The Puke Funnel isn’t so much a funnel anymore as it is a direct IV into worthless reporters:
Yesterday the AP ran a story that sounds eye-poppingly scary. The International Atomic Energy Agency has a “secret” side deal that will allow the Iranians to inspect themselves. What the hell, right? Thanks Obama and what was Obama thinking? But the story itself was based on the reporter apparently not knowing what he was talking about. And the AP had to later scrub what were seemingly the most damning details. I’d go into those details. But Max Fischer at Vox has a very lengthy explainer going into just how botched this steaming pile was.
Let me share with you a deep truth: The nuclear stuff is complicated. Einstein said that. It doesn’t necessarily work in the way your everyday life experience would suggest. So it’s important to consult the people who know about the nuclear stuff, people called scientists. Particularly, nuclear scientists. And here we have another case where tendentious malefactors leak seemingly damning details to reporters who in the most basic sense do not know what they are talking about and write a story which can and often does dramatically affect the public debate over a critical issue. It’s already happened with the 24 days nonsense and it may with this. The AP has to scrub its story and pull a New York Times pretending the gist somehow isn’t changed when there is barely a story there in the first place. It really is a replay of how reporters — often acting in good faith — get played by malicious leaks. There are lots of reporters unfortunately who are in on the scam but they shall remain nameless for the moment. And it’s all a replay of the tragic nonsense parade which preceded the Iraq War — with lots of the same easy-mark reporters.
The only rational response for reporters, if they honestly care about the integrity of their work, is to publicly burn sources who repeatedly lie to you. It’s that simple. The only downside is that lying sources will never trust you again and make you look like an idiot like they did here.
redshirt
Modern “journalism” is based on maintaining Sources.
To burn them is to burn your career.
raven
You want to get an idea of how complex this shit is and how unbelievably lucky we haven’t already been blown to smithereens by accident read “Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety” by Eric Schlosser.
Frankensteinbeck
A generous statement, but okay, I get what he means: ‘Not aware they’re lying.’
FoxinSocks
Called both my senators today and told them I supported Obama’s Iran deal. Will call my rep next. He’s reportedly on the fence.
jl
Thanks for posting this, Cole. That was an important, and serous and genuine, and valuable competent TPM blog news analysis of a biased piece of corporate news information product junk.
But you know, gee, it sure is funny how so many untrue worthless garbage stories, that all push one side of the political spectrum, are getting published by supposedly very serious news establishments in this country.
It might be a good sign, if interpreted to mean that lots of GOPers are planting such easily debunkable BS.
On the other hand, what is going on with the editors who OK this dreck? And why the kindergarten chickenshit inability to admit that they made a mistake? Have news organizations always been this chickenshit?
Some of this story is wonky, like what is the usual procedure of the IAEA. OTOTH, just the background that would be required for a competently reported story should have been a tip off. Like it was not really part of the Iran deal at all, but wrapping up an inspection issue from a decade ago, and in a facility that was generally recognized as having no current nuclear research.
Mapaghimagsik
“Acting in good faith” is hard to differentiate from “plausible denyabilty to peddle crap”
Frankensteinbeck
I discovered this viscerally during the Fukushima incident. I was following MIT’s blog on the subject, so the news would be like ‘hydrogen explosion!’ and it would sound terrifying, and MIT’s blog would be like ‘The process makes a lot of hydrogen. It gets vented and catches fire between the concrete shells sometimes. It doesn’t do any significant harm. It’s a sign that the reactor is in bad shape, but we knew that.’ There was a whole lot of that.
Dr.McCoy
Best quote; “the 24 day nonsense”.
We have a knowledge of…..”24″.
Ask Jack Bauer.
jl
Forgot the mention, re Iran deal, that Menendez managed to give a more weak ass argument against it than Schumer. That is quite an accomplishment.
My favorite bit: only treaties that are once and for all solutions forever more are any good. Anything else is a sell out.
How can a grown man stand up on his hind legs, dressed up in a suit and tie, and talk and all, and make such a fool of himself in front of the whole country, and in front of a sizable stretch of history as well?
geg6
@raven:
Seconded.
And burning sources is NEVER going to happen among the Villagers. Ever. They have to drink martinis and eat cocktail weenies with them every evening. Getting and maintaining “sources” for anonymous attribution is the entire game.
