Roy at Alicublog has this to say about PW:
As Jeff Goldstein is apparently deep into one of those frequent cataleptic trances from which he only emerges to cadge spare change, the Protein Wisdom second stringers try their hand at semioticking. Dan Collins:
Frank Rich: Suicide Is Not Painless
Well, at least the Times are speaking to something they know. Of course, such a thing could never have happened [Vince Foster] under an administration as clean as the Clintons’ [Vince Foster].
The Frank Rich piece is one of his good ones, in which he reports on U.S. servicemembers who felt badly enough about the Iraq boondoggle in which they were enmeshed to kill themselves. One of them left a long note detailing his unbearable situation. Foster, you may recall, left a note naming the Wall Street Journal nuts who hounded him, and who kept up their hounding even after his death. There is surely some semiotextual dimension to this comparison that I cannot grasp.
Darleen Click seems to think that liberals (also known by our dream name, “schools”) are hypocrites because they support birth control for pre-teens but do not support seven-year-olds drawing stick figures with guns. I believe our true position is clear and consistent.
The rest of the page at this writing is completely incomprehensible (which may owe to my lack of grad school training) except for this, which appears to suggest that Randi Rhodes is a fun date.
I’ll leave apart the fact that Jeff generally doesn’t post on weekends, because I imagine it’s hard for them to wrap their heads around the concept. As for the Frank Rich article, I wonder whether Roy actually read it. If he had, he would probably understand–semiotically–that Rich mentions only one serviceperson who committed suicide for the reasons stated. Somehow the article, which deals mostly with Blackwater chicanery, has become in Roy’s reading one
in which [Rich] reports on U.S. servicemembers who felt badly enough about the Iraq boondoggle in which they were enmeshed to kill themselves.
Apparently, Foster did leave such a note, discovered in his briefcase a mere four days after he died. In case one requires a refresher in some of the odd, unexplained events which followed in the aftermath of Foster’s death, here’s a good place to refresh one’s memory. The link to “clear and consistent” directs one to Dope, Guns, and Fucking in the Street, Vols. 4-7, which is absurdist in a fashion sometimes used at PW, but valid and funny because it’s used by Roy, apparently, whereas what’s written here is “completely incomprehensible.” Besides, it’s taken for granted by Roy’s readership that answering accusations of–not so much hypocrisy as absurdly warped values really is for people on the other side, who strive for bourgeois certainties, such as consistency and coherence.  Given Roy’s incapacity to make sense of one of Rich’s good articles, the question summoned by “completely incomprehensible” becomes, “To whom?”
Correction:
Though some American bribe-takers have been caught  including Gloria Davis, an Army major who committed suicide in Kuwait after admitting her crimes last year  we are asked to believe they are isolated incidents.
So there are two suicides mentioned, true, but I don’t see the evidence for stating that it was due to remorse over the Iraq boondoggle in which she was enmeshed. Perhaps she was hounded to death? Fits the narrative, though.
I’m Just Saying indicates that there’s yet another suicide. But is there? Frank Rich is not as convinced as he was about Foster:
Colonel Westhusing’s death was ruled a suicide, though some believe he was murdered by contractors fearing a whistle-blower, according to T. Christian Miller, the Los Angeles Times reporter who documents the case in his book “Blood Money.â€Â
Of course, if this were a suicide, that would bolster our commenter’s contention, but weaken Frank Rich’s case for a conspiracy of the Foster sort. At any rate, it doesn’t seem that he was exactly enmeshed in the Iraqi boondoggle. Clearly, if Scooter Libby were to commit suicide, it wouldn’t be because he’d been hounded, but because of his deep remorse at having served in this ethically challenged administration–even if he named Fitzgerald. After all, he’s the highest ranking government official to be convicted in a government scandal since John Poindexter–since Sandy Berger’s destruction of documents from the National Archives doesn’t count as a government scandal, and since he’s working for Mrs. Clinton. Had Rove engaged in the behaviors Nussbaum did*, what would the left conclude? I won’t even get into the body count issue.
Seixon stalker Larry Johnson:
Valerie’s problem is her decency and humanity.
