A cabbie in Jakarta had the final say, when he pointed out that cabbies in cities all over the world don’t talk to Tom Friedman in their cabs because they all think the same thing when gets in: “Oh. THIS asshole. He didn’t tip that guy in Buenos Aires good at all.”
Friedman possesses all of the qualities that make a pundit truly wankerific. He fetishizes a false “centrism” which is basically whatever Tom Friedman likes, imagining the Friedman agenda is both incredibly popular in the country and lacking any support from our current politicians, when in fact the opposite is usually true. Washington worships at the altar of the agenda of false centrism, and people often hate it. Problems abroad, even ones which really have nothing to do with us, should be solved by war, and problems at home should be solved by increasing the suffering of poor and middle class people. Even though one political party is pretty much implementing, or trying to implement, 99.999999% of the Friedman agenda, what we really need is a third party catering precisely to this silent majority of Friedmanites.
Open Thread
Suggested topic–if Ted Nugent wasn’t a loudmouth coward (does ANYBODY think he actually has to balls to try well…anything?) who pops up from time to time with some stupid conservative shit (but I repeat myself), would he be totally forgotten, or only remembered as a drug addict and sexual predator?
schrodinger's cat
Oh noes Bobo was robbed. I has a sad.
lamh35
put me down for Nugent being remembered as racist drug addict sexual predator! Seriously, I’m not much of a rock fan, but someone has got to tell me where Nugent fits into Rock history?
Yutsano
Nugent would be a has-been crappy rocker from the 80’s who would have had a VH-1 special by now. Maybe. Even then he was barely noticeable.
lamh35
Posted in earlier thread but was really waiting for open thread, so I’m just reposting it.
I know there are NO good journalist anymore, but damn aren’t these people tired of Romney lying to their faces. This is just getting ridiculous. Do ANY of these journo have any pride in their profession it can’t ALL be about money for these guys right? Serious question, are there any “serious” journo NOT opinion pundits (Maddow, O’Donnell, Bashir, Sharpton) who ya know actually uses their report to INFORM the public, not just let obvious lies go???
Stephanie Cutter @stefcutter
MikeJ
I think he should have waited another six months before deciding.
lamh35
Hmmm, just in time for da racist. How soon ’til Newt Gingrich speaks on this?
Barack Obama’s father tops colonial list of Kenyan students in US
Brachiator
@lamh35:
Clearly not.
And the official election season has not even begun yet.
Or maybe they get a kick out of it, because not only does Mittens lie, he immediately denies that he has lied, and gets huffy about it. It’s really something to see.
Amanda in the South Bay
I’m not sure, I’ll get back to you in 6 months with an answer.
Jennifer
@lamh35: Proof of Dinesh D’Souza’s insane hypothesis, at long last!
Horrendo Slapp (formerly Jimperson Zibb, Duncan Dönitz, Otto Graf von Pfmidtnöchtler-Pízsmőgy, Mumphrey, et al.)
I had kind of thought it would be Friedman. When I was in graduate school, I took a class on globalization, and one of the books we read was the Lexus and the Olive Tree. At least that’s what I think it was called. I loathed it. Every fucking page. Well, all I read, at least. I didn’t read more than about half of it, and told the teacher I wouldn’t read the rest, since it was so offensive and vile. He didn’t even knock anything off my grade for that, either…
jefft452
“if Ted Nugent wasn’t a loudmouth coward (does ANYBODY think he actually has to balls to try well…anything?)”
Didnt he say that he flunked his draft physical by peeing in his pants and not changing his tighty whities for months, giving himself severe diper rash?
Missionary Mitt touring Provance was Audie fucking Murphy compaired to this wuss
Wag
Stranglehold may have the greatest bass line in all late 70’s rock. That is no excuse for his idiotic ideas.
sal
Ted is pretty famously anti-drugs. Plays a mean guitar, but is a moron, at least in persona.