Mike in NC
@redshirt: Yup. Chuck Todd & company are happy to be overpaid stenographers.
mai naem mobile
One of the neocon/Likudniks probably fed the reporter the story and the reporter was too incompetent to check it out.
Davis X. Machina
@jl: If he thinks his continuance in office demands it?
There’s more than one Prime Directive.
the Conster
Our media is a disgrace. Full stop. The only question that remains is how to destroy them before they destroy us.
Roger Moore
@Mike in NC:
But only for the right kind of people. If Democrats want something repeated, they have to pay cash and have it labeled an advertizement.
Omnes Omnibus
@mai naem mobile: Rumors say it was Tom Cotton.
Chris
I suppose their response to this (if they were honest) would be along the lines of “why would I burn sources that give me good stories? Who gives a shit if the stories aren’t true? I get to stay part of the Official Washington circuit, close to all the Important People. Surely that’s worth a white lie or two every now and then.”
Emma
No. No more benefit of the doubt. They are doing it with full knowledge of what they are doing. And they care only about their careers. Good reporters stay in crap jobs while the immoral ass kissers get promoted to where they can do the worst damage. On purpose.
smintheus
Needs a link to the Vox piece by Max Fisher, who did all the heavy lifting. TPM is just rehashing what Fisher already highlighted.
Chris
@Emma:
Is it me, or does this increasingly sound like every sector of American society?
NotMax
All the news that fits, they print.
Even when it isn’t news.
jl
@smintheus:
The AP’s controversial and badly flawed Iran inspections story, explained
Max Fisher, Vox
http://www.vox.com/2015/8/20/9182185/ap-iran-inspections-parchin
Emma
@Chris: The psychopaths are winning.
jl
@Chris: It is what a culture run by corporate hacks looks like. Sort of the like the movie Brazil, except worse, because of more boring set design.
smintheus
@jl: Thanks jl. I meant Cole ought to include a link in his post.
jl
@smintheus: I had the TPM story open, so easy to get it and thought people would click.
Edit: and you are right. The Fisher piece is what people need to understand and rebut this bogus scare story. The TPM piece is really more about the common threads in all of the bogus stories against the Iran deal that have been published recently.
schrodinger's cat
I will play the devil’s advocate, what would be so bad if Iran did get a nuclear weapon?
ETA: What is our stockpile right now? Imagine one of the clown bus occupants being in charge of the nuclear football.
Chris
@jl:
I think Blade Runner, The Fifth Element, Firefly, and a bunch of other shows have given me unrealistic expectations of how cool Future Dystopia would be.
Cheryl Rofer
Here’s an impressive takedown of the AP’s alleged document from a former IAEA inspector.
I love the Josh Marshall piece because it’s so funny. The Vox article does a better job of explaining, though. (And it mentions me.)
ETA: Kind of a fun exchange going on between Matt Lee of AP and Oliver Knox of Yahoo News right now on my Twitter timeline. @cherylrofer
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Omnes Omnibus: Cotton, McCain, Graham, Rubio… I could see any one of them serving as a conduit for Bill Kristol. I guess Cotton is more likely than the old men or the presidential candidate.
redshirt
@schrodinger’s cat: Nothing. Bibi would shriek.
Gin & Tonic
@raven: Seconded. Also highly recommend The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists for more real-time stuff. Mark Hibbs knows an awful lot of shit too.
smintheus
@schrodinger’s cat: Several other countries in the ME would want to get nuclear weapons, particularly Saudia Arabia.
ThresherK
I heard Lindsay Graham blurbing the AP story on an NPR nooze update sometime this afternoon.
First reaction was “My stars and garters, Graham’s lying about the AP.”
The truth was worse.
Chris
@smintheus:
It’s mainly Saudi Arabia. Pakistan has them already, Israel has them already, Turkey has the NATO shield to hide behind, and Iraq is in no shape for that kind of thing. The Saudis are the big question mark, and they’ve stated a few times things like “we cannot live in a situation where Iran has a nuclear weapon and we do not.”
