Come out of the cupboard, you boys and girls

Bill, Bill, Bill, are you just too lazy to even phone it in? Crooks and Liars has the video, but it's just so . . .weak. I mean, blaming the victim. That's for 2nd tier wingnuts like Nancy Grace, not a Peabody Award winning journalist like yourself:

O'Reilly is a lunatic, plain and simple and yes Bill, this is a personal attack. He has the nerve to attack one of the kidnapped victims (Shawn Hornbeck) because he didn't try to get away. Something along the lines of 'he didn't like school so he stayed with his assailant.'

Bill: The question is why didn't he escape when he could have? There are all kinds of theories about that…

Download (1018) | Play (709) Download (593) | Play (511)

He doesn't buy the Stockholm Syndrome…..What a surprise….No thought that this very young boy of eleven could have been manipulated at all. There is a reason why we have laws on the books involving minors. You'd think O'Reilly could grasp that simple fact especially since he too was…cough, cough—a teacher.

Conservatives usually attack the media as being liberal for obvious reasons, but Bill attacks victims of child abuse—because? Please, tell me. It's unbelievable. And we're learning that the nut, Michael Devlin, probably has harmed other children as well. That's why we call them child predators…

Bastard.

Even the birdcage liner Free Republic has this news-worthy tidbit that seems to counter O'Reilly's ass-ertion:

The captor who held Shawn Hornbeck for more than four years kept him from fleeing by threatening to kill the boy and his entire family, investigators said Monday.

That helps explain why Shawn, 15, freed Friday when police tracked a second kidnapped boy to an apartment in Kirkwood, did not seize ample opportunities to run or summon help, according to the investigators.

Bill, can I call you Bill? Whatever. Bill, had you even looked into your Inbox (not that box, you idiot! The one for email!) you would have seen the Free Republic update you get everyday. It might have saved you some embarrassment.

On second thought, would have made no difference.

I want to be the one to walk in the sun

(Jane and Kobe at the 10/05 L.A. blogger's Party)

Everyone has to have a hero or two. You know, someone who just does it better than anyone else. Or maybe someone who does what we wish we could do, if only we were braver, or more committed, or . . .

Jane Hamsher is a hero of mine. For all the things the public sees, and for all the things I've seen in her personally. She's a gutsy broad (I use that term lovingly) who says what she feels and damn the cost, a proud patriotic American who calls bullshit where she sees it, and a committed presence in the netroots who is making a difference in our world.

For that, and more, I wish her all the best in her newest fight:

In mid-December I was diagnosed with breast cancer for the third time. It's a bit more serious this time and treatment is going to have to be more extensive. I owe a huge debt of thanks to all the folks on the blog who have stepped in and allowed me time to investigate treatment options with many physicians and make an informed decision on that front. In addition to regulars like Christy, Pach and TRex who have taken over many of my duties, I also need to express my thanks to commenters like Scarecrow, Looseheadprop, Peterr, Hugh and Oilfieldguy who have done incredible work posting so that I could take this time off. Guest posters like Taylor Marsh, Swopa, Steve Gilliard, Watertiger, Howie Klein and others have also pitched in, and no amount of words can thank the incredible RGB, our site administrator, who has taken it upon himself to coordinate all these disparate elements on the fly. It's been a daunting task and he has managed it spectacularly.

So. Pray if that is your need. Send good vibes if that works for you. And if you have an extra few bucks in your pocket, send it either here:

Susan B. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation

or here:

Chao Family Cancer Research Center

Good places both.


Update: Or you can send a few Dollars, Pounds, Euro, Shekels, Gold Grickels, or whatever your local currency is to the Firedoglake fund drive.

Misunderstanding all you see

In the best tradition of the Right Wing, we have this from Protein Wisdom:

According to Crooks & Liars:

Chuck Hagel Smacks Lieberman: Questions his competency

There’s irony for you. Hey, speaking of competency, I hear that Tim Johnson’s improved--a little.

Right.

Hagel (with solid right-wing cred) questions the war, and the assumtion is that he is mentally challenged, like a guy who had a brain bleed.

Clever, classy, utterly idiotic.

And mean.

There's your Culture Of Life.

Here's where it gets interesting. From commenter Robert:

Re Johnson comment: not nice, and I wish you hadn’t said it.

And in a remarkable misunderstanding of basic English communication, Protein Wisdom author Dan Collins responds:

So, it is one thing to question someone’s competency on national television because he differs from one’s opinion on the war, and another to question one’s competency because he’s suffered a severe brain hemorrhage?

Short answer: Yes.

Bastard.