******
Al Qaeda hit teams were enroute to the United States to kill Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, and Valerie Plame.
Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ear.
Michael Yon, writing about the gap between reporting and the situation on the ground in Iraq:
To illustrate the absurdity to which this conceit of the collective has grown, I’m tempted to borrow from the boy in the fairy tale, only this time pointing to and shouting at the doomsday-sayers parading by: “Hey, they aren’t wearing any clothes. . . . †Except in this case, I realize I am not a lone voice. Furthermore, with the help of other clear-eyed individuals, I may actually be in a unique position to do something to remedy this, if the experience I had with the AP response to my challenge to investigate and report on the disturbing gravesites in the Al Hamira village is any guide.
Although I can’t answer to the cause of the problem, I humbly offer permission to media outlets to republish excerpts of the dispatch or the dispatch in its entirety, including my photographs from the story (if used as they are in the dispatch) at no cost during the month of July 2007. I only ask that the site receive proper attribution and that any publication taking me up on the offer email the website with the details.
That offer was dying on the vine until Bob Owens at Confederate Yankee took the Associated Press to task for their bungled reportage of a different mass graves news story, using my dispatch as a comparison. Although it took a little back and forth, and some additional pressure from all the other bloggers who started tracking on the topic, the AP finally dispatched a reporter to the scene. The resulting article was picked up by at least one other major media outlet, reaching thousands more people. This got me to thinking: what if I made a similar offer on a more permanent basis to a large media syndication, say, the National Newspaper Association?
*The United States Park Police report on its inquiry into the death of a top White House lawyer strongly suggests that Bernard W. Nussbaum, counsel to the President, impeded its investigators and offered a dubious account of the discovery of the victim’s brooding note, say Federal law-enforcement officials who have seen the report.
Of course, Mrs. Clinton’s campaign is only dirty so she can get into the White House and inaugurate the most ethical administration in history:
DONORS WHOSE addresses turn out to be tenements. Dishwashers and waiters who write $1,000 checks. Immigrants who ante up because they have been instructed to by powerful neighborhood associations, or, as one said, “They informed us to go, so I went.” Others who say they never made the contributions listed in their names or who were not eligible to give because they are not legal residents of the United States. This is the disturbingly familiar picture of Hillary Rodham Clinton‘s presidential campaign presented last week in a report by the Los Angeles Times about questionable fundraising by the New York senator in New York City‘s Chinese community. Out of 150 donors examined, one-third “could not be found using property, telephone or business records,” the Times reported. “Most have not registered to vote, according to public records.”
******
The campaign argues that it did what it could to ensure that contributions were legal. The alternative, the campaign says, would be to prevent those with foreign-sounding names from participating in the political process. But there’s another alternative: to strengthen a vetting process that seems geared more toward justifying the acceptance of checks than toward uncovering problems.
Well, Jesus Christ . . . if they can’t do a better job vetting their donors, what the fuck are they going to do if they win the Presidency?
funny, Dan, but I don’t believe I mentioned “hypocrisy” or even alluded to it.
But as we all know, BECAUSE OF THE HYPOCRISY is the only “sin” the Left actually acknowledges.
The majority of public schools have political agendas..and those agendas follow what the majority admin and teachers’ unions want.
Exhibit number 3,999,450,126,348(A) that lefties are dense as a neutron star, but without the gravity.
I’m just waiting on the attempt to burn all the Looney Tunes golden age stuff in the wake of the gun drawing incident. Imaginary violence on the part of the seven-year-old boys is to be chastised and their parents informed; sexual activity on the part of 11-year-olds…not so much.
Nuance.
“Al Qaeda hit teams were enroute to the United States to kill Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, and Valerie Plame.”
Hmmm…wonder what the incompetent and paranoid Bush administration did to stop them? …EN ROUTE. By this point, Johnson has twisted himself into so many inconsistent knots that Alexander the Great would need a chainsaw and two or three days of solid effort to solve the puzzle.
Maybe there’s a Lancet study coming out about the tens of thousands of US service members who have snuffed it rather than participate in amoral, oil-snatching Chimperialism.
