This Just In

Mark Mayfield's family still has not sued Jackson, MS over Mayfield's death.

Meanwhile, the McDaniel campaign has turned into the Southern Shysters Full Employment Act and the usual G,O.P. vote frauds have shown up to suck the suckers dry.

The courtrooms of MS will be lousy with Matthew Harrison Bradys for the next few months.

Google Screwball

Who says the Republican Party always protects large corporations that abuse the little, little man? Meet the GOP's Elizabeth Warren:

Republican Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, a frequent foe of Google, is demanding to know why the giant Internet company was fumbling the search results for Dinesh D'Souza's movie America for nearly three weeks.

Rohrabacher tellsThe Hollywood Reporter that he's so disturbed by Google's behavior he intends on discussing it Wednesday during the House Republican Conference, which is the party caucus for Republicans in the House of Representatives.

Shortly after the movie opened wide on July 2, the filmmakers complained to Google that Internet users looking for showtimes and locations were sometimes misdirected to the wrong movie. On other occasions, an image of the film's poster was incorrect or a description of the movie was wrong.

"This doesn't deserve to be ignored. We need to verify the statistics in some way, and I will be suggesting the appropriate committee or subcommittee have some kind of hearing on this," Rohrbacher said. "We know there were significant incidences, and that would suggest there was intent behind Google's nonperformance."

 .... 

 "I spoke to several people and some said they had problems with the search and some said they didn't. If there was an intent to confuse the public about this movie because of its ideological content, then we're going to find out about it," Rohrabacher said. "This charge has captured the attention of those of us who see that Google has acted arrogantly in a number of areas."

... 

"I'm not threatening to shut them down, but shining a spotlight on a corporation that is acting in an abusive way can have as great an impact as legislation or regulation," Rohrabacher said. "If Google isn't informing the public about movies they disagree with, then that needs to be exposed."

That ought to be worth a few straw donations for Dana.

Let's hope that Dana will be similiarly motivated to hold hearings on assaults in federal prison come September.

Cheeseburger 'N' Pair O' 'Wipes

G.W. Bush's pet goat blowers on style and substance.

James Garner, 1928-2014

More here.

Everything I know about Southern California I learned from The Rockford Files.

Ron Fournier Is Now Accepting Late September Lunch Invitations From Top Democrats

Ron Fournier gets a free lunch:

"Every political cause has a narrative. And every narrative has a plot." Over lunch in Georgetown last month, a top Democratic spokesman, somebody who works intimately with both the White House and Hillary Rodham Clinton's team, wanted me to understand his frustration with President Obama. He said every plot has a hero. And every hero leaps overwhelming obstacles to accomplish a goal.

Ron Fournier's cause is Republicanism. Ron Fournier's narrative is President Obama sucks. Ron Fournier's hero is Ron Fournier. Ron Fournier's hero's goal is to put his narrative into the mouths of "top Democrats."  Ron Fournier's overwhelming obstacle is he has no credibility.

Ron Fournier takes his work with him on vacation:

I thought of this exchange while vacationing the last two weeks in Michigan, a state still recovering from the 2008 recession, still limping out of the industrial era, and just now dealing with the decades-long decline of its largest city, Detroit.

Sadly, Rin Fournier just can't get top Democrats to pay for hia lunch when he'a on vacation.

Ron Fournier worries that, while on vacation, he won't be able to find a top Democrat to blame President Obama for the declining value of Ron Fournier's lakeside summer home:

Three topics dominate conversations in Michigan: jobs, the weather, and the Detroit Tigers. The dearth of quality jobs gnaws at everybody, especially in northern Michigan, where financially desperate families are selling second- and third-generation cottages—a tangible loss of 20th-century middle-class vibrancy.

So Ron Fournier grants anonymity to top Democratic plumber when he's on vacation:

The day after that speech, a Tawas City, Mich., plumber told me he was a lifelong Democrat who had voted twice for Obama but had grown disenchanted. He pointed to a local newspaper headline about the Minnesota address and said, "It's not about you, Mr. President."

It's about expensing the clearing of the clogged crapper at Ron Fournier's lakeside villa, Mr. President. And Ron Fournier's got the top Democratic plumber in Tawas City, Mich.'s receipt to prove it.

... I'd Hate to See The Second Nicest

Here's how Mark Mayfield, "one of the nicest men in Jackson [MS] political circles," acts, according to The New York Times:

The police were given access to Mr. ["Constitutional Clayton"] Kelly’s Facebook exchanges, which showed him discussing the plan with John Mary of Hattiesburg, once the co-host of a conservative talk-radio show that Mr. McDaniel previously hosted and regularly appeared on.

According to those exchanges, which were examined by The New York Times, as well as interviews with people briefed on the case, Mr. Mary and Mr. Kelly hoped to propel rumors about the state of Mr. Cochran’s marriage that had been circulated on social media by McDaniel supporters as a kind of subterranean campaign issue. Mr. Kelly and Mr. Mary planned to make a video, but were unsure how to get a current picture of Mr. Cochran’s wife [,who suffers from dementia,] in the nursing home.

Mr. Mayfield did not take part in these exchanges. But he was contacted at one point, apparently by Mr. Mary, and asked to take Ms. Cochran’s picture, since his own mother was in St. Catherine’s [Village, a gated nursing home]. He declined. Instead, according to the message traffic, he agreed to set Mr. Kelly up with someone else — a person who has not been named or charged — who could help Mr. Kelly carry out his plan.

To be fair, it appears Messrs. Kelly and Mary were the ones exchanging messages about Mayfield's involvement and that Mayfield didn't participate in that exchange.  They could have been lying about Mayfield, although there wouldn't be a rational reason to lie in those exchanges, which they presumably kept confidential until they were caught. And presumably they repeated the story to police. However, Mr. Mayfield was at a minimum accused by his fellow Tea Party stalwarts of knowingly facilitating a despicable act of abuse against a helpless invalid for political gain.

