Bearded Gits Are The Real Heroes

For those who were planning on building statues in honor of Wesley Lowrey and Ryan Reilly, PoliticHo's wingnut blogger Dyldo Byers demands that you slow your roll:

Ferguson is not Falluja, and Wesley Lowery and Ryan Reilly aren't heroes. They're two reporters who happened to be in the right place at the wrong time. The sooner this story returns to the death of Michael Brown, the standoff between the protesters and the police, and the issue of accountability and justice, the better.

But no one I've read has called the two reporters heroes; nor can I find such accolades via Google. The best Dyldo can do is find quotes from Lowery's WaPo colleagues praising his work, not calling him a hero. Nor has any outlet I'm aware of stopped covering the death of Brown to focus on the illegal arrests.

And "the" story isn't just about Mr. Brown's death. There's the story of Brown's alleged murder, and there's the separate story about the local police running roughshod over the rights of Ferguson's remaining citizens, including through the attempted silencing of reporters bearing witness to those actions.  Lack of accountability and injustice aen't limited to Mr. Brown, and holding Brown's killer(s) accountable won't end the injustice for Ferguson's citizens.  Given his political bent, it's no surprise that Dyldo wants to focus on a single event rather than a corrupt and bigoted system that can't be excused as the actions of one bad apple.

Messrs. Lowery and Reilly aren't in a war zone, but they exposed themselves to potentially lethal chemicals and a heavily-armed police department with blood on its hands in order to do their jobs.  And that's a far sight more heroic than blogging with one's pants around one's ankles while waiting to paraphrase Fox News's latest press release.  My guess is that had Dyldo ever done any real reporting in his career, he would've confessed to anything -- and evacuated his bowels -- the minute a police officer looked in his direction.

1-900-SOT-MODO

Maureen Dowd "pays tribute" to Robin Williams in a column that cannot be called sober:

[Williams] was 42 then, wearing his Popeye outfit, a blue-striped T-shirt and black baggy jeans. Surrounded by kids, a rabbit and an iguana, we talked about everything from John Belushi to his father, a stern Ford Motor Company executive.

As our interview ended, I was telling him about my friend Michael Kelly’s idea for a 1-900 number, not one to call Asian beauties or Swedish babes, but where you’d have an amorous chat with a repressed Irish woman. Williams delightedly riffed on the caricature, playing the role of an older Irish woman answering the sex line in a brusque brogue, ordering a horny caller to go to the devil with his impure thoughts and disgusting desire.

I couldn’t wait to play the tape for Kelly, who doubled over in laughter.

So when I think of Williams, I think of Kelly. And when I think of Kelly, I think of Hillary, because Michael was the first American reporter to die in the Iraq invasion, and Hillary Clinton was one of the 29 Democratic senators who voted to authorize that baloney war.

Ms. Dowd appears to forget a couple of key points in her free hallucination association game.

Popeye didn't wear a blue striped shirt or black baggy jeans in that movie (nor in any other iteration), and Williams certainly wasn't sporting a costume from a movie filmed 13 years earlier.

More importantly, Dowd forgets that Michael Kelly was a cheerleader for the baloney war he died covering.  Witness "reporter" Kelly's writing on the invasion of Iraq:

We are in a position of triumph, and potentially much greater triumph. A few months ago, all was still in tatters. Hussein still defied with impunity, still ruled unchallenged over his torture state, still schemed to advance his dreams of himself as the atomic Saladin... The will of one man, George W. Bush, changed all this.

So Cheerleader Kelly didn't think of Senator Clinton when he thought of the baloney war.

MoDo continues:

It was obvious in real time that the Bush crew was arbitrarily switching countries, blaming 9/11 on Saddam so they’d get more vivid vengeance targets and a chance to shake up the Middle East chessboard, and that officials were shamelessly making up the threat as they went along.

Shame that MoDo didn't report on the obvious in real time, and left the field to the bloviating cheerleader. (Perhaps she demurred as a professional courtesy to Judy Fucking-Miller.) Equally a shame MoDo can't recall that Kelly was where he was when he died -- embedded with the 3rd Infantry Division -- precisely because his cheerleading was useful to the Administration and the Pentagon.