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@ThresherK: call me cynical, but I think that was the point of all this, “As you may know, Chuck, an AP story raised serious questions about at least one site, called Parching, where even the IAEA concedes was probably used to develop weapons….” Even if there’s pushback, which at this point there might be (probably in a long form, sit-down interview, less less in a less formal setting), the “raises serious questions” standard, the Russert Standard, has been met.
smintheus
@Chris: True enough. But a Senate report from 2008 on that question concluded that there was a significant possibility that Egypt and Turkey might also develop nuclear weapons, Egypt mainly because it sees itself rather than Saudi Arabia as the leader of the Arab world, and Turkey because it sees itself as the main regional power and a nuclear Iran would marginalize its aspirations.
PhoenixRising
@raven: Just finished that (‘Command and Control’).
Haven’t slept a night in a week. Probably for other causes.
Liquid
In the midst of all this — There ‘ah was, a-warshin mah ‘ands, when wot but a ‘lil spiderlin decided to make her presence known. Wondered where she came from but then I remember walkin under that there tree so I guess that “spider-bus” flimshaw was true. Hardly larger than a comma on your tapboard she was, so I took her back out and set her on a leaf. Good luck little one!
Now back to the bullshit.
Chris
@smintheus:
Forgot about Egypt… Yeah, okay. They’re not in as bad a shape as Iraq, despite the revolution/counterrevolution thingamabob.
The question for them and the Saudis (and the Turks if that report’s right) is whether they’d be willing to take the consequences of alienating the U.S.
redshirt
You get a nuke! You get a nuke! Everyone gets a nuke!
Belafon
OT: I have a teacher bleg for anyone willing: http://www.donorschoose.org/project/dystopian-steampunk-expeditioners/1593929/. She happens to be the English teacher my youngest son will have this year, and I think has a neat idea for getting some kids interested in reading. I donated a good chunk already, but because of bills that recently came up, I couldn’t pay for it all. (While not every family at the school is poor, it qualifies as one of the poorest in the district, and this is Texas.)
I’m also going to show her Frankensteinbeck’s book Please Don’t Tell My Parents I’m a Supervillain. Hopefully, if she decides it’s worth it, I will have saved up enough to buy all the books for her class by the time she gets to it.
jl
@Cheryl Rofer: thanks. I downloaded it for later. And your blog looks interesting. I’ll read some of the posts on the security classification issue, much of which from my experience with the one job I had that needed a necklace of obscure clearances, is a messy joke, IMHO.
I remember arguing with some old hands about some of the more puzzling rules of security classification. Often the argument degenerated into
“Well, but if they DO know you know they know you know they know, then they KNOW.”
“But they know, generally, we know anyway, from the papers”
“But if they specifically KNOW we KNOW we KNOW:.
Some things that seem silly. actually make sense, once you think about protecting sources and similar issues, but a lot of it i could never understand.
Botsplainer
@schrodinger’s cat:
Israelis would have to halt their policy of lebensraum and would have to temper the worst impulses of the Likud nutters in their apartheid state?
smintheus
@Chris: I’m not sure how much influence we have with Turkey any longer. For more than a decade their cooperation with the US on essential concerns has been only occasional and grudging. Anyway, for me the scariest of those possibilities would be Egypt for a whole host of reasons.
John Revolta
Einstein. Pffffft. I don’t need no egghead scientist to tell me about stuff. I know Evil when I see it and these towelheaded mullahfukahs blart spart blargle
hmmm this isn’t as much fun as it used to be. More like I’m just making myself more worrieder. Bastards.
Tommy
@Chris: Egypt and Turkey are not backwards nations and they have kick ass military. Thanks to us selling them arms I might add.
If they wanted to confront ISIS they could. I recall my father teaching at the Army War college, this story he told. That during WWII the Turks would never secure their nap sacks. You could hear them coming from miles away. They wanted this because the Turks were bad ass mother fuckers. Germany and Italy wanted no part of them.
Nobody wanted to fight the Turks!
Cheryl Rofer
@jl: The criticisms of the AP document are pretty wonky, but they’re reminiscent of what was wrong with the yellowcake documents: protocols of names and how documents are constructed are wrong, stuff that a bureaucratic organization like the IAEA wouldn’t do. Pretty damning IMHO.