To the extent anyone other than Mr. Mayfield was responsible for Mayfield's demise, it was Messrs. Kelly and Mary, not the law enforcement authorities whose sworn duty is to protect and serve victims of crime.  If Mr. Mayfield was despondent over his embarassment and loss of business after his involvement was disclosed, he has no one to blame but himself and his co-conspirators.  

But the bitter baggers are having none of this personal responsibility bushwa. "Close friends and political colleagues of Mr. Mayfield, on the other hand, are infuriated by the treatment of him, which they call unjustifiably heavy-handed," the Times reports. "'They destroyed that man, and for what?' said Roy Nicholson, who along with Mr. Mayfield helped create the state Tea Party. 'There is a burning anger in the people that knew Mark Mayfield. And we will not let it go.'” Because, you see, the Mayor of Jackson is a Thad Cochran supporter, and "'there is a feeling among dozens and dozens of people that Mark was used for political purposes,' said Merrida Coxwell, Mr. Mayfield’s lawyer at the time of his arrest."  The nutjob narrative is not that Mayfield was not involved (that is, innocent), but that the response to his involvement was political.

In this telling, Mark Mayfield was not the sort of man who would or should feel remorse over victimizing a woman suffering from dementia and living in the same circumstances as his own mother, but only over his exposure as such a person.  And, as they righteously declare, they knew Mark Mayfield.  

How Could We Ever Know?

Our old pal Dyldo Biers gives away the game in his press release for "Clinton, Inc.":

Daniel Halper, the online editor at The Weekly Standard, spent more than a year working on a book about the Clintons that was set for release later this month.

Over the weekend, a man identifying himself as Robert Josef Wright sent out a blast email to media executives, editors and journalists (including yours truly) with PDFs of the entire 317-page book.

The leak, which Halper and his representatives have yet to comment on, apparently came as a shock to the publishers at Broadside, who told The Daily Beast's Lloyd Grove they have "no idea" what happened.

The book, as you might expect, is critical of the Clintons. Grove summarizes it here: ....

"All the Clintons are described as obsessed with enriching themselves, using their charitable foundation and the Clinton Global Initiative not only to perform good works but also to help support an imperial lifestyle and provide Hillary’s presidential ambitions with a vast political infrastructure," Grove observes.

...

Clinton's defenders will likely try to push Halper's book to the margins, placing it in the company of Ed Klein's "Blood Feud" as a book too preposterous to even warrant attention. They won't get that far -- per Grove, Halper is already slated for an appearance on "The O’Reilly Factor." But whether the book actually has any effect on Hillary's "narrative" in the run-up to 2016 will depend on whether or not there are any groundbreaking revelations. And simply painting the Clintons as "calculating" won't cut it.

Hmmmmm.... How could we possibly know whether -- or not -- there any groundbreaking revelations in the book? It's not like someone e-mailed us a .pdf copy of the entire book over the weekend. If someone had e-mailed us a .pdf copy of the entire book, and it had some groundbreaking revelations in it -- and we were actually a journalist -- we could write a news article about those revelations, rather than retyping Lloyd Grove's columny. It's a crying shame that we didn't receive a .pdf copy of the entire book over the weekend.  A low down, dirty crying shame.

Does PoliticHo pay its employees to be this stupid, or does it just count on its readers to be even stupider?

I Believe That We Will Posture Ineffectually

Haven't seen any follow up on Mark Mayfield's survivors' promise to file suit this week against Madison, MS and all those responsible for Mr. Mayfield's demise.  The "first of [this] week" is now a distant memory.

Their crack shysters must be too busy putting the finishing touches on the complaint in Boehner v. Obama.

No Magic Dolphin? Then Piss Off!

Peggy Nooners on immigration.

Bonus Nooner:  Ronnie's ventriloquist hates optics!  These are the ploys of a pointless hack.

A Special Message Only For You, Dear Roger Reader

I love your poise
Of perfect thighs
When they hold me
in paradise...

I love the rose
Your garden grows
Love seashell pink
That over it glows

I love to suck
Your breath away
I love to cling —
There long to stay

I love you garb’d
But naked more
Love your beauty
To thus adore...

I love you when
You open eyes
And mouth and arms
And cradling thighs...

Did I mention thighs
Those I adore
And suffocation...
But mostly thighs.

Yours,

Roger

Politico Magazine -- You Can't Even Wipe Your Ass With It

Witness a typical piece of excrement from PoliticHo Magazine -- a three-webpage article about RodBlag's appeal of his criminal conviction, asking whether RodBlag has a chance of reversal on appeal.  In between two pages of stale reminiscences (aka filler), there's a single section about the appellate oral argument, which occurred seven months ago. 

Regarding oral argument, the author simpers, "It was almost jarring to watch justices [sic] question the very essence of charges that had been under a public microscope for five years." Almost jarring? Either it was jarring or it wasn't.

The author reports that members of the appellate panel had tough questions for the prosecution, and quotes three of them. But she doesn't report what questions, if any, were asked of the defense, or what answers defense counsel gave. And there's no comment from legal experts about the merits of the assertions implicit in the judges' questions, even though the author asserts that "It [presumably meaning the questioning] was a stunning 180 from what those of us who had covered the legal case for so long had heard from jurists in that very same building." (God, that sentence blows on many different levels.)

The article not only fails to tell you what might happen with the appeal, it fails to give you any basis for reaching any intelligent conclusion.

So, not typical after all. This is garbage even by PoliticHo's low standards.

I Believe That We Will Whine

Small gubmint Teabags are about to go all frivolous lawsuit on Madison, MS's ass:

Mark Mayfield's family plans to sue or bring charges against the city of Madison, its police department or "anyone responsible" after Mayfield's apparent suicide Friday.

