Umm, Actually
So Greg Sargent is leaving TPM and starting up a new blog venture at the Washington Post. This has the usual suspects up in arms at Red State:
I’m sure Greg Sargent is good at what he does, but I’m also sure the Washington Post would not even consider hiring someone directly from the right-of-center blogosphere.
Actually...
I wonder where the Washington Post hired him from? Had to be some pinko commie left-wing rag, since we are assured that the WaPo would never hire a right-winger. Let’s check:
Ben Domenech is a co-founder of RedState, the web’s leading Republican community blog. He began his career as a political journalist covering Capitol Hill, writing for numerous publications and working as a contributing editor to National Review Online. After 9/11, he abandoned the journalism field for a taxpayer-funded life and was sworn in as the youngest political appointee of President George W. Bush. Following a year as a speechwriter for HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson and two as the chief speechwriter for Texas Senator John Cornyn, Ben is now a book editor for Regnery Publishing, where he has edited multiple bestsellers and books by Michelle Malkin, Ramesh Ponnuru, and Hugh Hewitt….
DOH! Fail.
*** Update ***
Looking through the comments, I would like to point out that the point of this post was to mock the notion that the media would not pick a right-of-center pundit (someone at Red State saying that in this case was as silly as if Michael Goldfarb or someone else from the Weekly Standard whined that the NY Times would never hire a conservative), not to provide a forum to crap all over Ben and re-visit the plagiarism scandal.
He made a mistake, and I remember defending him at the time. I disagree with him on a lot of things, and he has said some stupid and offensive things (but probably not as many as me), but he was always nice to me, and I think is at heart a decent person, so please stop it. I hate pile-ons, and I hate the notion that because someone made a mistake, their life should be ruined. That just isn’t cool.
I can actually see RedState people becoming dumber. Erick was always a jerk, but his IQ is in a tail spin.
Of course, it’s a more interesting dive when it started from a high point (see: Moe Lane).
January 2nd, 2009 at 3:28 pm
I’d really love to see an update where he defends this. The odds of saying "Whoops, I’ve let my ideology get in the way of my brain, I must go in the mountains and meditate" are pretty low. The odds of "Oh, I forgot about that one pesky little detail, but false facts don’t undermine my point!" are pretty high, but I’d really get a kick out of a Judith Miller-esque "I was fucking right!"
January 2nd, 2009 at 3:31 pm
Domenech doesn’t count – they were talking about people who actually write their own stuff.
January 2nd, 2009 at 3:32 pm
Everyone knows that Ben Domenech is a RINO.
January 2nd, 2009 at 3:32 pm
Yeah, but WaPo fired him almost immediately with the weak excuse that he was a serial plagiarist. (If you want to see a classic example of wingnuts in denial, here’s Red State’s reaction.
January 2nd, 2009 at 3:34 pm
John, John, John. We all know that the right wing is subject to continual persecution, and that any information which appears to disprove that is immediately rendered faulty and suspect.
I mean, really…where have you been for the last few years?
January 2nd, 2009 at 3:35 pm
Umm who cares what RedState thinks about who the Washington Post hires? If you’re bored and looking for non Middle-East/recession stuff to blog about, there’s Russia’s gas spat with Ukraine (which has not-so-good implications for Europe).
Or you can encourage Zimbabwean filmmakers to take down Mugabe, and create new jobs Nollywood-style.
January 2nd, 2009 at 3:36 pm
Wow and I thought I had CRS.
January 2nd, 2009 at 3:37 pm
They mean they wouldn’t hire one now. You know, after Ben kinda fucked it up for them.
But, of course, they’re wrong. They totally would.
January 2nd, 2009 at 3:44 pm
@Mike:
In spite of myself, I clicked on your Red State link regarding its reaction over Domenech’s firing from WaPo, and almost immediately I was redirected to a page telling me that my computer was infected with spyware. I think I was able to back out in time without suffering any damage. However, as per my previous policy, I will no longer be following any links to Red State.
January 2nd, 2009 at 3:51 pm
I remember watching that little episode unfold in real time. What a classic.