Secretary Clinton -- and Michael Kelly -- and many others share responsibility for the deaths of the American and allied soliders and the Iraqis who died in the invasion and occupation of Iraq. But Clinton bears no responsibility for the death of Cheerleader Kelly.

For the sake of Robin Williams' survivors, let's pray that MoDo's rememberance of Kelly doesn't lead her to show up shit-faced at Williams' funeral.

Update: Others have already made these points, including here and here (and, as to Kelly, back in 2013, on the 10th anniversary of Kelly's demise, as linked above).  Great minds think Dowd is a dishonest hack. 

As for Clinton's role, see tristero.

A Tea Party Champ Bears Arms

In March, I reported on self-identified Tea Party candidate Glenn Champ, who ran unsuccessfully for Governor of California.  The Champ for Governor website now welcomes visitors with this message:

And they thought they had Jesus nailed to the cross until the third day. He rose again. Now, it is apparent that California does not want any form of God.

So, please prepare yourself for the carnage that’s coming, from the wrath of Jesus the Christ.

Sometime after posting that message, Mr. Champ decided that Jesus the Christ was taking His own sweet time, and that would not do.

Champ and other property owners have been fighting over a paved road for the past few months. Witness Richard Norman says the ongoing fight escalated [last Thursday,] after Champ punctured the tires on a quad [all-terrain vehicle], sending the 13-year-old driver to call for his parents.

"The guy said, 'I'm (expletive) done with everything; I'm done with all the (expletive),' and ended up pulling out a gun and shooting John in the stomach," said Norman.

As they rushed to get the victim some help, witnesses say Champ continued to fire.

"I went to my car to hide behind the vehicles. I saw him shoot a few rounds into the pen," said Champ.

And those rounds struck and then killed a horse.

Authorities say Champ then took off. Tulare County Sheriff's deputies arrested him after a traffic stop near Goshen Friday morning.

Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims says the one-time gubernatorial candidate has an extensive criminal history dating back nearly 30 years. In 1998, Action News cameras were rolling when Champ pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

"The voluntary manslaughter charge resulted from a case in the Prather area where Champ ran over a competitor trash collector with his garbage truck," said Mims.
...
Deputies say because Champ is a registered felon, he should never have had a gun in his possession.

Champ faces a number of charges including attempted murder and animal cruelty. 

It goes without saying that the Godly Champ was also a registered sex offender.

It is possible that Mr. Champ may avoid justice. In the June gubernatorial primary, Champ got over 59,000 votes, "nearly 2 percent of the total votes."

ChiComs Invade Hollywood! Film at 10:40, 2:20, 6:00 and 9:40

I'm not a huge follower of wingnut film criticism, or other forms of drivel, so there may have been some spluttering about this I'm not aware of:

The White House is represented onscreen [in Transformers: Age of Extinction] by a sniveling fool, but where the last “Transformers” took a gratuitous swipe at Barack Obama, this time it’s the military-industrial complex that gets gashed. The bad guys are the CIA, who are killing the noble Autobots for the benefit of a corporation that wants to melt them down and turn them into commercial products, and the film’s major villain is a Dick Cheney-esque spymaster played by Kelsey Grammer, who is using the government to advance a secret corporate project that will earn him a fortune, cloaking his murderous agenda in appeals to national security.There’s nothing wrong with filmmakers either lionizing or lampooning U.S. institutions.

...

That’s what freedom of speech is all about. In “Age of Extinction,” though, satire ends at the water’s edge. As soon as the action shifts to Hong Kong, the outbreak of alien-engendered chaos is met by a sea captain ordering a call to “the central government” for help, and later China’s defense minister does a walk-and-talk, sternly and seriously vowing to defend Hong Kong. America’s government is portrayed either ridiculous or diabolical, but China’s is assured and effective.

Not coincidentally, “Age of Extinction” is considered an “officially assisted production,” made with help from Jiaflix Enterprises and official state broadcaster CCTV’s China Movie Channel, who ponied up for part of the budget and get a piece of the box office. No such deal gets struck in China without the consent and approval of the Beijing government and the Chinese Communist Party, and in this case, Paramount is in business with the Beijing regime directly, through CCTV.