We shall overcome some day

Here's yesterday's preview of John Edwards today at the Riverside Church about Martin Luther King, and escalation:

Forty years ago, almost to the month, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stood at this pulpit, in this house of God, and with the full force of his conscience, his principles and his love of peace, denounced the war in Vietnam, calling it a tragedy that threatened to drag our nation down to dust.

As he put it then, there comes a time when silence is a betrayal -- not only of one's personal convictions, or even of one's country alone, but also of our deeper obligations to one another and to the brotherhood of man.

. . .

If you're in Congress and you know this war is going in the wrong direction, it is no longer enough to study your options and keep your own counsel. Silence is betrayal. Speak out, and stop this escalation now. You have the power to prohibit the president from spending any money to escalate the war - use it.

And to all of you here today - and the millions like us around the country who know this escalation is wrong - your job is to reject the easy way of apathy and choose instead the hard course of action. Silence is betrayal. Speak out. Tell your elected leaders to block this misguided plan that is destined to cost more lives and further damage America's ability to lead. And tell them also, that the reward of courage … is trust.

What John said.

Everybody gets their time, Little David when he picked up his pebbles...

(Somewhat provocative image from InternetWeekly.org)

In the last post, I alluded to email from David Horowitz. Of course, any contact with this creep makes one want to take a decontamination shower. But some insight is still helpful.

I visited FrontPageMag, Horowitz's web site, back in July, after seeing him on TV whining about the NYTimes publishing a puff piece that might lead one to Donald Rumsfeld's vacation home.

Here is what David wrote at FrontPageMag:

In an apparent retaliation for criticism of its disclosure of classified intelligence to America's enemies, the New York Times June 30th edition has printed huge color photos of the vacation residences of Vice President Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, identifying the small Maryland town where they live, showing the front driveway and in Rumsfeld's case actually pointing out the hidden security camera in case any hostile intruders should get careless: http://travel2.nytimes.com/2006/06/30/travel/escapes/30michaels.html

Make no mistake about it, there is a war going on in this country. The aggressors in this war are Democrats, liberals and leftists who began a scorched earth campaign against President Bush before the initiation of hostilities in Iraq.

Right. Of course the far Right Wing in this country had long called any media outlet who doesn't support their every utterance on any given day "traitors", and the NYTimes takes a lot of this heat.

David's commenting setup is blind, meaning that comments are seen only by moderators, but I left one anyway:

The Western White House, aka Casa Pacifica, and Reagan`s Ranch, were both well-known locations.

So I guess, by your logic, Cheney & Rumsfeld are more important than St.
Ronnie and Tricky Dick?

I was completely surprised a few days later to get the following email from David:

These houses are vacation "White Houses"; and we are in a war with terrorists which as the President said "changes everything." Thnk about it.

Misspelling aside, I did think about it, and felt he hadn't really responded to my point, except by invoking the cliched "...war with terrorists". So I wrote back politely:

Thanks for the reply.

The thing is, we've known about Presidential retreats for years. The use of Camp David, used by Roosevelt starting in '42, was a direct result of Secret Service concerns about the visibility of his yacht that had previously been his getaway. But the location of Camp David was known to all. And we certainly were at war, with a real declaration from Congress at that time. Security was tight at and around Camp David, but still, the location was known. And we were concerned with potential terrorist attacks, since we interned Japanese-Americans.

Are you suggesting we somehow un-ring that bell, or perhaps the POTUS, VPOTUS, et al be spirited away to some undisclosed location for the duration of the GWOT? Hardly seems an American thing to do.

Also, as has been mentioned in some media, the Washington Post previously published an article, with Rumsfeld's permission, that gave locations of Rumsfeld's home and the soon to be purchased Cheney home.

And NewsMax, hardly "liberal Media" had also already published the same information. I have yet to hear anyone on the right demand the WaPo and NewsMax be branded as treasonous.

Thanks for the opportunity to have this dialog.

Best,
Steve

Nice and polite, right? Well, I was even more surprised to get the following stupid response:

First, these are not presidential retreats. Second, this is the most divisive war America has fought since the Civil War, and it is a war with terrorists. Consequently, the potential for crank attacks on American leaders is much greater.

OK. So the fact that they are NOT Presidential retreats makes them more important? Huh? and "this is the most divisive war" is, in my opinion, exactly because tools like Horowitz keep dancing with fallacies and ideology, rather than facts.

Still, I wrote back again:

David:

First, these are not presidential retreats. Second, this is the most divisive war America has fought since the Civil War, and it is a war with terrorists. Consequently, the potential for crank attacks on American leaders is much greater.