January 2nd, 2009 at 3:51 pm
Yeah, but with respect to Ben, the WaPo has never hired a right-leaning box turtle, so, ya know, fuck them.
January 2nd, 2009 at 3:56 pm
Their stupidity is exhausting.
But, that’s the whole plan isn’t? Just wear you out with bullshit so you’ll let them have their way just so a body can get some peace and quiet.
January 2nd, 2009 at 4:00 pm
Very convincing-looking screen shot, John, but who’s verified the kerning, huh?
January 2nd, 2009 at 4:02 pm
work the refs!
work the refs!
beat the left!
work! the! refs!
January 2nd, 2009 at 4:03 pm
I guess RedState would prefer to forget that embarrassing episode, what with Ben getting booted from the gig in roughly a week, once it was revealed that he plagiarized everything up to and including his most recent grocery list.
Oops.
-dms
January 2nd, 2009 at 4:05 pm
Oh, I totally do. Mocking RedState….c’est magnifique. Sure, I try to eat healthy and exercise regularly, but sometimes you’ve just got to grab a little Chunky Monkey to keep your sanity, you know?
January 2nd, 2009 at 4:07 pm
Or Hola Fruta. I guess. I don’t truck with desserts that have fruit in them, personally.
Now I’m hoping Chunky Monkey doesn’t have real bananas in it. Kinda doubt it.
January 2nd, 2009 at 4:09 pm
@Xecklothxayyquou Gilchrist:
FTW!
TPM’s John Marshall actually has an interesting take on this.
Which, I suppose, just goes to prove Erick’s point. If the Post is willing to take on Sargent from a digital rag willing to print leftist commie swill like that, it’s clearly taken a tailspin off the liberal elitist Osama-loving Jane-Hamshires-of-the-Left deep end.
January 2nd, 2009 at 4:10 pm
Do they really want to remind everyone that WaPo went straight to the Red State racist woodpile and extracted a full-on jingoistic feces flinger to feature on the Post web site – an unrepentant GOP operative without a shred of journalistic credibility?
More lame than actually hiring Bughouse Ben was "Lil’ Debbie" Howell’s claim that they needed him because he balanced out Froomkin’s IQ.
Fly little wingnuts, fly….
January 2nd, 2009 at 4:11 pm
That bio is so full of wingnut juiciness, it’s hard to know where to start:
Lets see, we start with the obligatory 9/11 reference. Then there’s the "Republican ideologue gets government job", followed by a stint of working for "Big John" Cornyn. Then we go straight to the wingnut welfare, complete with the laughable concept of "editing" Michelle Malkin and Hugh Hewitt.
I haven’t followed his recent writings, but I’m going to guess that he’s a Sarah Palin fan.
-dms
January 2nd, 2009 at 4:13 pm
Mostly fleshy bits of overweight monkeys. Enjoy
January 2nd, 2009 at 4:18 pm
and he will soon be copying excerpts into a book he is currently "writing".
January 2nd, 2009 at 4:19 pm
But Ben and Jerry only use organic, free-range, humanely treated and killed monkeys, right?
January 2nd, 2009 at 4:23 pm
That it was Erick Erickson posting this at Red State makes this super-awesome.
In unsurprising left-side blog news, pup-tent D is calling TPM and JedL hypocrites for daring to criticize Norm Coleman for suing to stop certification of the recount. The only hypocrite in the whole thing is Coleman, who tried to stop the recount from happening in the first place… I’d actually have some sympathy for BTD’s complaints, but as usual, he goes way too far. He’s clearly on the warpath lately, having gotten in disputes recently (in the last 24 hrs) with:
1) TPM
2) JedL
3) Chris Bowers
4) Jane Hamsher (of the left?)
5) digby
January 2nd, 2009 at 4:28 pm
somewhat O/T, just a query/poll…
When you hear about people named things like "Erick Erickson", do you ever think, "you know, if you had a hundred bucks and filled out the paperwork down at the courthouse, you could get a name that wasn’t so fucked up", or am I just unusually judgmental?
January 2nd, 2009 at 4:32 pm
Close, but not complete. For a brilliant RSer like Erick always with his eye on the big picture, any information that disproves their continual persecution is in itself proof of their ceaseless victimization. You can’t fool their math.