Mayfield's relatives, already angered over his arrest in May in the U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran photo scandal, say Madison police were trespassing when they showed up at his home in Ridgeland after he apparently shot himself. They say Mayfield's arrest was politically motivated by supporters of Cochran and drove him to suicide.

"The funeral is (Tuesday), but the first of next week, we will be suing the city of Madison," said Mayfield's nephew, Ridgeland Alderman Wesley Hamlin. "It's the highest degree of abuse of power."

Yeah, good luck with that Wes.

I defer to leading southern practitioners such as John Grisham and Ben Matlock when it comes to Mississippi law, but I'd suspect that the Southern Reporter is not filled with cases in which liability is affirmed for those claiming the local constabulory caused a sensitive soul, not in custody, to off himself. Perhaps in pharmaceutical cases or mental health professional negligence cases involving minors or those institutionalized, but in these circumstances, not bloody likely. 

I also 'spec' that nephew Wesley is not among those kin who 'kin make bank on uncle's demise, even when the immediate family could make a valid claim.  (Perhaps if Wes was both a nephew and a son, but there's no mention of that here.)  

But what do I know?  I'm sure some Teabag shyster is crapping out a complaint under the Civil Rights Act of 1965 even as I type.

Crime Doesn't Pay

In some uplifting legal news, acquitted racist murderer George Zimmerman is going to have to get a job at a Fox News Channel if he wants to make bank on his crimes:

A Florida judge Monday ruled against a libel lawsuit brought by George Zimmerman against NBC Universal, saying the network did not maliciously seek to portray him as a racist when it edited a phone call he made to police before shooting an unarmed black teenager.

Florida Circuit Court Judge Debra Nelson said Zimmerman, acquitted of second-degree murder last year, has no right to money from NBC, according to court documents.

"Because Zimmerman is unable to demonstrate that the editing choices at issue resulted in a materially false change in the meaning of what he actually said, he cannot pursue his defamation claims," Nelson, who also presided over Zimmerman's murder trial last year, wrote in her summary judgment.

The moral is: You can't defame a racist piece of shit.  

(Well, unless the shit gets to the Roberts Court, but that's a long shot.)

Which is exactly right. The editing was indefensible, but so is Zimmerman's entire existence.

In other news, the Huffington Post reports that the murderer owes Mark O'Mara $2.5 million in legal fees.  Though O'M. will probably recoup it from the publicity if there are enough racist murders in Florida willing to pay up front. 

Wikipedia Gets One Right, 3:00 P.M. Pacific

Erick Erickson

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the political blogger. For other people with similar names, see Eric Erickson (disambiguation).

Erick Erickson
Erickson in June 2011.
Born	Erick Erickson June 3, 1975 (age 39) Jackson, East Feliciana Parish Louisiana, USA
Residence	Macon, Georgia
Alma mater	Mercer University Walter F. George School of Law
Occupation	Writer, columnist
Religion	Presbyterian
Spouse(s)	Christy Erickson
Website
redstate.com

Erick Erickson (born June 3, 1975) is an evil misogynistic^[1] politically conservativeAmerican blogger and editor-in-chief of the blog siteRedState.com.^[2] From 2010-13, he was a political contributor for CNN.

WDPWJP?

Today, Keith Plunkett, the policy director for Teabags McDaniel (R-Loser) tweeted:

“A good man is gone today [because] of a campaign to destroy lives.... To all ‘so called’ Republican leaders who joined lockstep: I WILL NOT REST!”

(Not rest until what, exactly?)

Never-to-be Senator Teabags McDaniel added:

Regardless of recent allegations made against his character, Mark Mayfield was a fine Christian man who was always respectful and kind,” McDaniel said. “He was one of the most polite and humble men I’ve ever met in politics. He was a loving husband, father, a pillar of his community, and he will be missed. We are saddened by his loss, and we send our thoughts and prayers to his wife, his family and friends.”

And what Christ-like act of kindness and respect was the ever-genteel Mayfield accused of?

Mayfield was arrested May 22 and charged with conspiracy.

The Madison County district attorney alleged that he gave advice to a blogger on how to get into the nursing home where Rose Cochran, who suffers from Alzheimer’s, lives so that he could photograph her. Mayfield declined to take the pictures himself, the prosecutor said, but his mother had lived in the facility so he knew the best way in.How could McDaniel have failed to mention what a loving father Mayfield was?

I've never been accused of invading the privacy of a mentally incapacitated spouse of a political rival, but I'm fairly confident that my reaction to a false allegation of such conduct would not be to kill myself, causing pain to my wife and family. Mr. Mayfield may have been innocent (although at least one of his alleged co-conspirators plainly claimed otherwise), and he may have had problems -- physical or psychological -- we know nothing about. But to blame Mayfield's political opponents for Mayfield's actions is beneath contempt, particularly when the Tea Party line is that McDaniel knew nothing about the criminal enterprise (and thus cannot vouch for Mayfield's innocence).

Apropos of Keith's twatter is this: "McDaniel allies have argued that the whole nursing home incident was politicized to get sympathy for Cochran in what became one of the nastiest races in memory."  I'll have to speculate that Mississippi criminalizes the filming of incapacitated patients even when a Senate race is not involved.  But if so, it wasn't politicization of the criminal caper that put Mayfield on the wrong side of the law, it was the caper itself.

Update (6/29/14):  More of the teabag craziness that proves my point.  These fuckheads are delusional.

Teabags Has A Thad

The Tea Party has all it can stand, 'cause it can't stands no more.

I, for one, look forward to a third party formed by such intellectual giants as Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, Thor Thorasson and the various grifters who run organizations with the name "Tea Party."  To paraphrase a old cliche, Erick Erickson couldn't organize a piss up lying flat on his back with a full bladder.

Freedom Summer 2014

Freedom comes to Indiana.