Not surprisingly, the film is big in Beijing.

Generous soul that I am, I'd like to think that even wingnuts are smart enough to avoid a Michael Bay production. Or at least spent more of their formative years with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles than with toy trucks.  Maybe they took pity on Kelsey Grammer, or gave it a pass based on Bay's history of wingnuttery and racism.  But I'm still amazed that the Keyboard Kommandos of Kulture have passed up such golden opportunity to fling their own feces at Steven Spielberg and Tinseltown.  

Wolverines my ass.

Thanks, Frank!

Thanks to the Pontiff for filling in during my brief hiatus.  As always, his contributions are thoughtful, if not infallible.

You can catch Jorge Mario Bergoglio at his regular website and his Twitter feed.

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If you hoard material possessions, they will rob you of your soul.

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The Real I.R.S. Scandal

is that Teacriminals are allowed tax-exempt status.

In its 2004 application for tax-exempt status, filed under penalty of perjury, Move America Forward told the IRS that it would not directly or indirectly share facilities, equipment, mailing lists or other assets with any political organization.

Yet Move America Forward shares its Sacramento office suite with at least two of the three PACs set up by Russo, Marsh, as well as The Campaign Store, DonationSafe and Frontline Strategies, a political consultant firm where Callahan is a partner.

According to the charity's 2012 tax return, Move America Forward paid about $82,000 in rent that year. The PACs reported paying no rent for the same period, according to filings with the FEC. The office's property manager confirmed to ProPublica that the rent for the office is now about $83,000 a year, plus fees for use of the common area, indicating that in 2012, the charity likely covered the rent for all of the suite's occupants.

Read the whole thing.  If these assertions are proven, a significant number of 'baggers should be sharing a cell with Dinesh D'Souza.

Nixon by Nixon

Great HBO doc on the Dick Tapes. I give it Two Rogers Up.

Highly recommended viewing for the likes of Bens Stein and Shapiro and Mikey Medved.

Pat Buchanan's aleady got it continuously looped on a monitor mounted on the ceiling over his bed.

The Chunky Crying Game

Ross Dontdothat thinks he's playing three-dimensional chess.  As usual, he's only playing with himself.

Surely a House that authorized a frivolous lawsuit against El Presidente has no taste for frivolous impeachment!

Suvivor: Frenso

Previewing this fall's election for CA Governor, Kneel Kashkardashian finds that nobody wants his services.  Let's take a peek:

So, last Monday morning I took a Greyhound bus from Los Angeles to Fresno. With only forty dollars in my pocket (and no credit cards), a backpack, a change of clothes, and a toothbrush, I planned to find a job and earn enough money to get by. I am an able-bodied 40-year old. Surely I could find some work?

Maybe the videographer and creative team following you around gave people the idea you weren't seriously searching for permanent employment.

Over the next seven days, I walked mile after mile in one hundred degree heat searching for a job. I offered to do anything: wash dishes, sweep floors, pack boxes, cook meals, anything. I went to dozens of businesses in search of work but wasn’t able to get any. In seven days, I didn’t see a single “help wanted” sign but I did see plenty of signs that fast food outlets now accept food stamps.

I suspect that I too could show up unannounced at a few dozen businesses where no one would have any reason to hire me, and no one would hire me.  I could even not find a job if I took time off from the search to film establishing shots of me staring wistfully at a passing freight train. (Sadly, the shot of Kneel pilfering an aromatic pie cooling on a farmhouse windowsill did not make the final cut.)   

I also suspect that if I employed a job strategy less half-assed than Kneel's campaign strategy, I might not have had as much luck avoiding a job offer. Did you try Macy's, Kneel? Surely a payday lender or a bailbondswoman wouldn't have said no to a man of your talents.

Kneel doesn't explain what his economic plan is. He confides that it's pro-pro-growth, and anti-food stamps, failing schools, welfare and increased minimum wage.  Beyond that, you'll just have to trust him. 