January 2nd, 2009 at 4:40 pm
OK, what is all this "Jane Hamshers of the Left" stuff? I hate it when I’m not aware of an internet tradition.
ETA: Aha, I found it.
January 2nd, 2009 at 4:40 pm
No "downer monkeys" are slaughtered, and only muscle meat is taken (the rest is left to rot to attract flies away from the main factory floor, like how we run Iraq), reducing the chance of bits of neural tissue getting into the ice cream. And yes, you can taste the difference from cheaper bushmeat ice creams on the market.
January 2nd, 2009 at 4:42 pm
yep. and they don’t use cow’s milk or cream, either. that would be cruel. instead they use human breast milk.
January 2nd, 2009 at 4:44 pm
@jibeaux: You have my sympathy. I prefer Mississippi Mud ice cream myself, with extra pecan bits rather than chunks of wingnut.
January 2nd, 2009 at 4:44 pm
@Keith:
Heh heh you said "Bush meat" heh heh.
January 2nd, 2009 at 4:48 pm
You guys are starting to make me worry about what exactly is in my Cherry Garcia. They would at least use free-range hippies, right?
January 2nd, 2009 at 4:48 pm
Cleek, I had heard the breast milk thing before—yeeogh—but just today I read this SI article about the Michael Vick dogs, which contains the line "If you’re a dog and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals suggests you be put down, you’ve got problems," and thought, for maybe the thousandth time, WTF is wrong with PETA, anyway? They’re like some granola hippie friend of a friend that you want to like because you know her heart’s in the right place and she’s very sincere and probably right about a lot of things, but you just hate her cause she’s so damn screwy, plus she breast-feeds her four year old.
January 2nd, 2009 at 4:50 pm
Oh, sure. All hippies are free range! Just steer clear of Stephen Colbert’s Americone Dream. There’s sure to be some petrochemical-based hair products in that one.
January 2nd, 2009 at 4:53 pm
@jibeaux: WTF is wrong with PETA, anyway?
I’ve speculated more than once that PETA is a Republican-backed spoof operation with the sole purpose of making liberals look bad. Your analogy with the hippie friend you wish you could like is spot on.
However, Republicans don’t do "subtle", and certainly not in any way that would cost any money, so I’m at a loss to explain PETA.
January 2nd, 2009 at 4:55 pm
@jibeaux:
When you hear about people named things like "Erick Erickson", do you ever think, "you know, if you had a hundred bucks and filled out the paperwork down at the courthouse, you could get a name that wasn’t so fucked up"
What I usually end up thinking is "Why is a midcentury neo-Freudian psychologist writing for a hack conservative blog?" But that is probably my own special problem.
January 2nd, 2009 at 4:58 pm
I’m headed out, but please consider my work here when casting your vote for "Skeeviest Threadjacking", thank you and good night!
January 2nd, 2009 at 4:59 pm
I expect that once they get old enough, Palin’s kids will change to Justin and Wanda and Kathleen.
January 2nd, 2009 at 5:07 pm
@Xecklothxayyquou Gilchrist: I never got the ref. either. I fell into that bottomless mud hole you linked to and just now managed to pull myself out. Makes me very glad I came along two years later, frankly. But I feel icky for the time traveling anyway.
John…how about that charity drive, huh? I found a $10 bill in the market restroom today, and made an extra $7 on my powerball numbers I wasn’t expecting. (I told myself if I kept the $10 it’d go to Drs W/O Borders.) I think some charitable giving might make lots of us feel better about ourselves, and the world, right now.
Speaking for myself only, of course.
January 2nd, 2009 at 6:04 pm
This has to be linked to now.
And I’m pretty sure that post by Erick must have had this included somewhere:
[Jedi]Ben Domenech is not the right-of-center blogger you are looking for…[/Jedi]
And yes, I do expect Erick believes he is gifted with the Force.
January 2nd, 2009 at 6:11 pm
For "right-of-center" read: paranoid-pulls-stuff-out-of-his-ass-Palin-masturbatory-fantasies-Cheeto-grubbing-mental defective.