SiubhanDuinne
@Liquid:
Good for you! I’ve rescued spiders for years. In fact, at several strategic places around my apartment I have “spider-catching kits” — a sturdy clear plastic glass and a stiff piece of white cardboard. It’s usually pretty easy to upend the cup over the bug, slide the cardboard firmly underneath, take the whole thing outdoors, and fling the spider in the general direction of a nice shrubbery.
A few years ago, I had an invasion of ants in my upstairs bathroom. Did everything I could think of to get rid of them, but nothing worked for more than a day or two until a nice spider moved in and set up housekeeping in a remote corner. Since then, no more ants! And I’ve never disturbed Madame Arachne; in fact, I’m more than happy to share space with her.
Turgidson
The tragic nonsense parade that Josh Marshall bought hook, line and sinker, of course.
Though I’ll grant that he seems to have mostly learned his lesson, unlike most of the lollygaggers who got it wrong and, yet, continue to have profitable careers being wrong about things on TV and in the papers.
Debbie
@SiubhanDuinne:
I too have “kits” for stink bugs with cardboard, but they ain’t for saving them.
Tommy
@SiubhanDuinne: Where I live I have about a 5,000 acre field in front of my house. This year it has soy beans and not corn for the first time in a decade or so.
In the spring I get ants in my house. Spiders fighting back. Spiders seem to win most years. Spiders are cool.
Drunkenhausfrau
Amen, Cole. I saw this headline this morning and knew the story was bullshit, but what is the saying? A lie will go around the world twice before the truth has even tied up its shoes?
Debbie
@Omnes Omnibus:
Oh, please let that be true!
SiubhanDuinne
@Debbie:
Yeah, I’m not sure I’d go out of my way to save stink bugs. Although I don’t enjoy killing anything*.
And yes, I eat meat and wear leather. Never claimed to be consistent.
*(Always making an exception for mosquitos.)
Tommy
@Turgidson: I hate to admit I thought at the time invading Iraq was a good idea. I have been wrong in the past about many things, but I don’t think as wrong as this.
I am embarrassed to note this but I do because so many of the people I listened to at the time are still on TV, talking to people in power (looking at you Scott Walker to name just one person), where they think they were right when they fucked up at levels I can’t put to words.
SiubhanDuinne
@Tommy:
Spiders are very cool! It’s so neat how they figure in legend — Arachne in Greek myth, the story of King Robert the Bruce in Scottish history, an appealing trickster figure in African and Native American traditions — just fascinating.
The way they take care of ants is a bonus :-)
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@SiubhanDuinne: I was thinking about this the other day: Is there a tradition that spiders in the house are good luck?
Roger Moore
@Turgidson:
It is much more profitable to be wrong about the right things than to be right about the wrong things.
mai naem mobile
@Omnes Omnibus: You mean International Man of Mystery Tom Cotton?
Jeezus,how did Jindal and Cotton become Rhodes Scholars? Their standards have dropped.
Tommy
@SiubhanDuinne: I am a Scot immigrant, will have to Google “King Robert the Bruce” and spiders. The webs spiders do by me stuns me. I’d never touch them. Figure it is kind of how the world works.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I googled for my own and answer and…
Yes
and no (and I guess the 1816 one above could be a yes and no, depending on the friend)
SiubhanDuinne
@Tommy:
Here you go:
http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/scotlandshistory/warsofindependence/bruceandspider/index.asp
Omnes Omnibus
@SiubhanDuinne: Deer flies too.
Bill Arnold
@Cheryl Rofer:
Very interesting. What’s your opinion of the (textual) analysis? (edit; your comment at #48 is sufficient)
SiubhanDuinne
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Yes, I think so, but it would depend on the particular culture. I’ve always found them beautiful and fascinating, albeit I would prefer not to cuddle up with them.
(EDIT: Just saw your #62. Saved me the trouble.)
I also like bats.
And even snakes, at a respectable distance.
SiubhanDuinne
@Omnes Omnibus:
It do not! It got no wings!
jl
@Turgidson: In defense of Marshall, he did come out against the Iraq invasion before the deed, finally, at the last minute, after it was mostly a done deal. But it was disappointing, He wasted a lot of time being invasion curious long after it was clearly a disastrous idea.
Omnes Omnibus
@SiubhanDuinne: Groan.