I don't dispute that point. The problem is that Rumsfeld gave permission for the photos to be taken. And both his and Cheney's vacation homes in St. Michaels had already been discussed by NewsMax, who published the information, so it was in the public sphere long before the NYTimes article.

So again, I ask, why single out the NYTimes as the villain, when others were complicit, including Rumsfeld when he agreed to have pictures taken.

It seems to me that the real agenda is not the safety of leaders and cabinet members, but the smearing of the NYTimes.

Again, thanks for the opportunity to discuss this with you, I appreciate it.

Steve

And finally, David responded with the money quote:

I think I have answered these points already in my blog. The NY Times is singled out because it is a paper with great authority and has been abetting the enemies of this country since the Vietnam War.

Indeed. That is the full quote copied and pasted from the email from David. Let's read that one part again:

The NY Times is singled out because it is a paper with great authority and has been abetting the enemies of this country since the Vietnam War.

So. No real security damage was done. This was just an admitted opportunity to rail against the NYTimes. With critics like Horowitz, who needs a free press?


For some background on his conversion to Right Wing wanker, wikipedia:

Other events that Horowitz cites as being influential in his conversion from socialism were the impacts of the US loss in the Vietnam War on the peoples of Indochina,

Makes sense. Because a horribly wrong war was waged by both the Democrats and Republicans, he sides with the Republicans who, under Nixon, finally conceded the futility of the war and disengaged. Kinda like wanting to join the Tampa Bay Devil Rays after last season.

And this:

Horowitz believes that the far left turned a blind eye to such atrocities (Khmer Rouge killings) because the ideological vision of the Communists was one which they shared. To see it went wrong was to admit that there was something wrong in the ideal itself.

Yeah. Those of us on the left who opposed Viet Nam were all dancing in the streets supporting Pol Pot, 'cause he was so, you know, cool. Idiot!

Of course, David's beloved Right Wing saints have never, ever, supported a mass murderer or tyrant, have they?

Ah, forget it. This kind of insanity is incurable.

Bastard.

I support the left, but I'm leaning to the right

I'm not sure how it happened. But it must have. I suddenly became a conservative.

What else would explain this email I received:

Dear Conservative Leader,

As you may know, Section 220 of S1, the lobby reform bill, would effectively silence many grassroots organizations by subjecting them to onerous registration and reporting requirements which actually exceed what is required of the big lobbyists in Washington, D.C.

Now, Senators Robert Bennett (R-UT), John Cornyn (R-TX), Jon Kyl (R-AZ), and Mitch McConnell (R-KY) have co-sponsored Amendment 20 to S 1, which would remove Section 220 from the bill.

Please call both of your United States senators and tell them to support Amendment 20 to S 1, to delete the regulations on grassroots communications from the lobbying reform bill. Here’s what you can say when you call:

I oppose efforts to regulate my First Amendment rights and to silence critics of Congress.

Please vote for Amendment 20 sponsored by Senator Bennett and others to remove Section 220 from S. 1, the lobbying reform bill.

OK. Well. And who is this from, the person who is calling me a "conservative leader"?

Richard Viguerie.

The man who helped found the "Moral Majority", who wrote the book pictured above, the man who:

In 1977 he worked on a project to raise money for Sun Myung Moon's Children's Relief Fund, which reportedly only received 6.3% of the $1,508,256 raised. $920,000 went to Viguerie according to New York State charity auditors.^[2][3]

yet has the balls to say:

Viguerie's comment on the Mark Foley scandal: "This isn't an isolated situation. It is only the most recent example of Republican House leaders doing whatever it takes to hold onto power. If it means spending billions of taxpayers' dollars on questionable projects, they'll do it. If it means covering up the most despicable actions of a colleague, they'll do it.

Dude, looked in any mirrors lately? Oh, wait, you probably won't see anything.



I'm not sure how I got on his email list. I even emailed my good friend Brad Friedman with the shocking news of my apparent conservative conversion, and found out the he also got the same email! Pretty weird.

First David Horowitz, now Viguerie. Jeez, it gives me the creeps. But it also gives me some additional insight into the dark world of the movement conservatives trying to take over the country, so I guess, forewarned is forearmed.

Oh, and look who the co-sponsors of the amendment mentioned are: Kyl, Cornyn, McConnell. there are some fine minds.

Just gimme some kind of sign girl

(image from darkblack, apropos of nothing, just a wonderful picture. Oh, and Louis knew bullshit when he heard it.)