January 2nd, 2009 at 6:13 pm
@jibeaux:
Sort of like Major Major Major in Catch-22 – and for the same reasons.
January 2nd, 2009 at 6:14 pm
@Laura W: That’s an excellent plan. Can you set up a thermometer-like thing for MsF?
January 2nd, 2009 at 6:17 pm
Here’s the thing: even if they had hired more conservatives, these clowns would still never be happy. Don’t you know that the news pages still lean towards the far left, at least in the reality the Red State-like individuals among us have constructed?
Or, to think of it another way, imagine a kid who gets a $10,000 gift card to use at any stores he wants for Christmas, but then says, "That’s all?
" These kinds of people will never, ever be satisfied, at least not until the news is nothing more than propaganda that suits their own interests.
January 2nd, 2009 at 6:26 pm
@demimondian: Thank dog for the googles. I forget Dw/oB has a French equivalent and I thought you were trying to flame me by calling me "Ms. F" or somethin’ and I just did not want to try to figure out what the "F" stood for.
I really regret reading that Cole/Hamsher shit from 2006.
I’m all anxious and sad now.
NEED TO THROW MONEY AT PEOPLE IN REAL NEED TO FEEL BETTER ASAP!
January 2nd, 2009 at 6:34 pm
@Brian J:
You’re right. The outlet in question could hire someone who asserted that they actually sucked off both Bush and Cheney and the unhired (Erick Erick Erick will be perpetually among them) will assert that the someone merely held the Bush and Cheney penises in his mouth to get the taste.
January 2nd, 2009 at 6:41 pm
Blogger FAIL.
If there is a "You loses the internets" award, Neshi wins it for today. A posting of a simple comedy clip leads to an old-fashioned barroom brawl in the comments, to which Neshi finally submits…
So much for lightening the mood. Might as well go back to talking Bobby Rush and gay marriage.
lol…
January 2nd, 2009 at 6:41 pm
God, at the folks’ and Jonah Goldberg has a half-page op-ed in the Dallas paper…
January 2nd, 2009 at 6:42 pm
@Brian J:
You’re right. The outlet in question could hire someone who asserted that they actually sucked off both Bush and Cheney and the unhired (Erick Erick Erick will be perpetually among them) will assert that the someone merely held the Bush and Cheney dicks in his mouth to get the taste.
(Please forgive the coming double post. The mod filter kicked in.)
January 2nd, 2009 at 6:44 pm
Burp. Wrong window.
January 2nd, 2009 at 6:47 pm
Laura W, sorry for getting you started on that. If it makes you feel better, I’m happy to not be the only person that spent 1-2 hrs reading through horrid threads from 2+ years ago, but I’m sorry that passing it on caused you undue distress. If John does set up a thermometer, I’ll double your $10, I owe you that much…
January 2nd, 2009 at 7:20 pm
@Crusty Dem: But you didn’t link to it, XG did! Oh wait….
That’s very kind and awfully sweet of you, even thought it’s my fault for rubbernecking. I woke this morn with my lower back so out it’s pathetic, so I’ve been in pain all day and not very, um, comfortable, emotionally or physically.
Anyway, I’d planned to give $100 if John puts up a DWB thing. $50 for their work in Gaza and $50 for Zimbabwe, since those were the topics at hand when it all came up over the weekend. So between that, and the $10 I probably took from some hard-working Food Lion employee, and your $10, we gots $120 already!
Go us.
January 2nd, 2009 at 7:31 pm
Holy shit. Erick Erickson just "disappeared" Ben Domenech. Josh Trevino, watch your back.
January 2nd, 2009 at 7:44 pm
Speaking of thermometers, where’s the Soldier’s Angels button? Did we meet the goal or what?
January 2nd, 2009 at 7:48 pm
Corrected version:
But even this is probably not true. The MSM have shown themselves to be extraordinarily adept at making the same mistakes over and over and over and over again.
January 2nd, 2009 at 7:48 pm
John has a backdoor, I’m sure he’ll bring Ben back from the FlufferLimboSphere.