And to the Tenth Circuit.

The Leader of The Republican Party Speaks

The leading intellect and conscience of the Republican Party speaks:

My opinion on the settlement of the Central Park Jogger case is that it’s a disgrace. A detective close to the case, and who has followed it since 1989, calls it “the heist of the century.”

Settling doesn’t mean innocence, but it indicates incompetence on several levels. This case has not been dormant, and many people have asked why it took so long to settle? It is politics at its lowest and worst form.

What about the other people who were brutalized that night, in addition to the jogger?

This statement is utterly incoherent.  The settlement is a disgrace because a dick who has following the case says so? It's a disgrace because "Settling doesn't mean innocence"? It's a disgrace because it took so long to settle?  It's a disgrace because other people -- who the vindicated men also did not harm -- were also harmed by persons unknown?

Later on, the short-fingered vulgarian gives up his game in the one coherent sentence in his case -- in which asserts that "these young men do not exactly have the pasts of angels." The vulgarian does not state what other crimes the men have been convicted of.

Five innoicent men were convicted and served more than a decade in prison.  The police who manufactured the confessions -- perhaps even Trump's quoted pal -- suffer no consequences (instead of serving out the wrongfully convicted men's convictions).  New York City made no effort to protect other women by capturing the actual rapist.  People don't deserve due process because Trump divines on a hairball that they must be guilty of something. 

That is Trump justice. That is Republican justice.

Republican Family Values: A Felon Celebrates Fathers' Day

Convicted criminal/ladies' man Dinesh D'Souza pleads for his daughter's affection on FOX:

“Look at it this way,” he said. “If I was in a family and I believed my dad was some kind of serial killer or a child molester, I would still love him. He would be part of my family, but I’d do everything I could to prevent him from doing evil actions. I would think that would be good for the world and for my dad." 

On further reflection, it sounds like he's blaming his daugther for failing to stop him from enlisting his mistress and her husband in his campaign finance fraud.

What Goes Around

Let's hope this one doesn't end up in the drink.

WASHINGTON, June 14, 2014 – Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has ordered the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush to move today from the North Arabian Sea into the Arabian Gulf, Pentagon Press Secretary Navy Rear Adm. John Kirby said.

In a statement, Kirby said the order will provide President Barack Obama additional flexibility should military options be required to protect American lives, citizens and interests in Iraq.

The Bush will be accompanied by the guided-missile cruiser USS Philippine Sea and the guided-missile destroyer USS Truxtun. The ships are expected to complete their transit into the Gulf later this evening, Kirby said.

I Want To Know What Hack Is

Reed Richardson on Ron Fournier, superhack. (Scroll down.)

Confidential to Jack Trammel -- Your New Campaign Theme

You're welcome.

Cantor Won't?

As the GOP's anti-semitic purge continues, Mickey Kaus has gotten his first boner in 50 years.

(No link to the delusional hairless hack.)

This Is The Start of A Ron Paul REVOLution

What a Patriot likes:

Ron Paul, Conservative Daily, Generation Opportunity, National Association for Gun Rights, Rand Paul, The Townhall.com Presidential Straw Poll, RightChange,Personal Liberty, American Crossroads, FreedomWorks, Rep. Allen West,ForAmerica, We The People Bracelet, America's Power, Three Percenter Nation,Nevada Firearms PAC, Howard Scheff for Nevada State Assembly, District 42,Tactical tony 702, Operation “American Spring” set for May 16, 2014: Target Washington, D.C., Alliance Defending Freedom, Support The 2nd Amendment, I Love My Gun Rights, Opposing Views, Liberation Through Music and Art,Tropicana Regency Cinemas, Capitalism Institute, Aloha Energy, Tell Me Now,Gordon Martines for Sheriff 2014, National Rifle Association, Political "Poop",American Center for Law and Justice, Conservative Tribune, Reclaim America,Don't Tread On Me, Your Nation, American Patriot, Capitol City Project, Todd Rokita for Congress, Liberty Investor, Patriot Nation, GreeneWave TV, The Heritage Foundation, CNSNews.com, Marijuanna Fans, Obama is the Worst President in US History, Veterans for a Strong America, David Lory VanDerBeek,Lafayette Cop Block, The Patriot Party, Rand Paul 2016, Jesse Ventura 2016 Debates, Legalize Weed, Outlaw Corporate Greed, Washington Examiner, Draft Judge Andrew Napolitano for President, Greg Palast, United Liberty, Red Alert Politics, I did NOT vote for Obama., Marijuana Policy Project, Coalition for Cannabis Policy Reform, Drug Policy Alliance, Students for Sensible Drug Policy,The Colorado Marijuana Initiative 2012, LEAP Rapid Response Team, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, I will NOT vote for Obama in 2012., I am a Ron Paul bot., Gary Johnson, Kayla Nyte, Levitate, Downsizing the Federal Government, NewsBusters.org, LearnLiberty, Art Robinson For Congress,Americans for Prosperity, Veterans against a corrupt Government., Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, NFIB, American Jobs Alliance, Alex Jones, Stop Obama's Unconstitutional Appointments, Truth and Lies (Radio Show), Ron Paul Revolution T Shirt.

I blame marijuana and Greg Palast..

(Via Gawker)

Most of All You've Got to Hide It From The Kids

I've only added one word to this quote, which helps to illuminate the whole thing:

“She got some bud, some edibles and when we got back to the hotel she had to run off to a Mitt Romney documentary screening,” Brown explained. “She asked me, ‘Will you roll a joint for me, Benjamin? I don’t know how to do it.’ But she had to run really quickly to the screening, and I was going to catch a flight the next day, and we were going to connect a few nights later but it never worked out.”

MoDope

Does anyone believe MoDo's tale that she had a bad reaction to her (implicitly) first "try" at consuming pot candy?