My personal favorite Right Wing Nut Job has issued a challenge:

Michelle Malkin and Bryan Preston (of Hot Air) have made it to Baghdad and are currently embedded with a unit that appears to be at the center of the action:

My Hot Air colleague Bryan Preston and I have been in Iraq, embedded with an incredibly dedicated Army unit in Baghdad tasked with training Iraqi security forces (both Shia and Sunni) conducting counterinsurgency operations, and carrying out civil affairs work. Yes, there is danger and chaos and unspeakable bloodshed in parts of Baghdad. Sectarian violence—compounded by everyday street crime and tribal conflict—is rampant. Corruption, incompetence, and apathy infect the Iraqi government. You’ve gotten endless news coverage of all that. But there are also pockets of success and signs of hope amid utter despair. I’ll give you more details of our embed unit after we get home. We have much to report and will be publishing a multi-part video and audio series, blog posts, and op-eds on security conditions, media malpractice, and the big picture on the war next week. Having met, watched, and interviewed a broad cross-section of our troops during our brief but fruitful travels, my faith in the U.S. military has never been stronger—but I will not sugarcoat my skepticism and doubts about decisions being made in Washington.

First of all, I speak for (almost) everybody both left and right when I wish them good luck and pray that they stay safe.

I say “almost” everyone because if the past is any guide, there will be sneering contempt from some lefty blogs – criticism that drips with racism, sexism, and a a jaw dropping kind of obscene hate. I plan on posting the reaction from the left to Malkin’s trip to Iraq because these people must be exposed as the ignorant racists they truly are. Ignoring their hypocrisy only makes them believe they are clever rather than pond scum.

Criticism of Malkin and Preston is not the issue. It is perfectly acceptable to criticize what they write and their impressions of what is going on Iraq. But the rancid way in which some lefty bloggers will personalize their criticism will not be tolerated by me or, I imagine, a host of others.

Feel free to leave links from lefty blogs in the comments who you feel step over the line. As news spreads of the Malkin/Preston embed, I should have plenty to write about this afternoon.

(emphasis mine)

So certain, so sure, so manly, so . . . wrong.

First, when was this written? It says:

By: Rick Moran at 8:21 am

But it's dated:

1/11/2007

In my time zone, that makes it 8:21 am, Thursday, 1/11/2007.

Problem is, I read the piece last night, and commented on it:

SteveAudio Said:
2:29 pm

Interesting to see how many hate filled posts were linked here…none.

No one on the left wishes Malkin any harm, we just wish she would use some sense once in a while, and think before she speaks.

Unlike American Digest last week, who made fun of Jane Hamsher being a cancer survivor.

Excapt I commented on it last night, around midnight. So the clock on his blog is screwed up. All that means is that the post has been up longer than it appears, which makes my point even, ahem, funnier:

No one has responded with any evil leftist ranting. No. One.

In fact the harshest thing there, after my comment, was this:

kender Said:
3:18 pm

The “wink wink death wishes” from the left will come. Steve Audios words aside, many on the left are childish and hateful enough to wish harm on those that oppose them ideologically.

To which I responded:

SteveAudio Said:
3:06 am

Proof, dude. Show me some proof.

Having said that, I hear death wishes from righties all the time. In fact, a certain San Francisco radio station is getting the Mouse in a little bit of hot water on that very topic.

So poor Rick's shout out the the monitors of leftie hate has sputtered to a dismal failure.

Sad. So sad.

And just for competeness, here's a picture of the aforementioned Ms. Malkin:

Time has come today, and my soul has been psychedelicized

The Chambers Bros. are really much greater than their current visibility would indicate. Fusing '60s soul and funk with guitar-driven rock, they were pretty unique.

I played in a Top-40 band in '68 called Summer (yeah, I know) and we played "Time Has Come Today". It was my freak-out piece, I took a 10 minute guitar solo, thrashing my Les Paul, bouncing it off the stage and generally acting like a fool. But it was fun.

I always thought the lyric "and my soul has been psychedelicized" spoke to the '60s white rock audiences embracing the music of Hendrix, Sly Stone, etc., as something they had just discovered instead of music that had developed organically and naturally while they weren't looking.

Regardless, "Time Has Come Today" is pretty special.

And migawd, the vocal! Damn!

Hey Joe, where you going with that gun in your hand

From Joke Line over at his brandy-new Time blog called Swampland:

I love it! First day of Swampitude and the left-wing blogosphere--which is overpopulated by illiberal leftists and reactionary progressives--is already attacking me: 24 mostly mingy comments about my Left Behind post, many of which seem to be steaming off a post by Greg Sargent, who writes a blog called The Horse's...Mouth.
The illiberal left just hates it when I point out that the Democratic Party's naivete on national security--and the left wing tendency to assume every U.S. military action abroad is criminal--just aren't very helpful electorally.