I'm always willing to help the truly needy.  Kneel once helped Hank Paulson write his autobiography.  So if you don't make it to Sacramento this November, Kneel, I'm happy to hire you as a ghostblogger.  We'll split the take 50/50.

Update (8/1):  Went through a fastfood drive-in this morning to get a bottled water.  Sign on the establishment said they were interviewing for "all positions/all shifts." (Wasn't in Fresno, of course.) Maybe these joints take the signs down when multi-millionaires pretending to be drifters stroll by.

Feck and Fecklessness

Girls and boys, once again we've let down The Daily Howler!

We don’t know what the press will do if Clinton enters the race. We do know this—the indolence of the liberal world concerning the press corps’ recent behavior ["beating up" on Hillary Clinton] is a major sign of our essential fecklessness.

Everyone, give me 1,000 words on the media's War on Gore anti-Hillary attitudes by Friday. Chop, chop.

The Howler also opines that

If a Republican front-runner was being beaten up this way, the screaming would have been heard from coast to coast by now. But on the One True Liberal Channel, the millionaire children have all been silent. At Salon, not a word has been said.

Not a word? Not so much.

You could look it up!

Now, some in the liberalverse might have concluded that there's plenty of other things going on in the nation, and the world, to occupy them, and that the Hillary Hate-On will still be around should the "front-runner" decide to declare sometime in the next 28 months. For my part, I can barely pinch out a post every third day, which limits my opportunities to call out Hillary haters. But apparently I haven't gotten my priorities straight.

What's more, some of us indolent feckers might not think that Clinton's the ideal candidate for 2016, regardless of whether she's the "front-runner." (Just as not every conservative is manning the barricades in response to perceived media criticism of "Republican front-runners" Rand Paul or Chris Christie.) Some might even conclude that Sec. Clinton's past or present positions or present activities do not make her the ideal vehicle to ensure their policy preferences are enacted and enforced.

Plus, didn't we all agree to farm this shit out to Media Matters?

Short answer: Liberalism =/= Defending Hillary Clinton.  (Insert low, mordant chuckles here.)

Unbagable

We've got a volunteer for the Paul/A Pony '16 campaign: 

Rand Paul is more forceful than any Democrat on privacy and the impulse to empire. The Tea Party rails loudest against big banks and corporate corruption.

This tool has confused with coverage for conviction. Poodle Paul has gotten more television time than any Democrat on privacy and the impulse to empire, because most of the media loves Poodle Paul and he loves most of the media. Is Poodle Paul actually doing more than, say, Ron Wyden on privacy and the impulse to empire? No. (And the Poodle's love of privacy extends only certain government violations thereof; the Poodle is thrilled to have your employer all up in your privacy. His impulse control also varies depending on his ambitions.)

The second sentence is completely absurd. The closest Teabags got to railing -- at any volume -- about big banks and corporate corruption was in connection with the bailouts, aka gubmint giveaways to persons other than racist ranchers, oil companies, pasty "faith-based" organizations and Medicare recipients. There never was a 'Bag who supported stronger enforcement of corporate crime laws or the use of government to break up big banks. The Tea Party rails not at all on these issues -- their hate is directed exclusively at the parts of government that don't pander to them. 

The Bags, like Rand Paul, for example, are against occupational regulations or clean water standards that make Big Coal the smallest bit smaller.  Bailouts of Big Coal, not so much.

Too many Democrats are no better than Republicans on these issues, it's true. But to imagine that common cause can be made with those who wish to drown the government (read: those protected by the government from the free market's natural outcomes) in a bathtub is pure Paul/A Pony '16.

Something Wingnut This Way Comes

Dave Weigel reports on the correct metaphor for libertarianism, one proposed by the Kochenkinder themselves: a low-rent carnival.

There is nothing more libertarian than a carnival. Dilapidated, rust-eaten rides, child-molesting clowns one step ahead of the law, crooked games of skill -- run by people who loathe intrusive government regulation and accountability!  Carnivals are like the staff of Reason, only with fewer freaks and morons on the payroll.

As Nick Gillespie and Matt Welch would say: You don't need to be this tall to ride David Koresh, but you must ride him, even if you don't want to.  

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.