I'd wager that bad prose is not the only thing Dowd has bogarted from Leon Wieseltier and Aaron Sorkin.

Next up: The NYT finances Nick Kristof's trip to liberate Vegas strippers and Ross Douthat's evangelization of Joe Francis.

Dylan Byers' Is Off

PoliticHo gives us another thumb-sucker from a digital rectal exam specialist:

For better of worse, the people formerly known as bloggers need to have specialties in order to command a following. Ezra Klein needs to cover domestic policy, Nate Silver needs to make predictions, Ta-Nehisi Coates needs to write about race, and so on and so forth. You can switch beats, but you have to have one.

To the extent I have one, my raison d'ouevre, my contre bete noire, if you will, is ridiculing self-regarding right-wing media tw*ts, only some of whom have clownish facial hair.  But I can write about whatever I want, and don't have to polish John Harris' Jag or Mike Allen's head, nor fill a hackish quota.

The pay sucks, but the rewards are great.

(link via TBogg )

Don't Douthat, Feminists -- You Wouldn't Like Us When We're Angry

You knew Ross Douthat would pipe up about the recent kllings in Isla Vista, and you knew his conclusion would be that Sex Ruined Everything.  The tubby schlub admits Rodger's mindset -- without acknowledging that he shares it -- but then fingers the real problem:

But feminism, too, is often a prisoner of Hefnerism, in the sense that it tends to prescribe more and more “sex positivity,” insisting that the only problem with contemporary sexual culture is that it’s imperfectly egalitarian, insufficiently celebratory of female agency and desire.

This means that the feminist prescription doesn’t supply what men slipping down into the darkness of misogyny most immediately need: not lectures on how they need to respect women as sexual beings, but reasons, despite their lack of sexual experience, to first respect themselves as men.

Yeah, that's exactly what Rodger needed -- a lot more self-regard "as a man." He could've even made a video on the subject.

Men who hate women have plenty of respect for themselves as men. They think they're entitled to respect because they're men, and that women are entitled to less or none because they're not.  They're not sex positive; they're violence/abuse positive.  Sex positivity is about respect, a concept foreign to Douthat and the parts of that book he's forever humping.

Happy 10th Anniversary to Lawyers, Guns and Money

LGM started back in the heady days of Nader/Camejo Fever, but never succumbed.  The days when Mickey Kaus was a "rockstar" to some, and Nick Kristoff was a decade younger twit.

We shall never see those days again, my friend.

TNR DNR

Michael Kinsley really fucked this one up.  Reviewing Glenn Greenwald's new book, he writes:

Through all the bombast, Greenwald makes no serious effort to defend as a matter of law the leaking of official secrets to reporters. He merely asserts that “there are both formal and unwritten legal protections offered to journalists that are unavailable to anyone else. While it is considered generally legitimate for a journalist to publish government secrets, for example, that’s not the case for someone acting in any other capacity.”

Here at last, I thought, is something Greenwald and I can agree on. The Constitution is for everyone. There shouldn’t be a special class of people called “journalists” with privileges like publishing secret government documents.

I absolutely agree with Kinsley on this.  Journalists should not get special dispensation for reciept and/or reporting of offical secrets.  The faulty premise of that dispensation is that journalists aren't receiving state secrets for their own benefit, but rather so they can report them to the public.  If so, the dispensation should be for those who disclose secrets for a public good, regardless of their profession.  

Here's where Kinsley goes off the rails:

The trouble is this: Greenwald says that Snowden told him to “use your journalistic judgment to only publish those documents that the public should see and that can be revealed without harm to any innocent people.” Once again, this testimony proves the opposite of what Greenwald and Snowden seem to think. Snowden may be willing to trust Greenwald to make this judgment correctly — but are you? And even if you do trust Greenwald’s judgment, which on the evidence might be unwise, how can we be sure the next leaker will be so scrupulous?
...
The question is who decides. It seems clear, at least to me, that the private companies that own newspapers, and their employees, should not have the final say over the release of government secrets, and a free pass to make them public with no legal consequences. In a democracy (which, pace Greenwald, we still are), that decision must ultimately be made by the government. No doubt the government will usually be overprotective of its secrets, and so the process of decision-making — whatever it turns out to be — should openly tilt in favor of publication with minimal delay. But ultimately you can’t square this circle. Someone gets to decide, and that someone cannot be Glenn Greenwald.

Well why not?(1)  Is it not concievably possible that someone in the govermment, acting under the enabling protections of the Official Secrets Act(2), is a bigger dick than Glenn Greenwald?  And might cause greater harm than GG could, in the exercise of that dickishness?

How about: Someone gets to decide, but that someone cannot be the someone (or the Administration) who benefits from deciding in favor of secrecy.  As Kinsley might say -- the Constitution is for everyone.  There shouldn't be a special class of people called "the government" with privileges like making their violations of the constitution secret.

(1) I see Erik Wemple asks the same question.
(2) The Offical Secrets Act is not an actual U.S. law, but then again, Kinsley's "secret government documents" isn't an actual legal concept either.

Grand Old Police Blotter: Guilty, Guilty, Guilty Edition

Update:  Convicted criminal Dinesh D'Souza is guilty.

Update II:  D'Souza says he deeply regrets getting caught.

Update III:  10 to 16 months sounds about right. Expect D'Souza to postpone his World Victimization Tour until after sentencing.

Update IV: PoliticHO/AP are claiming that "His plea agreement calls for a sentence of 10 to 16 months in prison." That's almost certainly incorrect. That's a possible sentence, but not an agreed one.

Update V: Wingnut wankers are whimpering that the law D'Souza violated was unconstitutional. Maybe they should should have tipped Brafman off to that brilliant defense before his client entered his plea. [/sarcasm]

D'Souza's Going D'own

Judgment day has arrived for D'Bag D'Souza, and signs are he's looking to d'eal:

A federal court hearing has been scheduled for Tuesday morning in which the conservative author and filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza is expected to plead guilty to a charge stemming from campaign finance violations, according to a notice sent out by the government....