Could someone please tell these people that Al Quaeda members have sex with multiple partners and they don’t use protection? Talk about mobilization.
I noted that, Darleen.
Seems to me three suicides are mentioned, two by serving members of the US military and one by a Pentagon employee. Seems to me THREE, count ’em, Dan, three investigations, two by independent counsels (including the sweet and lovable Kenny Starr) found there was no evidence of anything but a suicide. Seems to me that serious people don’t watch the Clinton Chronicles or comment on them ten years later.
Hey, Dan, is there an airfield in Mena, Arkansas? Does Bill Clinton bring cocaine in there?
I miss Jeff.
They’re repulsive with the force of several nuclear warheads. So maybe they’re reverse Neutron Stars.
(They say if you fell onto a Neutron Star you would hit with the force of impact equivalent to some number of megatons.)
Their position is clear? Yes, consistent like a small bubble of sewage. We’re not questioning the consistency of your positions against your mentality, but rather, against reality. I’m sure every cannibalistic criminal’s actions made sense in his own little world, that doesn’t make them good, right or consistent to reality.
They must be channeling Focault.
There’s an aphorism that says, know how to show disdain. Often a slight prod reveals hidden things that would not be seen otherwise. You’re making them feel hypocritical, so they accuse you of it. They might even be revealing their own feelings about the topic.
#6 IJS
cuz, like, you know, no service man ever committed suicide before Bu$Hitler and his Bu$HitlerNeoConZionistHaliburton rethuglicans
and I don’t see why suicide by service members even disturbs The Left (save for using it as they used li’l Graeme) since the mantra since the ’60’s is that the military are nothing but baby-killers.
Sometimes conspiracy theory uncovers conspiracy.
True military patriots frag themselves, Darleen.
I think when a kid draws a stick figure with a gun, they should give him an art scholarship and a nice Springfield 1911 Operator.
Doesn’t matter what it’s about; what Roy has to say is more about stupid than anything else.
Oh, and right on cue, timmah shows up in the comments section to rhetorically fellate anyone who has anything negative to say about Jeff.
Sad. Maybe he needs a life graft.
You really should get used to this sort of thing I think. You sound very steeped in old-media thinking.
Dan
you remind me … I don’t suppose Frank or Roy even want to know that “fragging” is rare in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Yeah, that was a good one, Darleen. Remember this? Classic.
“The reason any conservative’s failing is always major news is that it allows liberals to engage in their very favorite taunt: Hypocrisy! Hypocrisy is the only sin that really inflames them. Inasmuch as liberals have no morals, they can sit back and criticize other people for failing to meet the standards that liberals simply renounce. It’s an intriguing strategy. By openly admitting to being philanderers, draft dodgers, liars, weasels and cowards, liberals avoid ever being hypocrites.”
-Ann Coulter
Is it just me or is timmah bsginning to give off a chuckie adkens kind of vibe? He knows quite well that Darleen doesn’t “hate” muslims and poor people and the rest of it is cut and paste from previous forays into other sites.
timmah really, really needs to get a life beyond stalking Jeff and PW for his self inflicted terminal banning.
I’d nearly forgotten that Roy was once part of the Warbloggerwatch braintrust. That’s some high-grade stupid, right there.
I miss Jeff.
Hey, don’t sell yourself short.
You miss alot more than that.
BJTexs
Notice how tim takes up the “look at those beggars begging for money on winger sites” schtick. Tbogg slammed me earlier last week on the same thing after my “olbermann = child pimp” because I have a tipjar, too and I tell people I use give the money to my college attending daughter.
They think “wingers” are “hypocrits” for asking for money while we scrutinize/analyze/criticize government policy of taxing one person for another’s needs.
They don’t seem to know, or don’t want to acknowlege the difference between voluntary and involuntary giving. Indeed, they measure “compassion” by how willing they are to strip their neighbor’s property.
From each according to his ability, to each according to his need … the mantra of the Left and petty thieves everywhere.
Edroso:Slarti::John Lennon:Scott Stapp.
Jesus, Slarti. Are you actually stupid enough to think that you’re smarter than Edroso?