January 2nd, 2009 at 8:03 pm
The true whack jobs just keep getting hired by other cable stations under the pretense of "balance" until they get canned from all of them and finally end up at Faux Noise.
January 2nd, 2009 at 8:30 pm
Instead of Doctors Without Borders (MSF), which is well known and attracts many contributors, may I suggest a food bank instead?
January 2nd, 2009 at 8:32 pm
@Xecklothxayyquou Gilchrist:
Wow! I started reading BJ a few months too late. I missed out.
January 2nd, 2009 at 8:44 pm
I’m watching Monica Crowley and Pat Buchanan on the McLaughlin group and so help me God, I am praying for a dirty bomb in Georgetown.
These people will destroy us all.
Don’t be fooled by Obama—we are fucked.
January 2nd, 2009 at 8:46 pm
We probably need one in Bethesda too.
These fuckers will be the death of us all.
January 2nd, 2009 at 8:48 pm
What did the poor bomb do to you that you’d subject it to the horrors of the elephant blackcraphole?
January 2nd, 2009 at 8:49 pm
@John PM: "In spite of myself, I clicked on your Red State link regarding its reaction over Domenech’s firing from WaPo, and almost immediately I was redirected to a page telling me that my computer was infected with spyware."
If it’s the one I’ve seen, it’s carried in an ad that’s being distributed through one of the ad networks. I’ve run into it on TNR.com, and it was popping up on the website of Locus, the science fiction/fantasy professional’s industry magazine.
Remarkably obnoxious that it hasn’t been purged from the ad network.
January 2nd, 2009 at 9:04 pm
There’s always Feeding America (formerly America’s Second Harvest), which distributes food and money to food banks nationwide.
January 2nd, 2009 at 9:24 pm
...and because there is just not enough pain and misery, death, torture and inhumanity circling around our planetary drain tonight…here. Please sign the petition to ban Michael Vick from the NFL for life.
January 2nd, 2009 at 10:29 pm
@Laura W: No, that sucks.
January 2nd, 2009 at 10:39 pm
@Just Some Fuckhead: As much as I’d love to think of something funny and witty to say in response, I’m all tapped out tonight, Fuckhead. (It’s me, not you. But you know that.)
I think you’re needed in the previous thread anyway.
Happy 2009?
January 2nd, 2009 at 10:44 pm
I clicked that redstate link at 5 and it lasted for about 10 seconds before it sent me to some "we’ve detected spyware, etc…" place with a flash bar showing it scanning files and finding viruses. Oddly all the files it was scanning were things like winsock.dll and the like. As I use linux this seems somewhat odd (don’t want to jump to any conclusions about the honesty of the pop up company). Is that redstate selling their readers out like that or is the link malignant?
January 2nd, 2009 at 10:58 pm
I saw the ad too, and I’m on a Mac. I think it’s more likely a scare ad than anything truly malignant.
January 2nd, 2009 at 11:09 pm
Oh, I’m not scared of it, I’m just amazed that redstate would have that much contempt for it’s readers.
January 2nd, 2009 at 11:18 pm
@Laura W: Hope yer back feels better soon!
January 2nd, 2009 at 11:24 pm
@Ed Marshall: Given the assumed intelligence of their average reader on display in the titular post…
January 2nd, 2009 at 11:40 pm
lol john, that is just what i thought when i heard about greg @ the washpost…the wingnuts will go crazy because they know they had a chance and blew it so hard it came in their mouths.
January 2nd, 2009 at 11:58 pm
@Laura W:
A soothing song for your battered soul.
January 3rd, 2009 at 12:15 am
@Tattoosydney: Thank you! A wonderful lullaby.
Nite nite, to Pedro too.
January 3rd, 2009 at 12:24 am
@Comrade Kevin: Well, not if you click it. There’s no telling what’s on the landing page.
January 3rd, 2009 at 12:25 am
@Tattoosydney: I so should’ve logged off before you made me wet the couch laughing. How am I supposed to sleep now, you heathen pagan asswipe?