Decisions to plead guilty are subject to change at the last minute, and a defendant like Mr. D’Souza could decide instead to go to trial. The judge, Richard M. Berman, was to oversee jury selection on Tuesday morning, and opening arguments were expected to take place that day.

I hate it when the Feds coddle criminals like D'Bag. He has no defense. Literally. (Repeat: Literally. His own shyster said so.)

The judge also denied a request by D'Souza, a prominent critic of President Barack Obama, to seek the production of evidence that would support his claim the prosecution was in retaliation for his political activities.

"The court concludes the defendant has respectfully submitted no evidence he was selectively prosecuted," Berman said.

Any deal by which D'Souza avoids prison time is a miscarriage of justice. 

(For a laughable and poorly written counterpoint, see Rev. Moon's shriveled organ.)

The Benghazi Beer Koozie Collection

Collect all eight!  Trade them with your friends!

Featuring lifelike portraits of the Heroes of Benghazi -- Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, Reince Priebus, Lara Logan, Larry Klayman, Lindsey Graham, Dylan Davies and Jon Karl -- each handsome "kooz" is insulated from criticism and holds a 12 ounce can of Pale Fail or Boehner Beer.

And coming soon: The Heroes(tm) will appear on beanbag ashtrays, crocheted toilet roll koozies, and all-weather lawn jockeys.

Lame Change

Having lost all credibility with the hiring of Megan McArdle, Bloomberg Media has decided to double down on the crapitude with its latest hires:

John Heilemann and Mark Halperin, political journalists known for their detailed, gossip-filled books on the past two presidential campaigns, will join Bloomberg in the coming days to start a new site that will focus on American politics and policy.

The new project, Bloomberg Politics, is part of a broader strategy put in place by Justin B. Smith, who was appointed chief executive of Bloomberg Media Group last summer after serving as president of Atlantic Media.

Mr. Heilemann and Mr. Halperin, who are the authors of the best sellers “Game Change” and “Double Down,” are the “epitome of the type of quality journalistic talent that moves seamlessly between different kinds of platforms,” Mr. Smith said in an interview.

They will anchor a daily television program that will also stream online, as well as write news articles and take part in live events. A start date for the site has yet to be set, but will most likely be months away.

I thought these clowns existed to make Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski appear less cretinous, and Mike Allen and Howie Kurtz less conflicted.  To complete the loaf-rolling, BM is also hiring "Jonathan Allen, a former White House bureau chief for Politico, ... as the new Washington bureau chief."

L'Chaim

Remember last December, when I was bitching about some medical problems in an extremely vague manner?

That was some riveting blogging.  I'm not going to do that again, so continue reading!

The good news is that my condition has improved considerably.  The procedure I had was successful, and the condition which necessitated the procedure has been beaten back to a draw.  In the long run, we're all fucked.  But not today.

For everyone who offered their good wishes and/or advice, I remain grateful. Thank you again.

Old Folks At Home

Not all old folks are Bundy-Sterling Republican jackasses. From the Florida Sun-Senitinel, Rick Scott goes out for a photo-op and meets constituents who refuse to be bamboozled:

[Harvey] Eisen told the governor he wasn’t sure “if, as you say,” there are Obamacare-inspired cuts to Medicare. But even if there are, that would be OK. “I can’t expect that me as a senior citizen are going to get preferential treatment when other programs are also being cut.”

Ruthlyn Rubin, 66, of Boca Raton, told the governor that people who are too young for Medicare need the health coverage they get from Obamacare. If young people don’t have insurance, she said, everyone else ends up paying for their care when they get sick or injured and end up in the hospital.

Eventually, Rubin said, Obamacare will become more popular. “People were appalled at Social Security. They were appalled at Medicare when it came out. I think these major changes take some people aback. But I think we have to be careful not to just rely on the fact that we’re seniors and have an entitlement to certain things,” she said.

“We’re all just sitting here taking it for granted that because we have Medicare we don’t want to lose one part of it. That’s wrong to me. I think we have to spread it around. This is the United States of America. It’s not the United States of senior citizens,” Rubin said from her spot two seats away from the governor.

Most of old people aren't the greedy geezers of the Teabaggest Generation. There's plenty who aren't buying what the scam artists are selling. And if Scott doesn't fire his event coordinator over this, I'll give him credit for actually listening to what his constituents think.

On This Day In History

April 29, 2014:  Wingnuts do an about-face and argue that apartheid is a bad thing.

(Of course, they will deny throwing St. Ronnie and Dead-Dick Dick under the bus. IOKIYAWSA!)

Customers Who Liked "Monster Hunters International" Also Bought "I Married A Solipsist" By Glenn and Helen Reynolds

Glenn Reynolds, Three-Legged Chair of Inbred Peckerwood Studies at the University of Tennesee, cries that science fiction has been politicized, and that wingnut writers of the genre have been "punished" in some unspecified way for being wingnuts. He cites that case of one Larry Correia, "the author of numerous highly successful science fiction books like Monster Hunter Intetnational and Hard Magic," and a man I neither know or care anything about.  Unless I misread the column, Mr. Correia's punishment did not involve anything that prevents him from selling enough books to become highly successful.

Instacracker fulfills a large part of his contractual obligation to USA Today by pasting a large blockquote from Larry's blog, in which Lar blubbers that people spread "libel and slander" about him by saying... well, it doesn't matter, take Lar's word for it.  And, if that wasn't enough, Lar was also sabotaged, maligned and politicked against something awful. Instacracker also suggests that Lar will probably lose a popularity contest at some fan convention because he isn't the most popular author nominated. You'd think a man who pretends to be an international monster hunter for a living would be a bit more stoic about the chance he won't make prom king.  

