newborn war, will not be a result of U.S. aggression, but of limp leadership intent on fulfilling campaign promises that were misinformed to begin with.

It's all Obama's fault if fighting starts again. What a total yutz.

I'm going to report on something I have no idea about

2009-03-11T09:10:00.006-04:00

Clearly, it was a good idea for Salon to send a person who had never watched CNBC to spend a whole day viewing the network. For instance, I learned that the markets now close a half-hour later than usual.

Wall Street's closing bell rings at 4:30

Good to know! I'll remember to put a sell on my Alcatel-Lucent shares today at 4:29.

LATER: All is not lost. The author digs out this hilarious gem of a quote from Arthur Laffer, he of "Laffer Curve" and supply side economics fame. Like the wise and sage economist he is, he points all the blame for the markets' collapse over the past two years at the one person who controlled the nation's finances:

The political process started in late 2007. Since that time, the markets have been down 55 percent. Markets are forward-looking, not backward-looking. They saw what was coming in the election. They were anticipating what this guy would do, and they caused a slowdown.

That is some high-grade wingnuttery right there. And using my trusty peak-wingnut calculator, around about April 2014, President Obama will be acknowledging that, as a fetus, he did not do enough to stop the Bay of Pigs calamity.

"Amusing"

2009-03-10T11:43:00.005-04:00

Our favorite law professor posts a hilarious 'parody' from one of his readers. It's especially clever of this reader to depict our Secretary of State with sagging breasts and a large ass. Funny! I can't wait for the inevitable Carter-in-blackface attempts. Oh, wait. That already happened. To paraphrase Roy slightly: It's important to remember that -- despite all our differences in worldview and politics, despite all the arguing and shouting -- these people are above all, scumbags.

Compare with original.

Whoops!

2009-03-06T17:20:00.003-05:00

Ah, the perils of reporting in the go-go Internet age. This item was posted on the NYT's site just minutes prior to the close of the markets today, when it looked plausible that things would be negative for the day:

A week of battering sell-offs that dragged financial markets to their lowest levels in 12 years was on track to end with more losses on Friday after a report that the national unemployment rate surged to its highest levels in 25 years. Wall Street tried to rally at the end, but fell short once again.

Uh, no.

Dow: Up 32,

S&P: Up .83

This is nitpickery, but still, it would have saved some embarrassment if they had waited, say, five minutes to publish about a topic that everyone knows about anyway.

The updated lede reads:

Wall Street ended a week of battering sell-offs on an up note, as stock markets closed mostly higher despite a report showing that unemployment had surged to its highest levels in 25 years.

Jon Swift: Genius

2009-03-06T16:14:00.002-05:00

Jon Swift may be a lazier blogger than I, but when he delivers, the results are spectacular. Somehow, the guy got himself on Curtis Sliwa's buffoon radio program in New York to talk about Bobby Jin-DELL (Sliwa's hilarious pronunciation) and how he agreed with Sliwa, the casual racist, that the Louisiana governor was the real-life "Slumdog Millionare." Just read the whole post and make sure you click on the interview link. Remarkable.

"You love Bobby Jin-Dell. You're giving him massive slum love!"

A fearless prediction

2009-03-06T16:09:00.002-05:00

This photo -- ostensibly depicting Hillary Clinton and the Russian foreign minister pressing the "reset button" on diplomatic relations -- will become a staple for rightwingers for years to come. The Obamites should really think these things through better.

Please Explain!

2009-03-05T13:21:00.003-05:00

Apparently, Sen. John McCain has learned to Twitter. And good for him! But one thing nags: weren't all those war injuries he suffered in Vietnam supposed to prevent him from "combing his hair, typing on a keyboard, or tying his shoes." Wasn't that a big deal for certain doofuses because when Obama pointed out that McCain said he didn't use email it showed that Obama was "nasty and petty"? Did a miracle occur in the past few months? Did John McCain visit a faith healer?

Sounds Like a Job for Red State Strike Force!*

2009-03-05T10:40:00.004-05:00

If you firmly believe that dressing yourself up in chicken costumes will lead your party back to glory, then who are we to stop you?

Exciting GE/Cramer Update

2009-03-04T15:48:00.003-05:00

As a service to our readers, we're updating the price per share of General Electric, a company that stock-picker (and GE employee) Jim Cramer said he was buying last week and was urging CNBC viewers to do same. Clearly we can retire on the mad profits we've reaped, no?

Price when Jim Cramer said he was buying GE (2/27/09):

8.51

Price today (3/4/09):

6.69

That's a loss of 22 percent in less than one week. Looks like another brilliant call, Jim!