Chris
@SiubhanDuinne:
There’s an American Indian creation myth (I don’t remember which tribe at all) in which the spider is the animal responsible for bringing the Sun into everyone’s life. (World is still in darkness; several animals make a journey to try and bring back the Sun, but can’t; the spider is the one that succeeds).
Doug R
@geg6: is it really a source if it burns you? burn’em back
TheMightyTrowel
@mai naem mobile: Or went up.
Tommy
@SiubhanDuinne: Not so sure I believe that. IMHO, and I can trace my life back to people that fought against the British, we were successful at times because we’d throw our lives out on the field and fight. Coming to America was a great thing for my family. We didn’t have to fight anymore!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
SiubhanDuinne
@Chris:
That sounds familiar but I would have to google. I expect by the time I do so, someone else here will have managed to get there before me.
dww44
@jl: Chris Hayes had this story on his show tonight. He also referred to a reputable news organization being fooled into publishing a “gotcha’ about the Iran deal. He also had a nuclear scientist on who explained why the story got crucial facts about the deal wrong, but he also said congrats were due to those who figured out how to plant such a plausible takedown of the deal.
As for me, I long ago stopped thinking that the AP, while more reputable than your Fox News types, was an objective and unbiased news organization. It has long been in the tank for conservatives and the GOP. Therefore I always view their scoops with a skeptical eye. Wish that they had a real competitor, a la the UPI of old. One other thing to chalk up to the demise of newspapers.
TheMightyTrowel
@TheMightyTrowel: Worth pointing out that the linked webpage is part of a huge project attempting to document the history and impact of women Rhodes Scholars and has tons of interviews with amazing women of all ages.
Chris
@SiubhanDuinne:
Found it. Cherokee.
I remembered the story from a book of American myths I had when I was a kid. This takes me back.
SiubhanDuinne
@Tommy:
Well, it’s a legend. One of the nice things about myths and legends is that you can relate them or not, as you please, to your own experience and beliefs. (To be clear, the spider may indeed be legendary; the Bruce, however, was an actual historical figure.)
dww44
@Omnes Omnibus: Ya know, I hope that’s true. If there’s a politician more deserving of exposure for his pernicious behavior, it’s gotta be Tom Cotton. Thanks, Arkansas.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@dww44: whenever I see a story sourced to AP, I wonder, did Ron Fournier hire or even mentor this person?
Dana Milbank in ’08:
the whole piece, both what happened and the way Milbank wrote it up, is even worse than I remembered.
Omnes Omnibus
@SiubhanDuinne: You and I both know that Scotland is imaginary.
SiubhanDuinne
@Chris:
That is a lovely story.
Cheryl Rofer
@Bill Arnold: I had questions of my own about the AP document. It just didn’t read like an IAEA document, and there seemed to be some other kinds of holes. If you’re going to do sampling, you need a sampling plan, and this wasn’t that. That could be okay, but then the sampling plan would be mentioned, and it wasn’t. I laid out my questions in a tweetstream, starting here. I suppose I should write them up, but not tonight.
I find Rauf’s criticisms persuasive. He’s been an IAEA inspector. There are certain things, like what Iran calls itself and which name goes first in a document like this, that bureaucratic organizations and governments just don’t get wrong. They’re second nature.
Is the document a fake? I don’t know. But I’m pretty sure it’s not the final and official document.
Tommy
@SiubhanDuinne:
Yes. I don’t always agree with this or that, but I hold legends to my heart. I know for a fact I think or talk about things that are not entirely true. Fables. But they are nice stories :).
Cpl. Cam
@jl: The future? Picture a Gucci loafer smashing a human face, forever… (Apologies to Orwell.)
Cervantes
@Cheryl Rofer:
Hi, there. Nice to see you here again.
SiubhanDuinne
@Omnes Omnibus:
Uh huh.
Uh huh.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qxDJMn-534Y
SiubhanDuinne
@Tommy:
When it comes to myths and legends and fables, I tend to make a distinction between what is factual and what is true.
El Caganer
@dww44: If a Republican wins the Presidency in 2016, Cotton will be Secretary of State.
Cheryl Rofer
@Cervantes: Nice to see you too!
Belafon
@SiubhanDuinne: My middle son wants to be a writer, and he’s very interested in mythology and fairy tales, so we’ve had a number of discussions over how stories like this are created.