But, wait, there's no more!  If people can't be nice to Lar, then science fiction is ruined forever. End of story.

If I was a cynic, I'd think 'Cracker was just using his USA Today column to get more Amazon referral fees.  

P.S.  Those parsing the text will note that I "punished" Professor Peckerwood above by suggesting he is an inbred peckerwood.  Or did I "punish" inbred peckerwoods?  Either way, 'Cracker's got yet another column about wingnut victimization, if he wants it.

Rod, God and a Wad

Rod Van Dreherwinkle has slept through the last 20-plus years of the Religious Right.  No points for guessing the subject of Rod's bother:

It’s just witless, red-meat blathering, delivered in that nasal whine of hers that makes it sound like she’s chewing wads of tinfoil.

Yes, yes it is. 

But one bit of blather has Dreher in a dither:

OK, stop. Not only is this woman, putatively a Christian, praising torture, but she is comparing it to a holy sacrament of the Christian faith. It’s disgusting — but even more disgusting, those NRA members, many of whom are no doubt Christians, cheered wildly for her.

Someone should tell Rod about a little site called National Review Online.  That site is lousy with he-men Christians who praise torture and certain of its practitioners.  And I'm not talking about the crazed commenters. 

There's A Koch-Sucker Bore Every Minute

The Obama economy has quite a few winners:

Out of the $37.5 million spent so far by the PACs of six major tea party organizations, less than $7 million has been devoted to directly helping candidates, according to the analysis, which was based on campaign finance data provided by the Sunlight Foundation.

The dearth of election spending has left many favored tea party candidates exposed before a series of pivotal GOP primaries next month in North Carolina, Nebraska, Idaho and Kentucky.
Roughly half of the money — nearly $18 million — has gone to pay for fundraising and direct mail, largely provided by Washington-area firms. Meanwhile, tea party leaders and their family members have been paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in consulting fees, while their groups have doled out large sums for airfare, a retirement plan and even interior decorating.

The 'bagmen are advancing some unique defenses:

Adam Brandon, executive vice president of FreedomWorks, said that much of the group’s super PAC funds go toward training activists to make phone calls and walk door-to-door — expenditures that are not categorized as campaign-related but that pay off politically.

Most of us learned how to make phone calls and walk before kindergarten. I understand it's a little harder for the fundies and Bundys.

Here's a heartwarming rags-to-riches tale for the suckers:

[Jenny Beth] Martin, the super PAC’s chairwoman, oversees all its expenditures, according to Broughton, meaning she sets her own $15,000 monthly fee for strategic consulting — payments that have totaled $120,000 since July.

She also draws a salary as president of the Tea Party Patriots’ nonprofit arm — getting more than $272,000 in the 2012 fiscal year, according to the group’s most recent tax filing.

Her twin salaries put her on track to make more than $450,000 this year, a dramatic change in lifestyle for the tea party activist, who had filed for bankruptcy in 2008 and then cleaned homes for a period of time to bring in extra money.

Outrageous! We can only pray that the Roberts Court will put an end to such unconstitutional disclosure laws.

Fear and loathing is now the fastest growing market sector. 

'Baggers like to say that The Tea Party has no leaders.  But it has plenty of bleeders.  But those chumps can only be bled dry once, and then the astroturf wars will begin in earnest.

Ka-BLM! Blood in the Face, Right in the Face

Poor Sean Hannity, Best Bud o'Bundy.

Now Cliven B. is only good to him as the victim of a BLM sniper.

Of course, Sean is willing to make that sacrifice.

Bundy/Palin 2016

Well, you could have knocked me over with a feather.

Next up: Charles Murray and Andrew Sullivan co-sign a petition deploring the Feds' attempt to punish Cliven's right to speak.

Joseph And The Amazing Soon-to-Be Convicted Felon In An Orange Jumpsut

Another right-wing criminal betrayed by his mistress's husband:

Prosecutors also said they had obtained a copy of a recording made surreptitiously last October by the husband of a woman Mr. D’Souza was involved with romantically around the time of the donations, when Mr. D’Souza was separated from his wife. In making the recording, the husband was not acting at the government’s direction, prosecutors said. The woman, Denise Joseph, was one of the alleged straw donors.

Ms. Joseph was recorded as saying that Mr. D’Souza had told her that if he were charged he might plead guilty, but would initially plead not guilty because that “gives him a window of opportunity to get his story out there,” the government said. Ms. Joseph had no comment, her lawyer said.

D'Souza was last seen hanging around the Bundy ranch, looking for sheep other than his current supporters. I suspect the four-legged livestock will put up more of a fight.

Coalition of the Butthurt

So let's see how many of the signaturies of this open wanker letter sign a similar letter condemning the termination of an employee based on sexual orientation (and the laws which allow it). Better yet, how about signing one every time it occurs?

You know, if it's about principle and it's not just a circle-jerk of privileged blowhards worried about being called on their crap.

(Though it is nice to see Sully and Charles Murray back together again.  It's almost like they never parted.)

Grand Old Police Blotter: Another Ill Eagle Arrested In Florida Edition

Florida Republican Dane Eagle is staggering in the footsteps of his old man:

Court documents show Tallahassee Police first spotted Eagle (R-Cape Coral) pulling out of a Taco Bell on West Tennessee Street. He then made a U-turn in his black SUV, and police said he nearly hit a curb outside Papa John's before running a stoplight. After pulling him over, the officer reported a strong odor of alcohol coming from the vehicle, and his eyes were bloodshot and watery. Eagle told the officer he thought the stoplight was yellow.

Documents also show that Eagle told the police officer he did not drink alcohol that night, but he stumbled when exiting his vehicle. The odor, Eagle said, was because friends who were drinking at a bar earlier had ridden in his car.

...