Ann from Madison

2009-03-04T12:57:00.003-05:00

Over at Althouse's place:

Now, of course, Carville, as usual, is crowing about the fabulous Democrats and mocking those dismal losers on the other side. But he must also secretly be scared of the Democrats' powerful, fearless, articulate critic [in Limbaugh]. Those Republicans in Congress were conveniently cowed, and the last thing that needed to be done was to ruin Rush. But Rush gets energy from the attention. If only those under 40 folks would actually listen to his radio show and find out what he's really saying. It's easy to hate him from afar, to regard him as poison, not to be touched at all. I felt that way myself. But if they were to overcome that barrier and actually listen — as I did — they might get hooked in — as I did.

[...]

In fact, with all this newfound power, Rush is likely to concentrate on explaining conservatism. He's not out of control, and it would be naive to think he's going to say outrageous things that can be used to hurt Republicans. He's more likely to throw stink bombs when he's notgetting enough attention. What he will do now, I think, is highlight things Democrats say and show you why those things are outrageous — and he is at his best and most entertaining when he does exactly that.

This is complete mush. So Limbaugh is "fearless and articulate" is "not out of control" and is a man who has "touched" (ahem) Ann Althouse. Hm. She just may be the only Dittohead in America to have voted for Obama -- which, if you've ever listened to even one day of Limbaugh, would make you a complete idiot. Is it something in their natures that makes law professors some of the stupidest people in the world?

Quote of the Day

2009-03-03T17:11:00.003-05:00

From a brilliant commenter over at Greg Sargent's place:

Limbaugh’s going to have to denounce himself for agreeing with Cantor who disagreed with Limbaugh.

News you can use!

2009-03-03T11:46:00.004-05:00

Andrew Sullivan flagged this piece of grim CNBC video, which led me to find an interesting discussion from Nov. 2008, when predictions of Dow 6,000 seemed outlandishly apocalyptic. At the end of the segment, Jeff Macke, a former hedge fund manager and a panelist on the show "Fast Money," declared half-seriously:

It’s a bad market out there. Prepare for the age of hoboes. Teach your kids how to grift.

The Fox-Hunt Rule

2009-03-02T10:04:00.010-05:00

While the InstaPundit explores his exciting new interest in street organizing, let's keep in mind that this is a fellow who just a few years ago posted tirelessly about his skepticism regarding crowd turnout counts prior to the war in Iraq including, we kid you not, one instance in which he called a satellite imaging expert to inquire about taking pictures of crowds (which were clearly overinflated! Dammit!). One of those posts included this intriguing passage:

50,000 PEOPLE ARE DEMONSTRATING IN LONDON AGAINST WAR: Though the press accounts probably won't make a lot of this point, that's less than 1/8 as many as demonstrated against a ban on fox-hunting last weekend. (And the foxhunting crowd was, um, more striking in ways other than mere numbers). I think that means the antiwar protests deserve less than 1/8 the attention.

That's a good rubric. Maybe the Professorman can calculate what kind of coverage 150 protestors in the largest city in the country deserves. Even better, maybe he can compare it to the number of people who were looking at SUVs in Detroit.

(In a related post from that era, he describes antiwar turnout as "embarrassing" compared with the fox-hunt outrage)

ALSO: Roy has more fun with this.

Great Moments in Self-Parody

2009-02-27T16:19:00.003-05:00

CNBC's Jim Cramer says that General Electric (the, ahem, corporate overlords of Jim Cramer) was taking a "positive" step in slashing its dividend 68 percent and that furthermore "I applaud management for doing it."

Which is awesome because I'm going to use all that money I made off Cramer's Bear Stearns call to snap up some undervalued GE stock, which he says he's now buying.

"You can say I'm a complete shill," says Cramer. Indeed.

Hey everybody: Mammy!!!

2009-02-27T10:33:00.010-05:00

So the InstaPundit throws a link to some dude who, in the course of some subliterate mumblings on the future of the Republican Party, unleashes this sparkling bit of prose regarding our current president:

I’m less than convinced that what we have before us, ISN’T Jimmah Carter in blackface.

This should get everybody real excited about conservatism.

LATER: Obviously, this is all part of the prof's newfound interest in promoting racial sensitivity.

Bankrupt

2009-02-26T10:14:00.003-05:00

An anonymous "Media producer" corresponds with our favorite law professor, and hands out some protestin' advice to all those freshly minted right-wing revolutionaries. For instance:

Speakers not prepared for the media - the organizer was asked to name some specific objectionable items in the stimulus. She couldn’t do it. I doubt many of us could.