Steeplejack
He would be a obscure footnote remembered (if at all) only for the Amboy Dukes’ “Journey to the Center of the Mind” (
bonusconsolation: go-go dancers!) and his own “Cat Scratch Fever.”MikeBoyScout
This Ted you speak of, was he the guy who invented that nasty stuff they put in those candy bars?
BethanyAnne
Ted Nugent should tour with Hank Williams, Jr.: Operation Freedumb 2012.
Linda Featheringill
@Wag:
Actually, I like Stranglehold and consider it music. It’s a good and artful sketch of obsession. But I think that’s all he did that I liked.
Baron Jrod of Keeblershire
Ted Nugent had the chance to kill America’s enemies during the Vietnam War, but he had better things to do. Things like shitting his pants for a month so the draft board would reject him.
No, Teddy only likes shooting at things that can’t shoot back, like deer. He’s way too chickenshit to go up against the Secret Service.
I do hope that the Service put some fear of god into that pencil-dicked coward. I hope they drive him mad with the knowledge that everything he does will be monitored until the day either he or Obama dies. Let him feel a little of that government oppression he’s always moaning about.
Linda Featheringill
On the question of Ted’s courage:
Please don’t tease him with taunts of cowardice, unless you’re really, really sure what his response will be.
Litlebritdifrnt
Isn’t it just typical that a gun loving, freedom fighting, patriot literally shit his pants in order to avoid going to war. Why am I not surprised. I despise these fuckers with a passion. They talk about freedom and fighting for the constitution and yet would rather live in shit filled pants than fight for their country. Don’t spout your rhetoric unless you are willing to put on the uniform and serve you miserable piece of shit.
4tehlulz
@Linda Featheringill: Nugent loves guns, except when they’re (possibly) pointed at him, so no worries with him.
lamh35
@Brachiator:
Ok, for one moment, I thought that Romney was trying to run the okey doke ala Obama’s long form birth certificate, but this is ridiculous. I’m now thinking there must be something in those tax forms cause if there was nothing, why the hell not just turn over the taxes and let this shit be a summer story and after August begin campaign in earnest…WTF.
R-Money’s camp is acting too suspicious. I do remember reading that the McCain campaign leaked that Romney was considered for VP, but something in the vetting process was like hell naw, and they provided like what 12 years of taxes reports to McCain camp…WTH is going on.
I just don’t understand why they would want to prolong the story???
The prophet Nostradumbass
Who first referred to Friedman as the “Mustache of Understanding”?
Violet
Ha! Just saw this analysis:
Is Mitt Romney Married to A Basketball Wife?
I think she’s definitely a Basketball Wife!
Judas Escargot, Your Postmodern Neighbor
@lamh35:
How well timed.
Looks like the Tories have just weighed in with their endorsement.
BGinCHI
Guessing McMegan emailed Bobo to reassure him that there is still hope. Just because Friedman got first, she’ll reason, doesn’t mean you can’t still beat him. You can be firstier.
TOP123
Ted Nugent…
But the Dixie Chicks said something mean about Bush once!
Spaghetti Lee
@BGinCHI:
And if there’s one thing Megan knows, it’s numbers.
MikeJ
@The prophet Nostradumbass:
David Rees, I think.
Brachiator
@lamh35:
I don’t think there is anything in the tax forms. It just seems as though Romney is overpriviliged and thinks disclosure is beneath him. He can’t help himself.
@Violet:
Romney and his wife knew each other from elementary school. She comes from a fairly privileged background.
I detest Mittens. Think he’s a smarmy piece of work. But I don’t have much use for cheap shots directed at wives.
Also, too, I don’t think that Romney could be described as someone who got where he is through hard work. He started out with a heckuva an advantage.
MikeJ
@MikeJ:
http://web.archive.org/web/20070127050359im_/http://www.mnftiu.cc/mnftiu.cc/images/moustache.gif
burnspbesq
@Violet:
Not all basketball players’ wives are Basketball Wives.