Eagle's arrest marks the second Southwest Florida Republican politician to run afoul of the law in recent months. Former U.S. Rep. Trey Radel resigned in January following a stint in rehab sparked by his cocaine arrest in October.

Eagle's father, Greg Eagle, pleaded guilty in 2013 to charges of bank fraud, mail fraud and wire fraud. The elder Eagle was a significant contributor to Florida Republican causes and campaigns. Dane Eagle was not named in the investigation of his father's finances.

Time for some Floridian Teabaggers to arm themselves and spread Eagle's message of the Constitutional right to graze public curbs while shitfaced (If you're a Republican).

Praying For Waco Is Not A Metaphor

These are depraved individuals who lust for blood for their own personal and political benefit.

 

Praying For Waco

The wingnuts are beseeching the Almighty that Cliven Bundy, the most famous Republican Bundy since Ted, dies in a hail of bullets.  The coffers of the G.O.P. must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of "patriots." 

Cliven has the advantage that he's not a pedophile, although that wouldn't stop the G.O.P. from lionizing him anyway.

Not to Mention the Two Full Columns of Situation Wanted: Trollop Solicitations in the Territorial Enterprise

James Dobson is feeling neglected as he ponders the site of the 2016 Republican Convention:

“The GOP is supposedly interested in reaching out to conservatives and evangelicals. Maybe that’s just a front, but if they really mean it this is not the way to do it,” Dobson said Tuesday. “Even though Vegas has tried to shore itself up and call itself family-friendly, it’s still a metaphor for decadence. There’s still 64 pages of escort services in the yellow pages. … You can’t have it both ways.”

I'm fairly certain you can have it all kinds of ways, Dobby. Just keep dialing.

Uberkill

Continuing with OCD-like laser-like precision into my investigation of Vox advertorials, it appears that the uncredited photo of Uber bike messengers pissing on a wall which accompanies Matt Yglesias's "story" on UberRUSH was supplied by Uber itself, as shown on this CNBC story which credits the photo.

So why no credit?  Some of Yglesias' stories have photo credits; others, like the one on Uber, don't.  Here's an story where Yglesias whines at length about how Amtrak boarding procedures inconvenience him, illustrated with numerous credited photos, including credits for Yglesias himself and his dad.  But he gives no hat tip to the "logistics" company whose product he's pimping.

The lesson is: If you're going to post content that reads like poorly-written ad copy, make it clear whether you meant to write a story or an ad.

Deutschmarks Uber Inhalt

Updated below

Vox has one-upped Talking Points Memo by putting a big name, Matt Yglesias, in charge of writing advertorials.  Read as Matt gushes in turgid prose over Uber:

Uber functions right now as, in effect, a taxi dispatch company though you also hear words like "ridesharing" tossed around. But they are about to dip their toes in the water of a different business — messenger services and deliveries.

          ...

Messenger services just in part of Manhattan is clearly a pretty small line of business. But it's an important sign about where the company is heading. They are known to the world as a car dispatch service, but they like to describe themselves as specializing in "urban logistics." Last December they staged this Christmas tree delivery marketing stunt [link removed - RA], that I said was likely a precursor to a broader move into delivery. And now you're seeing a version of that come to fruition with Uber Rush.

The ability to dispatch vehicles to arbitrary locations and efficiently route them through a city has a lot of potential applications beyond just taxis. Ultimately the company would like to make a much bigger push into the broader world of delivery and logistics, and this is the toe in those waters.

You think I'm joking.  

About the advertorial bit.  (Not the turgid prose bit.)

I'm not.  

Check out that li'l gray bar at the bottom of Matt's prose. The one with the tiny print in slightly darker gray. Which you probably ignored, even if you made it all the way past the giant promo photo and down to the bottom of the "story," because the "story" is identified as a "Top Story," and not as ad, on the homepage. Same here.

You'd think Uber would insist that its promoter not write like a summer intern for an Indiana congressman assigned to crank out the constituent newsletter.  Or maybe that's part of the plan.  

Vox wants to help people understand the news  Just maybe not completely.

Update:  It appears the l'il' gray "Advertisement" bar appears beneath all of the "Top Stories," even the ones without the uncredited publicity photos, press release headline and purely promotional tone. And none of those pages have clearly recognizable ads beneath the bar either. But if Yglesias' article is not meant as an ad, then what the hell is it?  (Besides even more hilarious.)

Republican Family Values: Fuck A Duck Edition

A Godly man -- a man last seen wagging his Willie in the U.S. Capitol building -- has developed a taste for 'Cock:

"There's no doubt I've fallen short and I'm asking for forgiveness. I'm asking for forgiveness from God, my wife, my kids, my staff, and my constituents who elected me to serve," [Vance] McAllister said in a statement. "Trust is something I know has to be earned whether you're a husband, a father, or a congressman. I promise to do everything I can to earn back the trust of everyone I've disappointed."

He went on: "From day one, I've always tried to be an honest man. I ran for Congress to make a difference and not to just be another politician. I don't want to make a political statement on this, I would just simply like to say that I'm very sorry for what I've done.

"While I realize I serve the public, I would appreciate the privacy given to my children as we get through this," McAllister added. He and his wife Kelly have five children.

The 'Cock in quo is Melissa Peacock, a married staffer who's got Vance in her pants. Needless to say, Mrs. Peacock has already gotten the knife in the conservatory, while Duckfucker Vance continues to be a Teabag hero. In Louisana, a wingnut legislator can do no wrong, provided the 'Cock he fondles isn't attached to a penis. You can Depend on it.

Even A Loon With A Poodle Toupee Is Right Twice A Decade

Dick Cheney is a war criminal.

Let's see if the poodle has been neutered by his Presidential ambitions, or if he will continue to squeak the truth on at least one subject.

Benghaziiiii!!!!!!

Dana Milbank on the Benghazi clown show nineteen months on.

Only the mentally ill now care about this freakfest.