In other words, according to this "producer," hundreds of very, very angry people showed up in front of the offices of a Kansas congressman one day last week, and most of them had no idea what, exactly, they were angry or protesting about. This is a movement that's going places, people.

They Hope for Failure

2009-02-24T11:59:00.003-05:00

Shorter wingnuts:

A new Gallup poll shows that one month into his presidency, Barack Obama is either equally or more popular than each of the past six presidents at the same point in time in their administrations -- the lone exception being Jimmy Carter. Obviously, this means Obama's presidency is an utter failure.

Leftists to the left of me, Leftists to the right

2009-02-23T09:32:00.006-05:00

Shorter Michelle Malkin:

I'm going to conveniently forget that Kathleen Parker is a right-wing, war-mongering kook who wrote this embarrassing paean to then-President Bush, and will instead describe her as a member of the "Obamedia" and suggest she get a "drool bucket" for penning a favorable piece on the current President and his family.

Bonus classy comment at chez Malkin, directed toward Ms. Parker:

Now stand up and wipe off your chin. Act like an adult. Here, would you like a cigarette?

How to be completely incapable of self-awareness

2009-02-20T17:33:00.006-05:00

Hey everybody! Michelle 'Che' Malkin has a new column describing her awesome day as a totally awesome revolutionary:

Some wore pig noses. Others waved Old Glory and “Don’t Tread on Me” flags. Their handmade signs read: “Say No to Generational Theft;” “Obama’$ Porkulu$ Wear$ Lip$tick;” and “I don’t want to pay for the SwindleUs! I’m only 10 years old!” The event was peaceful, save for an unhinged city-dweller who showed his tolerance by barging onto the speakers’ stage and giving a Nazi salute.

Outrageous! And, yet, appropriate:

Mark Steyn is angry about something!

2009-02-18T15:23:00.003-05:00

Shorter former theater critic:

That traitorous, Mooslim-lovin' press just won't report on a story about a man whose name I can't even bother to spell correctly.

Stay Classy!

2009-02-04T15:41:00.003-05:00

Glenn Reynolds links to a piece over at National Review, which asks: "After Daschle and Killefer, Why Should Rangel Get a Pass?"

Responds Professor Corncob: "Because he's black?"

And they wonder why we think they're racists.

Later, Tim Geithner proclaimed himself "very proud" of his black heritage.

...Just to be clear, neither of the people to whom Reynolds links comes to that repugnant, racially tinged conclusion, they simply stick with the facts.

If only Obama were exactly like Bush, we'd be living in Heaven on Earth

2009-02-04T09:41:00.005-05:00

Shorter Right-wing crazies:

Because Obama appointed some tax-dodgers to his administration, we're all going to die!

BONUS hilarious 'advice' for Obama:

Halve the stimulus. Insist on tax cuts rather than hand-outs. Include mandatory spending caps to come based on GDP performance; call for national unity to balance the budget when the storms pass. Do not listen to one word from Pelosi/Reid. The former is an extremist, the latter unhinged. Call in Lieberman for insider advice.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

So that's what he was doing at that undisclosed location

2009-02-04T09:08:00.002-05:00

From our friends at the Politico:

Cheney warns of new attacks

Watch out kiddies! Bin Cheney raining down on y'all!

He's Only Happy When it Rains

2009-01-18T21:08:00.005-05:00

Shorter Glenn Reynolds:

Because of stupid Barack Obama's historic inauguration, we aren't getting more news about the unfolding catastrophe in Afghanistan, which of course, makes me very, very mad because I'm crazy.

Palinizing Joe the Plumber

2009-01-12T12:38:00.002-05:00

Glenn Reynolds rhapsodizes on Joe the Clown's excellent trip to the Holy Land:

I'd just say that the professionals who have been covering the mideast have set the bar for journalism pretty low.

And this is the exact gambit I would take! Ratchet down expectations so much that if Mr. Wurzelbacher isn't caught drooling in his falafel and/or somehow strings together one coherent sentence (Oh-for-the-trip so far, but there's still time!) you can deem the whole stunt an unqualified success. Hey, it was almost good enough for the Governor of Alaska, maybe it'll be good enough for PJ Media's freshly minted Senior Middle East Correspondent.

Shorter Michelle Malkin

2008-12-11T16:42:00.004-05:00

Patriotism means not questioning your government.

Why I changed my vote from "Franken" to "Lizard People"

2008-11-20T13:44:00.002-05:00

Minn. Public Radio has some fun with challenged ballots in the Minn recount.