Meet Mrs. Grant Hill
SiubhanDuinne
@Spaghetti Lee:
WIN!!
Just Some Fuckhead
I thought Ted Nugent was notable for his anti-drug and alcohol stances. He’s precisely the sorta asshole that could use the deep insight and self-awareness provided by a decent high.
lamh35
Now for some lighter fair, I’m watching In & Out and remembering how much I love this movie and Kevin Kline!
IN & OUT – KEVIN KLINE – I WILL SURVIVE
samara morgan
Why hasn’t Nugent been arrested?
Its a Class D felony to threaten the President.
Can we start a petition to have him arrested?
Raven
This is the wife of Shaka Smart, the VCU coach. She stands on her own. Maya Payne.
Raven
@samara morgan: Right after we have one to have your computer taken away.
PurpleGirl
@lamh35: I think he doesn’t want the Mormon hiearchy to know exactly how wealthy he is — they may want more from him otherwise.
burnspbesq
Just grabbed the first few blueberries of the year off the bush. Yum!
burnspbesq
@Raven:
Shaka married UP.
samara morgan
@Raven: ORLY? you don’t care that the Nuge made a threat against the President?
you are more concerned that I’m giving this blog the TAS Treatment, with Cole reprising the role of Reihan Salam?
PurpleGirl
@Brachiator: Also, too, I don’t think that Romney could be described as someone who got where he is through hard work. He started out with a heckuva an advantage.
You are absolutely correct but that won’t stop the pundits from going on about his “hard work.”
Yeah, it was so hard to sell stock for living expenses while in college and grad school after he and Ann got married.
Raven
@samara morgan: Nah, I just like pokin you with a stick.
Hungry Joe
Can’t argue with the Friedman pick … but Bobo not on the list AT ALL? I mean, the man all but defines “wanker.” Seriously. Show me a bigger wanker than Bobo. Take your time. I’ll wait.
Well?
Still waiting …
lamh35
And looks like Nugent doubles down and “stands by comments”
Ted Nugent Stands By Obama Remarks, Compares Himself To ‘Black Jew At A Nazi-Klan Rally’ (AUDIO)
maven
Years ago there was an article in the NYT’s Sunday paper/magazine about someone who was at a party where Tom Friedman went into the downstairs bathroom and left a nasty deposit which was noted throughout the apartment. He came out seemingly unaware of the stink he made…….
Shari
Craig Walker of the Denver Post is set to receive a Pulitzer Prize in Feature Photography for his photo essay, entitled “Welcome Home,” which documents Scott Ostrom’s life as a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The photos, and accompanying captions, provide a sobering reminder that the cost of war is measured in more than lives, dollars and poll numbers.
h/t Ameriablog.com
samara morgan
@Raven: don’t you mean a harpoon, aleut biker guy?
samara morgan
@Shari: levenson already put up a post on that.
look below.
pragmatism
@MikeJ: That only gets funnier as the years go by.
Eric U.
Bobo has really faded recently. Don’t remember anything he wrote from the Obama Presidency. Not sure why we used to pay attention to him.
Jennifer
@Hungry Joe: Bobo has rated his own Dickipedia page, while Friedman has somehow not been so honored.
Jennifer
@Eric U.: Lucky you. You’ve missed all his oh-so-serious Beaver’s dad cheerleading for the Ryan Plan.
WWBreitbartD
So now you want violence from the right?
Or was it Faux outrage directed at the Republicans when progressives/Democrats condemning them for promoting violence that they claimed caused the Tucson shooting?
Nice you guys to overlook Tom Friedman fetish for China wishing the US had a more authoritarian Government like them.
FlipYrWhig
I don’t see anyone clamoring to hear the opinions of Edgar Winter. Ted Nugent would be one of these goofy celebs that pops up on faux-ironic ads, like Peter Frampton has become.
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
More tough talk from a (literally) pants-shitting chickenhawk. THAT is what he will be remembered for.