Cervantes
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
More than one.
Example from Provence:
Debbie
@Belafon:
Has your son read Songlines by Bruce Chatwin? It’s the aboriginal mythology of Australia. A really great book.
SiubhanDuinne
@Belafon:
I’m doing a fairly massive research thing right now on how myths, legends, and other stories we tell about ourselves have been depicted in (mostly classical) music. The topic never ceases to be fascinating — like your son, I’ve been interested since a young age.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
Speaking of our failed media…. Is anyone in the US press noticing what’s going on in Korea?
Eh, it’s just bluster like it always is. Right? They wouldn’t go to war over yelling from loudspeakers, right? Right? :-/
Cheers,
Scott.
(There’s obviously too much news about Trump being a Democratic plant for US reporters to cover Korea right now.)
SiubhanDuinne
@Debbie:
I’ll look into that as well.
Omnes Omnibus
@SiubhanDuinne: Did you start with a copy of Bulfinch’s Mythology? It was my gateway book.
Cervantes
@Cheryl Rofer:
You must have spoken to Juan Cole recently or seen the piece he published today. I like that he quotes Iran-skeptic Yukiya Amano and on the other hand I especially like that he credits Gary Sick …
Belafon
@Debbie: Nope, but I will find it for him.
Cheryl Rofer
@Cervantes: I did not see Cole’s post. Good that the AP piece is being debunked from multiple sides and points of view. Gary Sick knows more about Iran than anyone. I’ll have another post coming out soon.
ETA: If things slow down enough that I don’t have to keep revising it!
trollhattan
@schrodinger’s cat:
Every new nuclear state is inherently destabilizing because it triggers other states to become nuclear powers themselves. We have failed badly to continue pushing disarmament and could use a squadron of Sam Nunns to get back on the stick.
Imagine recent events had Ukraine not surrendered their stockpile following the Soviet Union collapse. In sum: a very bad thing, indeed, to ramp up the nuclear state count in the Middle East. It’s spooky enough watching Pakistan and India staring one another down.
SiubhanDuinne
@Omnes Omnibus:
Edith Hamilton first, then Bulfinch. Although I think there was a children’s picture book of myths I enjoyed as a wee one.
When I was two years old, my grandfather gave me a set of personalized bookplates. They had a picture of Pegasus on them :-)
TheMightyTrowel
@SiubhanDuinne: songlines is good – a touch outdated, but worth reading. Also worth reading, though a bit more academic, is Basso’s famous 1996 essay (which became a book of the same name) “wisdom sits in places” – I think you guys might like it.
SiubhanDuinne
@Omnes Omnibus:
I should add that my high school taught the classic Greek/Roman/Norse myths as an integral part of Freshman English. Also the Old Testament, and even bits and pieces of the New. Taught as literature and cultural touchstones of Western Civ, not as belief systems. (Edit): I doubt they do that these days — but I’ve always been grateful.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Belafon: Sounds like a good project – developing a love of reading is wonderful. I kicked in a little. Best of luck.
Cheers,
Scott.
SiubhanDuinne
@TheMightyTrowel:
Cool, thanks very much.
TheMightyTrowel
@SiubhanDuinne: my pleasure! It’s one of the best things I read as an undergrad and I love giving it to new people to read. If you email me sapphirecate AT yahoo DOT com I’ll happily email you a pdf
Freemark
@SiubhanDuinne: I have also come to an agreement with spiders in my basement apartment. I have found bugs are less of a problem if I leave them alone. Unfortunately for them the agreement doesn’t apply to the floor. Mainly because my cat finds them fun to hunt.
This was an interesting article. It appears the common fear of spiders is genetic
trollhattan
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet:
Hmmm
Omnes Omnibus
@SiubhanDuinne: They didn’t even in my time. I would have liked that.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: Oy. I was just going to respond to @schrodinger’s cat: that I find North Korea and Pakistan more frightening than Iran.
RandomMonster
From Josh’s article:
A nitpick, but he doesn’t need the word “even” in that sentence — it’s like he’s saying Blitzer is more reliable than Hannity or something!
Belafon
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: Thanks!