This press has a well-known bias against the space/time continuum

2008-11-13T15:43:00.005-05:00

Glenn Reynolds writes:

IRAQ UPDATE: Baghdad Bridge of Death Becomes Bridge of Hope: "Sunnis and Shi'ites made an emotional reach across the sectarian divide on Tuesday, reopening a Baghdad bridge between the two communities closed since a 2005 stampede, the deadliest incident of the war. . . Sunni children from Adhamiya raced to see their Shi'ite friends in Kadhimiya. Women from the two communities met up on the bridge, kissing and hugging each other with joy." And this positive story is from Reuters. Now that the election's over, we may get more of those!

Yeah, why are we getting all this good news now? Why not last week? Moreover, it's very, very strange that the press does not own a DeLorean outfitted with a flux capacitor, which of course would have made it extremely easy to travel to the future and report -- prior to Election Day! -- on a bridge opening coordinated by the US and Iraqi officials; an opening that was not scheduled to occur until one week after Nov. 4. It's like they're in the tank for Big Physics.

A Classic of the Genre

2008-11-03T22:18:00.004-05:00

Prof. Corncob, after a fifth of bourbon:

SO IF, AS SEEMS LIKELY, MCCAIN LOSES TOMORROW, people will be blaming him and Sarah Palin. But let me point out that the Republican Party has been exhibiting a bizarre death wish since 2005. And you can't blame either of them for that. . . .

Because, of course, neither of the candidates for the Republican Party are Republicans!!!!! Or something!!!!

Ashley Todd, Super Wingnut

2008-10-24T15:36:00.004-04:00

As you may have heard, Ashley Todd, a McCain volunteer in Pennsylvania, was violently attacked and sexually assaulted by a black man, who later carved a backwards 'B' on her cheek, and explained that he was doing so because he was an enraged Barack Obama supporter and whitey better watch out and the shee-at was coming dowwwwn, muthafugger!!!! made up a silly and implausible story and later confessed that it was all a lie. Naturally, Ashley is blaming the one group most responsible for this heinous hoax:

"She just opened up and said she wanted to tell the truth," [Asst. police chief Maurita] Bryant said. "She was upset with the media for blowing this into a political firestorm."

Indeed. Shame on the biased liberal media for reporting on Republican Ashley's completely made-up crock of a story.

Finally! Going after the real enemy

2008-10-17T09:59:00.002-04:00

A blogger working for a newspaper was attacked on Thursday while covering a Palin rally in North Carolina. It saddens me, deeply. On the other hand, who's to say that the attack wasn't in some way justified? After all, people are so darn angry out there about the Islamobamanazimedia, it really is understandable that a person would want to commit a crime by bravely assaulting a member of the press who was simply doing his job.

Debate spamming

2008-10-16T00:50:00.002-04:00

Some unnamed McCain staffer was a pretty busy beaver last night, shooting emails out to all the very important blogs:

The Corner : A McCain Consultant Emails 'Obama looks bored and annoyed. Can’t he just be president already?' I see that too; not sure other people do.

InstaPundit: A reader from the McCain campaign emails: 'Obama looks bored and annoyed. Can’t he just be president already?'

Race42008 : From an anonymous source: 'Obama looks bored and annoyed. Can’t he just be president already?'

It's pretty sad when your last resort is spamming wingnuts with lame, whiny snark. I'm curious whether these bloggers feel like suckers for having printed this Anonymouse? I would. Sounds like it was taken straight from a Maureen Dowd column -- which isn't a good thing.

Shorter David Brooks

2008-10-14T00:37:00.003-04:00

I, for one, am looking forward to the glorious Republican Revolution of 2072.

The moral of the story?

2008-09-03T17:38:00.005-04:00

Peggy Noonan pops some Ambien:

...[Y]ou assume evangelical Christians will be appalled and left
agitated by the circumstances of Mrs. Palin's daughter. But modern American
evangelicals are among the last people who'd judge her harshly. It is the left
that is about to go crazy with Puritan judgments; it is the right that is about
to show what mellow looks like. Religious conservatives know something's wrong
with us, that man's a mess. They are not left dazed by the latest applications
of this fact. "This just in – there's a lot of sinning going on out there" is
not a headline they'd understand to be news.

No, Peggy, the Left doesn't have a problem with Ms. Palin or her daughter's pregancy. It has a problem with moralizing hacks who are the first to condemn the moral failing of every other person in the world, but are strangely mute when it comes to a member of their own tribe.

In other words, the "evangelicals" you describe are full of shit, just like you!