Raven
@samara morgan:
I pulled my harpoon out of my dirty red bandanna,
I was playing soft while Bobby sang the blues.
Windshield wipers slapping time, I was holding Bobby’s hand in mine,
We sang every song that driver knew.
Freedom’s just another word for nuthin left to lose. . .
RL
The Nuge is clearly an idiot when it comes to politics, but when it comes to music, he is a true American rock original that will be remembered for the ages – although he seems bent on overshadowing that.
I am not IN ANY WAY condoning his actions – he’s clearly a moron, but to call him a washed up drug addict is not correct. He has been famously anti-drug and anti-alcohol from the beginning. And his classics hold up on FM radio along side his contemporaries quite well. It may not be your cup of tea, but his talent and musical legacy are legitimate and shouldn’t be so easily dismissed. If political stance is sufficient to erase a legacy, then throw out your Neil Young records (hint, he really dug the Gipper).
Martin
Can anyone find an ideological difference between Ted Nugent and Anders Breivik?
samara morgan
@Martin: they are both classic white christian nativists.
AxelFoley
Even IF that were true, what the fuck does Kerry have to do with THIS election?
Raven
@RL: Aw horseshit. He had a couple of songs, he’s no more an icon than the fucking 1910 Fruitgum Company.
Amir Khalid
@samara morgan:
Arrest Ted Nugent? You might as well arrest his kindred spirit Yosemite Sam.
Raven
@Amir Khalid: Or Foghorn Leghorn.
trollhattan
Ted Nugent can bite me. Metaphorically. Think good thoughts for an actual musician, Levon Helm.
http://www.billboard.com/news/levon-helm-in-final-stages-of-cancer-1006790752.story#/news/levon-helm-in-final-stages-of-cancer-1006790752.story
Suffern ACE
@AxelFoley: He’s the last super wealthy dem (at the time) to get the nomination.
Suffern ACE
@AxelFoley: He’s the last super wealthy dem (at the time) to get the nomination.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@lamh35:
Fix’t.
If you go to lift the history of rock and look under it, you’ll hear Ted yell at you to set it back down on him.
Cockroaches hate the light.
AxelFoley
@Linda Featheringill:
The same fucker who shit himself to get out of Nam?
Yeah, I don’t think we have to worry about him trying anything. But I WISH that bitch would. Assholes like him talk a good game, but never act on it. I’d love to see the Secret Service pop a few rounds in his bitch ass if he stepped to PBO.
Cassidy
@RL: 1) Never had the bad taste to own a Neil Young record. 2) Damn Yankees. Nuff said.
Carrie
@trollhattan:
Oh no. How so very, very sad.
Here`s to you and have a great journey, Levon.
gbear
‘Journey To The Center Of Your Mind’ by the Amboy Dukes was/is the only Nugent song that I give a damn about.
Nugent is a boorishly anti-drug guy. They probably would have done him some good, given what a screaming asshole he is now.
Soonergrunt
@Linda Featheringill: I’m not worried in any way, shape, or form about Ted Nugent.
Catsy
@Hungry Joe:
This. I know, this is largely an exercise in Atrios’s vanity, but seriously WTF with BoBo not even making the list?
Odie Hugh Manatee
@gbear:
Compare Nugent and Ozzy. Both are incoherent as hell though Ozzy has an excuse; he’s British and stoned out of his gourd.
What’s Nugent’s excuse? He proudly boasts about being clean and raves like a lunatic. Really, the guy needs some medication. Anyone who would shit their pants like he did to avoid Vietnam and yet try to portray himself as some kind of Man’s Man to other men is fucking crazy.
Oh, Ozzy is still rocking like he always has and Nugent is living on his past ‘glory’.
Jamie
If you want to listen to cock-rock Republicans, Alice Cooper is at least marginally more interesting. Cold Ethyl is probably the best ever ode to necrophilia.
El Cid
Nugent says that if Obama’s re-elected, then within some short time period (months, whatever, I’m not looking it up) he’ll either be dead or in jail.