January 3rd, 2009 at 12:25 am
@Crusty Dem:
Man, he’s a whiny little thing in that comment thread, ain’t he? "You will treat me with respect on my own site or I will stamp up and down and delete your comments!" Jeralyn ought to pull the plug on him and take control of her place again. It has certainly suffered with Ar-infant-do on the front page.
January 3rd, 2009 at 12:30 am
@srv: Let me guess how it went-
My name is Doughy Pantload
hooray, hooray
Mom breast-fed me ‘til I was eight
not gay, not gay
I’m squeezing dough between my cheeks
I could keep doing this for weeks and weeks
That’s why I’m loved by Jesus freaks
hooray, hooray!
That’s how everything Jonah writes reads in my head, anyway.
January 3rd, 2009 at 12:55 am
@Tattoosydney: WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT
January 3rd, 2009 at 1:03 am
@The Moar You Know:
WHAT? WHY ARE YOU SHOUTING?
January 3rd, 2009 at 1:42 am
@Tattoosydney: I WENT DEAF LISTENING TO THE MUSAK YOU LINKED TO MY AUDITORY NERVES COMMITTED SUICIDE
January 3rd, 2009 at 1:48 am
@The Moar You Know:
Oh. Sorry. I rather like it….
January 3rd, 2009 at 1:58 am
Wrong end.
January 3rd, 2009 at 2:39 am
In the best traditions of RedState, they have apparently already banned someone for pointing out that the WaPo did in fact hire Ben D. Of course, the poster didn’t show proper deference to a RedState icon. As George Claghorn (any relation to Foghorn Leghorn, I wonder?) points out:
Of course, that was years, decades, millennia ago. According to Moe, they "probably" wouldn’t do it now. I think it’s safe to assume the Post wouldn’t be stupid enough to hire another winger from RedState. Then again, Fred could surprise us all.
January 3rd, 2009 at 4:01 am
I know it’s very, very early, but I think this Redstate post may last as the dumbest post of 2009.
It’s breathtaking. Peak wingnut tells us that it can be beaten, but boy this is tough to beat.
January 3rd, 2009 at 4:40 am
@TenguPhule:
FTW
January 3rd, 2009 at 6:22 am
[...] Erickson is the stupid one today. The story at hand – the Washington Post hiring Greg Sargent – shows again that journalists from [...]
January 3rd, 2009 at 7:43 am
I often find myself asking, "do these nimrods have even one crumb of self-awareness?" But this is so meta—RedState founder overlooks RedState founder’s Hindenburg-grade public explosion—that I wonder whether we’re being pranked.
‘Cos Erick is such a jokester. Right?
January 3rd, 2009 at 7:53 am
@oh really:
Haha. So long, Redstate account! What’s especially funny is that my "insult" was (sarcasm overload) calling Ben Domenech a left-wing loony. Yeah, okay.
The followup comments are even better.
Yes. I am a blogoterrorist and they have won the war on me. Mission Accomplished! The comments surge is working! Freedom is on the march! FOUR MORE YEARS!
(Odd, I did nothing but call bullshit on them for 3 years in my deep-cover career as a moonbat secret agent. I guess this pwn was just so hard that they had to do something about it.)
January 3rd, 2009 at 8:01 am
Just saw "I am Legend" laas nite. Fuckin christ that movie’s messed wit my mind…
January 3rd, 2009 at 8:53 am
One of the Corner-ites regularly leads a conservative themed discussion on the Washington Post site…
January 3rd, 2009 at 9:16 am
I won’t dogpile Ben because I’m not familiar with his stuff.
Unfortunately I am familiar with Erick Erickson’s ‘unique’ insights.
Not through RS, but because he was a frequent guest on some of XM Radio’s P.O.T.U.S. political shows.
Hell, Erickson makes Hannity look like Bill Buckley and Rush Limbaugh look like Daniel Larison.
I probably should have demanded refunds from XM whenever Erickson opened his piehole on their shows. :)
January 3rd, 2009 at 10:53 am
I used to post at RedState a lot. But they have simply lost their collective minds in the past year.
I am quite certain that they will go absolutely nutso on Obama over the next 4 years. After years of complaining about BDS there will be no conspiracy to ridiculous for RedState to investigate.