See also the candid Noonan video that completely repudiates the above excerpted column.

UDPATE: This, from Alan Wolfe, is genius:

Sarah Palin's nomination is a public service. No longer will we hear lectures from the likes of Newt Gingrich telling poor women on welfare how to conduct their sex lives. Focus on the Family will have to focus on a different kind of family. William Bennett has no virtues left to write about. At long last our national nightmare over sexual hypocrisy has come to an end, and we can all thank John McCain for that.

If only it were true.

Too Bad to Check

2008-09-02T09:50:00.003-04:00

Andy McCarthy, former federal prosecutor, is very, very angry about The New York Times's coverage of PalinBaby! And so, huffs Mr. McCarthy:

Has the Times done a story on Obama and Ayers yet?

It's a very difficult thing to find out!

But! But! But!

How about Obama and Rezko?

Yeah! What about that? And like Mr. McCarthy, I'm way too angry to check all the stories the Times has not written on Obama and Antoin Rezko.

Also, in today's edition of FantasyLand NYT, there is a report on how Barack Obama has discovered a cure for obesity and John McCain eats whole puppies.

Ah, Fox News

2008-08-08T16:56:00.004-04:00

On You World with Neil Cavuto, I heard Lis Wiehl (A Fox Legal Analyst!) opining on the John Edwards revelation:

The other question, too, is for the voters in his district: Can they impeach him over this?

Indeed. Can the voters of North Carolina impeach a man who holds no elective office -- anywhere?

It's a very interesting question. I'm sure Fox News will get to the bottom of it.

Great Moments in Wingnuttery

2008-08-07T11:09:00.002-04:00

Shorter "Simon" at Classical Values:

If John McCain really wants to win this race, might I suggest that he bring along his ex-wife on the campaign trail? After all, here was a woman he divorced following a disfiguring accident, a woman he cheated on, and a woman with whom he was still wedded while he went off and married another woman, the beer heiress Cindy Hensley. Seriously!

More uncovered news in plain sight!

2008-08-06T10:18:00.006-04:00

Some guy with a law degree from Yale ponders news coverage of President Bush:

BUSH GREETED BY CROWDS OF PRO-AMERICAN PROTESTERS IN KOREA. Funny, did that make the news?

You know, I don't know. Oh, if only there were some way to find out!

Hey, here's a headline from an obscure-sounding publication called The New York Times: "Koreans cheer and jeer as Bush arrives"

About 30,000 people gathered in front of Seoul City Hall for an afternoon Christian prayer service supporting Bush's trip. Large South Korean and U.S. flags were held aloft by balloons overhead along with a banner reading, "Welcome President Bush."

Many of them were middle-aged female Christian church members who chanted "Amen!" as a senior pastor shouted from the podium that anti-Bush protesters gathering 300 yards away were "satanic" forces.

The crowd also included many elderly men in military uniforms. "The United States made sacrifices for South Korea during the Korean War and helped us live well," said Kim Jung-kwang, a 67-year-old retired air force colonel who wore his military uniform to the rally. "The United States is not our enemy. Without the U.S., we will die."

And I guess there's this international wire service called the Associated Press, which noted in its article:

About 30,000 people gathered in front of Seoul City Hall for an afternoon Christian prayer service supporting Bush's trip. Large South Korean and U.S. flags were held aloft by balloons overhead along with a banner reading, "Welcome President Bush."
"The United States made sacrifices for South Korea during the Korean War and helped us live well," said Kim Jung-kwang, a 67-year-old retired air force colonel who wore his military uniform to the rally. "The United States is not our enemy. Without the U.S., we will die."

The USA Today, which I just learned has the largest circulation for a newspaper in the United States, printed this article, which informs:

Earlier [Bush] had received a warmer reception: a 21-gun salute and prayers from 30,000 South Korean well-wishers who turned out in the Seoul City Hall to welcome him.

Despite occasional protests, polls show that a majority of South Koreans have a favorable view of the United States. President Lee Myung Bak is a former business executive who was elected in a landslide in December with a conservative, pro-U.S. platform.

It's pretty clear that this is just another conspiracy by the mainstream press to hide pro-Bush information by reporting on pro-Bush rallies. Typical. Thank goodness we have our Sharp-Eyed Supersleuths of the Internet to bring attention to this stuff.

MORE: Reuters offers video of the pro-Bush rally. And here's yet another dispatch from AP which focuses entirely on the rally. Here's a report from the LA Times. Perhaps sensing that he has no idea what he's talking about, the professor later updates his post and prints an email from a reader ("I'm no fan of the Beeb") noting that the BBC covered the rally. So let's see. The NYT, AP, USA Today, LA Times, Reuters and the BBC all covered the rally. To some bloggers on the right, it's a near-blackout.