I think that sounds fantastic, so there’s another reason we should get Obama re-elected.
Martin
@Suffern ACE: But wealth alone isn’t the issue. The issue is running for president on a self-serving platform of preserving your own wealth. John Kerry didn’t do that.
The Constitution says that the president shouldn’t be paid more than a given amount to serve in office. But Mitt is planning on ensuring he earn millions more as President simply as a function of pushing through his own policies. In any other way, that’d be viewed as a huge conflict of interest.
PIGL
@trollhattan: now I feel old.
trollhattan
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
“The Osbournes” was one of my guilty pleasures, primarily for Ozzy tottering about calling, “Shawon…Shawon!!” It made him seem so likeably human. Shawon’s a pip her ownself. Cringed at the kids, still do.
A friend worked in the broadcast booth on Rush’s show when he was a wee Sacramento radio “personality.” Took a call from Ted Nugent and put him on the air with Rush. He evidently expounded on how much he lurved Rush and what he was doing, etc. etc. yadda, bang, whatever. After the call Rush asked, “Who the fuck was that?”
Richard
Tom Friedman, the man who draws wisdom from fictional cab drivers on fictional Arab streets.
trollhattan
@PIGL:
I try not to think about it. I have “The Last Waltz” on BluRay; need to watch it again, soon. Loud.
PIGL
@trollhattan: I remember seeing the movie in 1978 or so with my then girlfriend, at the funk rep cinema in my home-town, an old vaudeville relic gussied up for the talkies. Saw Sneezy Waters perform there, too, come to think of it.
I remember just last night I was youtube surfing, found a clip from it, and said to myself: sweet virginia, that was a mighty long time ago.
trollhattan
@PIGL:
Such a fine movie, and such talent. Until I bought a copy I’d completely forgotten about Muddy Waters’ set (to name just one). It, and “Stop Making Sense” are my must-have concert movies.
Betsy
@lamh35: Sigh. Very predictable: white male oppressor re-characterizes self as injured / oppressed party
Betsy
@lamh35: Sigh. Very predictable: white male oppressor re-characterizes self as injured / oppressed party
The Moar You Know
Nuge likes ’em young.
RossInDetroit
@burnspbesq:
Coming to the defense of Debbie Dumars here, who is about as non-celebrity and low-maint as they come.
Nugent can go bite a fart. Live in the woods, hunter man. Nobody wants you around civilized people.
BobS
@RL: Ted Nugent is not “a true American rock original that will be remembered for the ages”. He’s at best second, more like third tier on the national stage, and isn’t even in the same class as his contemporaries in Detroit such as the MC5, the Stooges, Mitch Ryder, or Bob Seger.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@trollhattan:
I sadly consigned my two The Osbourne’s T-shirts to the rag bin last weekend. The show was a riot and I think Sharon and Ozzy are just cool.
But you are right about the kids…lol!
That’s really funny that El Lardo didn’t have a clue who was on his show telling him that he was well loved and admired.
Two idiots without a clue.
muddy
@lamh35:
Isn’t that a contradiction in terms? Does he not know that the one group killed the other? derp
PoliticalHack
I remember a “reality” show on MTV that featured Nugent and a bunch of attention whores (men and women). During one show, Brave Brave sir Nugent was riding a horse with a paintball gun in his hands, “hunting” and shooting the attention whores. He was laughing his ass off as he was shooting these folks with the paintballs (muzzle velocity 300 ft/sec – or 200 MPH). When he wasn’t shooting them, he was verbally berating the ones who were hiding for being such “pussies”.
Yeah, real brave, Brave Brave sir Nugent – calling unarmed folks “pussies” for not facing a man on a horse with a weapon…
Cassidy
@BobS: Whoo. I was skimming and thought we were gonna have to fight. I’m a big MC5 and Stooges fan. All I saw was “second tier”.