January 3rd, 2009 at 11:37 am
"I hate the notion that because someone made a mistake, their life should be ruined."
.
I can see why you might think that. ;-)
.
Seriously: Of course his life shouldn’t be ruined, but AFAIK one is actually trying to ruin his life. But his career is another matter as long as that career involves publishing things he wants others to believe. He kinda blew that.
January 3rd, 2009 at 12:19 pm
@MFA: "I hate the notion that because someone made a mistake, their life should be ruined."
Yes, but there are mistakes and mistakes. Early in my career I fucked up a lot through inexperience, even causing delays in projects’ delivery, and I’m glad that my employers were patient with me. I would – and have – extend the same courtesy to newbies on my own teams.
However, none of my mistakes were deliberate violations of fundamental ethical principles of my career. As MFA says, he blew it and it’s messed with his credibility.
January 3rd, 2009 at 12:52 pm
There is nothing "odd" about it. The worst transgression one can commit at RedState is to point out their hypocrisy.
Of course, it doesn’t take a forensic scientist to discover hypocrisy at RedState. The ability to read is always sufficient to find it; the ability to think (rationally) is all one needs to recognize it; and the willingness to be banned is all it takes to point it out. While there are RedStaters who can read, they all fail when it comes to thinking.
You must have been sleeping if you think the hive’s insanity is a recent development.
January 3rd, 2009 at 12:55 pm
Instead of Doctors Without Borders (MSF), which is well known and attracts many contributors, may I suggest a food bank instead?
Our local homeless shelter was falling all over themselves when I gave them a fifty. My conclusion based on this is they are extremely efficient with money and therefore make a good receiver of such.
January 3rd, 2009 at 2:51 pm
Reminds of the time Moe Lane was in High Condescension mode as he declared that philistine liberals would never get a reference to Yeats famous poem "The Second Coming".A poem that he referred to as "Slouching Toward Bethlehem".(Thanks to Whiskey Fire for pointing it out)
January 3rd, 2009 at 3:31 pm
[...] Just shoot me now. DougJ, a couple of weeks ago when discussing the Broders and the Milbanks and the rest of the crowd noted the following: [...]
February 4th, 2009 at 10:45 am
It’s easy to get worked up about the inanity of the mainstream media, but they’re doing what they’ve always done. I’m with Digby; why aren’t Democrats pushing back hard? Why aren’t they calling the Republicans out? Why aren’t they explaining the situation we are in over and over again? They aren’t pushing back nearly hard enough. They’re still playing nice and bipartisan, and the Republicans are taking advantage of it and the media are letting them just like they always do. So it’s fine to kvetch about the media not doing it’s job, but it hasn’t for over a decade, so what is our side going to do about it? On e of the things that gave me hope during the primaries was Obama didn’t just take the high road and assume other people would realize how ridiculous some of the smears he was being targeted with were inane; he fought back. Not always perfectly, but generally quickly, and with increasing skill as the campaign wore on. That gave me hope that he’d do the same thing in pushing are agenda through. But this round hasn’t been good. We opened from a position of negotiation, introducing tax cuts and cutting items in the bill the Republicans didn’t like, they predictably played hardball, and they’ve put us on the defensive. Now it’s uncertain if it will pass the Senate and the question is what further compromise will we have to make to keep a few moderate Republicans and blue dogs on board. If the time was not so dire, I’d be more sanguine. I’d say, well Obama gave bipartisanship a shot, which is reasonable, and now that the Republicans have shown their cards he can use that as a basis for playing hardball. But economists are screaming this is the worst fiscal emergency since the great depression, we need a stimulus that is as effective as possible as quickly as possible. There’s no time for learning.
February 4th, 2009 at 11:04 am
And oops, I posted that to the wrong thread. Copy/paste time.
February 4th, 2009 at 11:07 am
Ben Doverbitchboy more like it. Hasn’t had an original salient thought bridge the gap between axon and dendrite since he walked through those hallowed halls.
Red America, sounds like a bad 80’s proto-commie takeover.
Go Wolverines!
February 4th, 2009 at 4:14 pm