MUCH LATER: It gets even better. The fine folks over at Newsbusters seem to have also misplaced their Google. "Where were the reports of this massive outpouring of affection for George W. Bush?" -- the estimable Warner Todd Huston wails, while at the same time noting that Reuters reported on the event that Warner Todd Huston complained they weren't reporting on. Also, mysteriously appended to Mr. Huston's post were photos of the massive rally snapped by a couple of independent, scrappy bloggers named AP and Reuters.

There's even more fun to be had in the comments, where Newsbuster guy Chris Norman notices that the blackout has been extended even further, this time to the folks at Disney: "ABC News Radio opened their hourly report yesterday afternoon with the announcement that Bush was greeted in South Korea by protesters (against US beef) who were handled with water cannons. They went on to say that 'even more' people turned out to cheer him - but that was secondary to the notation of the protesters. Why start with the protesters?"

Indeed. It makes you wonder why the Debbie Downer Press just doesn't bury all the other stuff that might be important to know: "It was a splendid sunny day in Dallas yesterday, puffy clouds and singing birds, marred only by a single homicide near Dealey Plaza..."

Why won't The Times report the news it's already reported?

2008-07-23T10:58:00.008-04:00

I am going to agree with Glenn Reynolds that the New York Times's reportage on graffiti-scrawled walls in Basra has been woefully insufficient. It's like they want us to lose the war for vandalism! "Funny how you get this kind of thing in the London Times but not the New York Times," the professor writes while pointing to an article penned by the British commander of multinational forces in Basra -- plainly a man without any perceptible agenda.

Indeed, Google proves Reynolds' point by divulging this two-month old NYT article detailing what's going on in Basra with the typical negative-nelly headline "Drive in Basra by Iraqi Army Makes Gains" coupled with a video essay entitled "A Surge Transforms Basra." It must really be discouraging for bloggers like Reynolds to see all this horrible good news being hidden on the front page of the NYT:

BASRA, Iraq — Three hundred miles south of Baghdad, the oil-saturated city of Basra has been transformed by its own surge, now seven weeks old.

In a rare success, forces loyal to Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki have largely quieted the city, to the initial surprise and growing delight of many inhabitants who only a month ago shuddered under deadly clashes between Iraqi troops and Shiite militias.

Scandalous! So listen up MSM: when the London Times runs pieces by the commander of multinational forces in Basra telling us about all the good news in Basra, and more than two months after the NYT runs pretty much the same news, we should all just chalk it up to the abject anti-victory bias of the NYT.

Shorter PowerLine

2008-07-18T13:35:00.004-04:00

An Argument for an Armed Citizenry

Know what this country really needs? More people with the can-do spirit of Bernie Goetz.

Classic

2008-07-08T16:26:00.003-04:00

Implied Glenn Reynolds:

It's been four days since Jesse Helms's death, and until now I have kept silent on the matter. But today, instead of noting salient matters like the late Senator's unrepentant racism, or his ugly gay-bashing, I will instead throw a link to a nitwit who uses the Senator's death as a jumping off point to argue that it is the liberals who are bigots. Toward Southerners. Nyah!

2 + 2 = [burp]

2008-03-05T12:16:00.003-05:00

Shorter Howard Mortman:

It should be clear to everyone by now that Iowa is a terrible predictor of the eventual Republican nominee: Indeed, as my research shows, the winner of the caucuses in that state only went on to capture the nomination in 2004, 2000, 1996, 1992, 1984 and 1976 -- making it just 75 percent accurate in the past 32 years.

More fun with James

2008-02-08T09:05:00.000-05:00

Attention, Patriots! All Spanish-speakers are now illegal aliens! -- says reasonable conservative James Joyner:

Mark Steyn reports that the only McCain supporters he spotted at CPAC were illegal aliens disguised as college kids:
I arrived at CPAC just before Mitt began to speak and was struck by the number of young student-ish types milling about in McCain T-shirts. While my minder went off to check her coat, I was loafing around the lobby, heard a conversation in Spanish, and noticed it was three of the McCain T-shirted students. Which struck me as odd: you don’t hear a lot of Spanish at CPAC.
That’s about to change, of course, with McCain in charge. It’ll be all Spanish next year, I’m sure.

How one makes the leap from reading about "[I] heard a conversation in Spanish" to "Illegallllzzz!" is all you need to know about the mindset here.