Death Panel Truck
@lamh35:
Oh, good fucking gawd…the Tsars were the Imperialists, Ted. The Bolsheviks used the last one for target practice.
trollhattan
@Death Panel Truck:
Let’s see, how did that go?
“Killed the czar and his ministers, Anastasia screamed in vain.”
Ted must have been in a (raw) meat coma that decade.
Villago Delenda Est
@Death Panel Truck:
Someone expects a wingnut moran like Nugent to figure out the subtle nuances of liberally biased history?
Please. Might as well expect Monty Burns to make that donation to the Springfield orphanage.
Linda
Ted’s a schmuck, but do you have any evidence of him being a druggie or sexual predator? Because I have not heard of any, and in fact, he’s pretty famously anti-drug.
sherparick
Ted gave an interview with “High Times” in 1977, when it was very cool for rockers to detail how they avoided the draft. Ted claimed he faked being an extreme nut case (in Ted’s case sometime one wonders if it required much faking) to avoid the draft. That he was giving an interview to “High Times” shows he that he was working a different side of the aisle in 1977. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Nugent. Ted was born in 1948 and hence turned 18 in 1966, just as Vietnam was starting to reach it men devouring peak (we lost over 58,000 killed over 14 years, most being killed from 1965-1971, our peak ivolvement in the gand war). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_Warlonolv6i
In 1995, with his career in a different place, and running different grift for a different audience, he came up with a different story surrounding a student deferrment in a community college. However, the public records confirm a “medical deferment” which is consistent with the first story and one year in a community college and the Amboy Dukes would not have excused him from selective service during the pre-lottery years from 1966-1970. The child molester part is also in the wikipedia article (she was 17, he was 32 so only in our era would that be considered molesting).
Of course Ted’s life has had many other family value moments which show his moral superiority to Gays and Lesbians beside the 17 year old. At least 3 out of wedlock children, etc.
BobS
@Cassidy: Me too. The MC5 and the Stooges are actual originals who will be remembered for the ages. I grew up in Detroit at the time and was lucky enough to see all those bands perform many times- the city was overflowing with good bands back then. I’d personally rank the Amboy Dukes with other good but lesser known bands such as the Rationals, the Up, SRC, Frigid Pink, and the Frost, a cut below those I mentioned above.
You’re wrong about Neil Young, by the way. If you’ve never seen him live with Crazy Horse, you’ve missed one of the great rock n’ roll shows.
sherparick
Meanwhile, on cue with his win in Atrios’ Wanker of the Decade competition, comes Tom Friedman pining for plutocrat Bloomberg. Dean Baker says it well (and really, Balloon Juice should link as as often to Baker as it does to Charlie Pierce – what can I say, I am a fanboy for both of them.) “I would make fun of the part of this Thomas Friedman column that calls for cutting entitlements to put the budget on a sustainable footing (the problem is not “entitlements,” the problem is a broken health care system that raises the cost of public sector health care programs like Medicare and Medicaid), but I don’t believe this piece is genuine. Yesterday, Atrios proclaimed Thomas Friedman the “Wanker of the Decade,” referring to the first decade of his blog’s existence.”
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/is-thomas-friedman-for-real
I suspect some sort of side arrangement. Friedman is clearly trying to publicize this designation by writing exactly the sort of inane centrist, above the political fray column that earned him this award. He can’t fool me
brantl
@Steeplejack: Cat Scratch Fever sucked shit through an 8 inch pipe. At first, when I heard that song, I thought he said “Cat Scratch Reverb”, and I think I had it right.
samara morgan
@Raven: well HuffPo went there and so did the secret service. not that he’s worried.
Soonergrunt
@Linda: He looks like a former addict, acts like a former addict, and I haven’t seen ANYTHING to say that he isn’t a former addict.
If I’m wrong, oh well.
As for the Sexual Predator title–that’s pretty easily earned by someone who finagles himself a position as legal guardian for a minor in order that he can maintain a sexual relationship with her. Just because it was kind of legal doesn’t make it right.