Douche Diligence

Caught retelling lies about Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV), Time magazine Blogger of the Year John "Asshole" Hinderaker pleads willful ignorance:

Obviously if I had known this guy was a liar I would not have given him the forum to tell a story.

Hinderaker is an attorney. And his defense -- seriously -- for repeating lies is that he didn't have any reason to think the lies weren't true.  As in, "some guy I don't called me up and told me something which I "verified" by Googling the guy's fake name and talking to him on the phone some more, so why wouldn't I believe him? And I didn't say he was telling the truth, because who reads my sorry ass for that shit?"

Time for another blogger ethics panel.

Okay

"Inspector of the Dead," by David Morrell:

The year is 1855. The Crimean War is raging. The incompetence of British commanders causes the fall of the English government. The Empire teeters.

Amid this crisis comes opium-eater Thomas De Quincey, one of the most notorious and brilliant personalities of Victorian England. Along with his irrepressible daughter, Emily, and their Scotland Yard companions, Ryan and Becker, De Quincey finds himself confronted by an adversary who threatens the heart of the nation.

This killer targets members of the upper echelons of British society, leaving with each corpse the name of someone who previously attempted to kill Queen Victoria. The evidence indicates that the ultimate victim will be Victoria herself. As De Quincey and Emily race to protect the queen, they uncover long-buried secrets and the heartbreaking past of a man whose lust for revenge has destroyed his soul.

From the author of "William S. Boroughs, Lawrence, Kansas Private Dick."

MoDo Is Insipid, But Douthat Is Insidious

Ross Douthat becomes more loathsome by the day.

In his latest column, he argues that raped children (whom he refers to as "women") were privileged in respect to their rapists.  And that, therefore, privilege doesn't exist. But U.S. gays are extraordinarily privileged.

Reliable Soreasses

A couple of days ago, Dyldo Byers at PolitcHo was pimping his stable of right-wing hacks to replace Bob Schieffer as host of Face the Nation:

Network President David Rhodes is a long way from settling on a successor.,,,

But there is a shortlist, those sources said: Internally, Rhodes and his fellow executives are looking at Major Garrett, the network's chief White House correspondent, and Norah O'Donnell, the co-anchor of "CBS This Morning" and substitute host for Schieffer on "Face." One source also said that John Dickerson, the network's political director, is on the list of potential replacements.

But CBS brass are considering outside talent as well: Jake Tapper, the CNN host who previously substituted for George Stephanopoulos on ABC's Sunday show "This Week," is a top consideration. ABC News chief White House correspondent Jonathan Karl is also under consideration. However, both men are believed to be under contract with their respective employers.

Approximately 72 hours later, Schieffer announced John Dickerson as his replacement. (I'm guessing the decision wasn't made over the weekend, and was probably done by the time Schieffer made his retirement public.) But the sources inside Dyldo's head had already tapped a wingnut for the vacancy.

I also enjoyed the "believed to be under contract with their respective employers." Can't be arsed to nail that one down, Dyldo? Do you believe Tappy and Jonny are independent contractors?

Swing and a Miss

All in all, the rollout of Ron Paul's victim of the media strategy didn't go as well as Scott Walker's.

When he announces, Marco Rubio's really going to have to step up his game to be half the media victim that Walker is. 

Grand Old Police Blotter: More On Todd's Family Values Edition

Sharper than a serpent's tooth and crazier than a nut hatch is former Executive Director of the South Carolina G.O.P., Todd Kincannon, if Todd's father is to be believed:

Just before midnight on April 13, 2013, according to one incident report, an officer with the Simpsonville Police Department responded to a call from Kincannon's father, who said he wished to report an incident but did not want to press charges. The father (whose name has been redacted from the report) said that he had been woken up at 11:55 p.m. by his dogs barking because Kincannon was banging on the front door. Kincannon reportedly said that he had spilled Coca-Cola on his hands and needed to wash them. When the father followed him into the kitchen, Kincannon allegedly pulled a out a revolver, pointed it at his father, and screamed, "Get back, motherfucker, or I'll kill you." 

The father said that he tried to retreat, but his son pushed him against the front door twice and said, "Now I'm going to kill you, motherfucker." The father ran shoeless to another house and said that "he could see the red laser sight from Todd's handgun bouncing around as he was running," according to the report. 

Speaking to police, Kincannon's father said he and his wife had given Kincannon "large amounts of money in the recent past (including $35,000) to help Todd pay off student loans and to help him catch up on payments to the rental house" and that tension had arisen recently over inheritance issues after a family member passed away. An officer wrote at the time, "He advised that he's seen the weapon plenty of times in the past, especially when Todd put his own gun to his head and threatened to kill himself." Kincannon's father also said there was "a lengthy history of Todd verbally and physically abusing he and his wife."

Todd makes Erick Erickson look sane.

Law-Abiding American for Rand

For those dimwitted enough to believe that Poodle Paul's position against recording the telephone calls of "law-abiding Americans" represents some sort of libertarian vestigial tail, suck(*) on this:

“I have never argued against any technology being used against having an imminent threat, [or] an act of crime going on,” Paul said, referring to Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. “If someone comes out of a liquor store with a weapon and 50 dollars in cash I don’t care if a drone kills him or a policeman kills him.”

If you smoke weed, Pot Paul has a wiretap for you.  If he had his druthers, Big Brother would be recording every homosexualist, abortion provider and political "radical" in the land. And worse.

The Poodle is a social Darwinist, to be sure, but he doesn't give two shits about your privacy if you're not one of the people who would subscribe to his old man's newsletter or build a child molesting religious compound in Waco.

*  "Suck on this" is a registered trademark of Tom "Fellatio" Friedman.

Jew for Rand

Said no one, ever.

Rand Paul '16: He Loved Big Brother