On a side note, if either Joyner or Steyn had any kind of ability or integrity [they're both blogging the convention], they would have approached the three men and asked them about their support for McCain, thus getting information (or evasion -- who knows?) on who they were and what they were doing there. As it is, the intrepid bloggers couldn't even muster that level of initiative, and instead we're left with two buffons accusing John McCain, both implicitly and explicitly, of rounding up illegal aliens to pose as supporters. That's good blogging!

Sympathy for Lady Vengeance

2008-02-08T08:48:00.000-05:00

Shorter James Joyner:

On the one hand, Ann Coulter is bad because she says mean things about people. On the other hand, the kids seem to like her, so who am I to judge?

In other news, 'Livin' la Vida Loca' reaches #1 on the charts

2008-01-25T11:29:00.000-05:00

Lengthier InstaPundit:

They're having elections in Serbia, and wouldn't you know it, the Balkans are not yet Switzerland! Clearly, this an abject failure on the part of our current president, Bill Clinton.

Lazy sports-columning of the day

2008-01-15T09:54:00.001-05:00

Apparently, Eli Manning's above-average performance of the past few weeks can be traced almost entirely to his recent unfamiliarity with a razor.

Best campaign slogan yet

2008-01-15T09:47:00.001-05:00

Mitt in 2008:

"Isn't demonstrably bonkers"

Would look great on a bumper. More Mitt-Love (and McCain hate) in all the wrong places, here.

Because "We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity" was already taken

2008-01-14T10:41:00.000-05:00

~~Shorter~~ Verbatim Gerard Van Der Leun:

The next time any of the poor sots of New Orleans come staggering up to the Federal Courts shaking the begging cup, blow all the levees and let the city drown its sorrows in the Mississippi.

[via the tacitly approving InstaPundit]

Out Blood-and-Gutsing the Original Blood-and-Guster

2008-01-03T09:19:00.000-05:00

12-Star-Lt. Col Ralph Peters holds a couple trump cards over us keyboard jockeys: He's been in the Army, he's seen things and, therefore, it allows him to write articles about how despicably un-bloodthirsty we've become [also: Treason! And: Crazy!]. But Fred Reed, Vietnam combat vet, former Washington Times reporter, and writer for Soldier of Fortune calls bullshit on all that:

Ralph believes that Americans have become too comfortable, have lost their taste for war, no longer want to pay the butcher’s bill. Ralph is for war...

[...]

Ralph, a doubtless well-paid commentator on television, complains that our elites do not fight in the country’s wars. True. Neither do our Ralphs. Relying on his biography in the Wikipedia, I find that he was born in 1952, making him of military age in 1970. The war in Viet Nam being at its height, he went to Europe for ten years. Rough duty, it was. Cirrhosis always looms in those beer gardens. He retired from the Army as a lieutenant colonel in intelligence. (Officers usually being peters, it is not surprising that Peters was an officer.) In the Marines we referred to such people as “admin pogues” or “REMFs,” rear-echelon motherfuckers. I confess to a loathing for those who shelter safely behind the lines yet send others to fight, bowwow, grrrr, woof. Still, his record is not irrelevant to his views. War looks exciting to office
workers, but has less appeal to those who are forced to fight. It has even less appeal for those who are hit.

Whoa.

Exciting MSM Conspiracy of the Day

2007-12-20T18:54:00.001-05:00

Our good friend Hugh Hewitt has heard that The New York Times is holding a damaging story on John McCain. Of course, as a citizen journalist, he knows what that means: Just another example of the liberal press covering for another awful ~~liberal~~ war-loving wingnut:

The paper's conduct is much more interesting than the non-story it is alleged to be sitting on. The only way to make sense of its indifference to national security combined with its solicitude for Senator McCain is via the understanding that the paper's leadership is 100% infected with Bush Derangement Syndrome, and that they view McCain as the best GOP standard bearer when it comes to generating criticism of the president from the GOP side. (Keller et al could never support even the Bush foreign policy-bashing Huckabee because Mike is thoroughly pro-life, pro-traditional marriage, and evangelical.) With McCain, the paper would avoid either Romney or Giuliani, both of whom approve of the Bush Administration's general view of the world and its resolve in Iraq in the face of the left's criticism. Both are also much better positioned to beat either Senator Clinton or Obama in the general. McCain of course supported the invasion of Iraq and the surge, but he is much more likely to condemn the Bush Adminsitration as unprepared etc than either Mitt or Rudy, and in a tone far more pleasing to the Bush-haters at the Times. Covering for McCain makes sense as the paper wants the least Republican as the Republican nominee, and in McCain gets a Bush critic to boot, even if for reasons the paper doesn't share.