Belafon
@Debbie: Update: I mentioned the title to him, and while he hadn’t heard of the book, he knew what the title meant.
A brief history. I buy a lot of books to try to get my kids to read. Lemony Snicket got my oldest hooked. I tried lots of different books with my middle one, and then he read Percy Jackson. He’s been reading since the first one came out, and has branched out pretty far, though mythology, both historical, and written in contemporary fiction, are his favorites. My youngest (all three are boys) got hooked on Junie B. Jones.
If you’re a parent of a young kid, make them read, but be willing to buy just about anything and everything.
SiubhanDuinne
@TheMightyTrowel:
Done! Thanks again — I look forward to reading it!
Cervantes
@TheMightyTrowel:
A good book.
Here’s something Keith said decades before:
No better epitaph.
Kropadope
@jl: Thanks for that, I was wondering what the substance of this “revelation” actually is.
I finally heard back from my rep, Joe Kennedy, regarding his position on the Iran agreement. Short answer, “undecided;” the long version:
Omnes Omnibus
@Kropadope: He is a yes.
Kropadope
@Omnes Omnibus: While that’s awesome, I find that funny because I literally just got that e-mail yesterday morning.
Omnes Omnibus
@Kropadope: I am saying that my reading of the email you received tells me he will vote in favor of the deal.
Kropadope
@Omnes Omnibus: Yeah, I kinda got the sense he was leaning that way. But Chuck Schumer seems to be able to articulate the positives of the deal and will still vote against it. If he says he’s undecided, I’ll take him at his word since opposition doesn’t seem to be built on being informed but rather political posturing.
Omnes Omnibus
@Kropadope: Well then, call him. But I read that email as he is a yes but doesn’t want to come out with it until and unless he has to.
Kropadope
@Omnes Omnibus: If the Senate holds at only 2 Democrats in opposition, they may be able to filibuster the rejection to death anyway. Though I would like it to come to a vote. Let every Congressmonkey in opposition show their bright red baboon ass, then Obama can veto the bill.
Omnes Omnibus
@Kropadope: All Nancy Pelosi needs to do is keep House defections below ~50. Do you think she can’t do that?
Kropadope
@Omnes Omnibus: I’m pretty damn certain she can. It shouldn’t be too hard, given that 151 reps signed a letter supporting the principle of negotiations and not one has come out against the deal last I checked. That’s plenty to sustain a veto.
Omnes Omnibus
@Kropadope: And that ends it.
Kropadope
@Omnes Omnibus: I never said I was worried about the veto being overridden. If a filibuster is a possibility, that’s an even higher threshold surpassed. I just want them all on record, I disapprove of a filibuster. That’s how confident I am in the strength of a veto.
Omnes Omnibus
@Kropadope: I am worried about it even though I think it unlikely. If it happens, it is very bad news for the US in diplomatic terms. So it worries me a great deal.
Anne Laurie
@El Caganer:
(In reference to the Ashley Madison date-dump)
Kropadope
@Omnes Omnibus: I don’t even want to think of what would have to go wrong for that to happen. All the momentum is on the side of the deal right now. More and more prominent Democrats are vowing to support it every day. All the people against seem to have had decided early. If this gets derailed in Congress, whatever happened in the meantime to precipitate that would be something disastrous in its own right.
trollhattan
@Anne Laurie:
Wow, Tom Cotton’s looks match his brain. Who designed that gawdawful poster? Did the check clear?
Also, too, Holdiday Inn?
Matt McIrvin
@Doug R: Even if they’re a bad source, burning them will make other people not eager to confide in you.
sm*t cl*de
The press release includes these words:
When the authors are unaware that black widows inhabit a completely different continent from the one where we evolved, they need to shut the fuck up, they are out of their element.
Cervantes
@sm*t cl*de:
Numerous Latrodectus species are found in Africa.
J R in WV
In regard to the spider genetics article, in the second sentence they used a wrong/misspelled word: site for sight.
Sad for science.
One Lesson: turn off auto-correct always.
JWR
@smintheus: “TPM is just rehashing what Fisher already highlighted.”
That’s about all TPM does these days: rehashing, (or rewriting), stories already written by others. Also, back in 2002, Josh Marshall was one of those “easy-mark reporters” of whom he now writes with oblivious disdain.