Aw, that's so cute! But before the fisking begins, note this statement:

...24 mostly mingy comments...

Whew. 24 whole comments! Here's the thing though. The header for the piece looks like this:

19:34 pm
Now that I have your attention
Posted by Joe Klein | E-Mail This | Permalink | Comments (5) | Sphere It!

What? Only 5 comments? Well, since Swampgas moderates the comments, and since this piece was timestamped at 7:34 pm on Monday, Jan. 8th, we can assume that the gnomes who moderate the comments have been way too busy polishing Joe's beard to free those missing comments.

Oh, and another point: If you're going to be all cool, hip, and international by using 24 hour time, please note that that eliminates the need to PM/AM suffixes. 19:34 means nothing other than 7:34 PM.

Onto serious issues: The Democratic Party's naivete on National Security is a myth, promoted by left-haters like you and Mickey Kaus (Mickey is a really nice guy, and can handle a debate). The Democratic Party did pretty well in WWII, for one example. But they have had exactly zero input into anything related to policy since '94 when Newt and his Contract On America came into power. Newt was swept away by scandal and hubris, but the Meme has stuck.

But here's a little idea to ponder, oh wise man of Washington: If the Left, who largely opposed the war had had control, we would not have lost 3000 American soldiers, and would not be facing civil war in Iraq and a maturing radicalism in Iran chafing at the bit to take on a weakened Iraq and Middle East in general.

Oh, but wait...had we followed that course, we would have been criticized by you for not taking decisive action. Wrong, but decisive action.

And this:

...left wing tendency to assume every U.S. military action abroad is criminal...

Proof, dude. Show me anyone on the left, with the exception of Kucinich, who protested attacking Afghanistan after 9/11. That's Limbaugh-speak, not honest debate. And that's only one example.

Face it, Joe. If you say things which are immediately disproveable, you're going to take some heat. Deal with it.

Last:

...illiberal leftists and reactionary progressives...

What the hell does that mean? No points for coining phrases that are just stupid.

Bastard.

And I fell out of bed, hurting my head from things that Id said

I read them so you don't have to. From the Right-wing fever swamp:

RightWingNutHouse:

I haven’t written anything about Iraq recently and there’s a reason for it; I’m waiting until we hear from the only guy who counts – the Commander in Chief.

I'll remind him about his obeisance to authority the next time a Democrat is President.


Protein Wisdom:

Does it not matter to you—or Greenwald—that the political opinions of Americans are being formulated based on uncorroborated reports or outright propaganda printed uncritically by the AP and other outlets?

Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler:

Police plan to set up checkpoints beginning Wednesday to help curb a crime wave that has claimed nine lives since the start of 2007, …

Mogadishu perhaps? Beirut? Kabul? Gaza City?

… Mayor Ray Nagin said, …

Yep. Good ol’ Nawlinz, Looseranna. A place run by The Party of People With A Plan™ for well over 100 years.

…stopping short of imposing a curfew on this tourism-dependent city.

Stopping short of actually solving any problems by actually doing something that might actually, you know, “work“.

Ace of Spades:

The left has been expecting Santa to bring them all ponies for Christmas.

The Democratic Party now has to walk a difficult line, keeping their lunatics believing in Santa, but also letting them down gently: "Sorry, Nelly, no pony this year. Maybe Christmas 2009. If you're a good little activist."

But if Santa is all-knowing and all-good and all-powerful, how can he stand idly by while millions don't get their ponies?

Noted theologian Andrew Sullivan is expected to cover this perplexing question in his next bestseller seller, The Liberal Soul: How The Democratic Party Lost It And How You Can Stop Oppressing Me And Let Me Marry A Feller.

RiehlWorldView:

The reality is this ... Bush has the authority to tell these feckless liberals and democrats to get lost. Send the troops, let's see them cut the funding off then. The weak, ineffectual bastards won't get elected to anything in 2008.

And if they won't defend this country and come to terms with the genuine global threat we face today, including in Iraq, then it's getting close to time to start a war with them. Taken as a whole, they are more dangerous then your average car load of jihadists. They won't even fight for America, the cowards would rather just give it away.

Quote of the day, from Eric Alterman:

Bush is like a man who is dealt two kings in blackjack (after 9-11) when the dealer is showing a three, doubles down instead of playing his winner hand, gets two twos, and continues to double down over and over and over until he loses his family's life savings and insurance policy. Kristol, Krauthammer, and Kaplan, et al, are like the Vegas floozies with fake boobs telling him what a big man he is the whole time, stroking his thighs while picking his pockets ... (Oh, and John "Maverick" McCain is the long-suffering wife ...)

Damn. I wish I'd said that.