Get that? The Times is holding the story because it hates Bush and hates the Iraq war, but they love McCain because he loves the war but that's OK, because he doesn't like Bush and is really just a liberal which The Times loves but he's a big poppypants anyway and OMG did you see Mitt today in that suit, he looked totally dreamy, and I need to pee and OMG, Mitt is just reallllly hot!

VI Day!

2007-12-18T09:29:00.000-05:00

In the 21st Century, Victory will not be declared on an aircraft carrier. It will instead be declared on the blog of a third-rate radio host:

Victory is a wonderful thing, and [American soldiers] have brought Iraq and its allies victory.

Dec. 18, baby! The Kurds celebrated by inviting the Turks over for tea.

Only 11 more months of this

2007-12-10T16:21:00.000-05:00

At The Corner, we find two posts, separated by only 20 minutes; one in which Cliff May 'clarifies' that he dubbed Hillary Clinton a 'Vagino-American,' not the much more offensive 'Vaginal-American.' So.

Later, we see Mark Levin whining and sucking his thumb over Tim Russert's humiliation of Rudy Guiliani, which naturally leads Levin to level this accusation:

Did you ever ask Bill Clinton whether the Secret Service should be used to watch over a president while he's dating outside his marriage? In fact, that's probably still going on.

Classy. He goes on to note that Giluliani has "never been accused of rape," which should make us all feel better.

This made me smile

2007-11-28T13:35:00.000-05:00

Hugh Hewitt describing his radio show and its audience -- twice! -- as "center-right."

It's true, if you also define the center as, say, Pat Robertson.

The George W. School of Readin' and Writin'

2007-10-26T10:30:00.001-04:00

InstaPundit's sub-literate pool boy, Don Surber -- who may be an actual editorial writer at an actual newspaper -- unleashes this sparkling prose:

The purpose of a newspaper is to make money for its publisher.

For a while their (sic), Pinch Sulzberger understood this. He was nicknamed Pinch because that’s what he did with pennies. Then I guess he attended too many cocktail parties or whatever they have in Upper Manhattan — gallery openings? — and decided to use his newspaper to educated (sic) us dummies in America.

It's not quite "Is our children learning?" -- but it's pretty damn close.

Also, words of wisdom from Oct. 25 Surber: "Spelling counts."

Shorter Power Lineman

2007-09-21T00:28:00.000-04:00

Columbia would have been much better off inviting our very good friend Pervez Musharraf to speak.

Harmonic Hack Convergence

2007-09-19T09:53:00.001-04:00

The Mets are in trouble. Willie Randolph meets with the press in his office. The beat writers compare notes:

NYP:

Five hours later, in a quiet office where the only sound was the beep-beep-beep of a computer that sounded eerily (and appropriately) like a ventilator in an ICU, Randolph tried to maintain his optimism.

NYT:

But in a cramped, crowded manager’s office, where a persistent beep from a computer made it feel and sound like a hospital room, an upbeat Randolph preached optimism.

Sounds to me like a reporter made a crack about the beeping, there was some laughter, and everyone took a mental note to use it later.

Things to make you sick

2007-09-09T07:12:00.000-04:00

In a discussion regarding Cleveland's running away from the rest of the AL Central, we get this cringe-inducing tidbit in the hometown paper:

One key to the Indians' success is closer Joe Borowski, who entered Friday with a league-best 40 saves.

Yes, that's the same Joe Borowski who thought he had a two-year contract with the Phillies last winter. The Phils got cold feet on the deal after their doctors had concerns about the condition of the pitcher's right shoulder.

The Phillies tried to restructure the deal at lower terms, but by that time Borowski was off to Cleveland, where he has had a terrific season and looks like a lock to pitch in the postseason.

If the Phillies had signed Borowski, he could have helped on two fronts - at the back of the bullpen, and in the rotation as his presence might have allowed Brett Myers to remain a starter.

That's the lovable Phillies for you! Pass on the guy with phantom shoulder problems and pick up the guy with real, live shoulder problems.

Not Fugazi

2007-09-09T05:39:00.000-04:00

Many years from now, I'm pretty sure, critics and fans alike will look back on the emo era and shake their heads. What were they thinking? What could have convinced millions of people to think that a bunch of whining, wounded boys could be entertaining? I say this only because emo has infected the British -- here in the form of Hell is for Heroes, a self-described "post hardcore" outfit from London. The results are embarrassing.

As an antitode might I suggest a dose of Field Music?