Well, Darleen. By tmmah and the Leftists, it’s unseemly to “beg” for money when you can simply take it.
The begging part confuses them as it has no part of the redistribution scheme.
Begging?
“Seems to me that serious people don’t watch the Clinton Chronicles or comment on them ten years later.”
However, that Michael Moore?
AUTHORITATIVE.
Just ask him.
Oops!
Begging? WE DON’T NEED NO STINKIN’ BEGGING!!!
In some ways, I am indisputably smarter than Edroso. In others, such as total idiocy immersion, he far outstrips me.
so let me get this straight, it’s better to take people’s money (with the government’s help)than to ask for it?
and as far as the suicides, um, isn’t it more their personal boondoggle rather than “the mess that is Iraq”? I mean, we’re talking about people that have done illegal things. or is the implication that they wouldn’t have done them, except, well, we’re at war and that somehow impairs one’s judgment.
I’m too serious a person to click that NYT link. It has “pubed” in the title. That shit went out with The Clinton Chronicles.
“we’re at war and that somehow impairs one’s judgment.”
There are, by my highly scientific estimation, a zillion punchlines that involve Pete Stark, Jack Murtha, Wes Clark, and Cindy Sheehan just buzzing around that passage, Maggie.
Mostly, the punchlines in my head involve Wes Clark–jackass in a “good war”, and jackass during “the mess that is Iraq.”
In other words, he’s a jackass if I am unclear in some way.
I mean, this (starting about 3:43 in) is sheer genius, of some kind or other. Different strokes, I guess.
But this kind of Liberalism, that is, of morality, is in itself a hypocrisy, perhaps of the worst kind. Because it is hypocritical, and has always been, to use morality itself, whether in the positive of negative, as a tool to manipulate for personal gain. Churchmen have been roundly accused for using Christian morality as a tool to herd the masses; it is always hypocritical to hold others to standards that you yourself do not keep; whether or not you admit to falling short of them.
And that’s the crux- the only way to avoid moral hypocrisy is to be virtuous or contrite. There is no other way. The state of integrity is to be what you say and what you do.
Liberals – these days anyway – progressives or whathaveyou – are neither virtuous or contrite. They’re hypocrites of the worst sort.
Seixon stalker Larry Johnson:
Not sure if this applies, but recall Larry Johnson’s post on Karl Rove’s mother’s suicide? I do
LINK
RiverC
Actually, it is a little narrower than that. Hypocrisy is actually promoting standards of behavior that you believe do not apply to oneself.
It is not hypocritical for a recovering substance abuser to counsel others on sobriety (even it SA falls off the wagon once in a while). It IS hypocritical for a person counseling others on sobriety to yuck it up and get high with friends while dissing the rubes taking sobriety seriously.
Well, I think you may have missed my point. If your job is to hold that person to those standards – to help them meet them then you are not a hypocrite. The contention is, I should be rather more clear, if the held party assents. Even with that, the implicit hypocrisy will not be without effect; a drunk will have difficulties getting another drunk to quit, even if they are in agreement of the assistance.
It is not the Left’s job to hold us to our standards; we never asked for their help. Instead the supposed ‘points’ are foisted upon us at the most ‘opportune’ moments, which reveals the true hypocrisy of the whole maneuver.
On closer reading, I see what you mean. That is probably a clearer definition. It still applies, though, to say that one need be either virtuous or contrite to be not a hypocrite.
There is of course, the libertine option. But that doesn’t offer many tools for sticking it to the Christers.
RiverC and Darleen:
I have a compromise position that I think we can all agree on…
Wes Clark is a jackass.
I wonder if Roy has any thoughts on the dwarf economist Paul Krugman bitching about the review of his book by his own newspaper. ‘Twas not good. Other reviews have not been glowing either. Must chap his already hemorrhoidal ass.
Frank Rich isn’t getting a lot of traction, is he?
“I cannot support a msn that leads to corruption, human rights abuse and liars,†Colonel Westhusing wrote, abbreviating the word mission. “I am sullied.â€Â
Frank had to clarify that msn was an abbreviation for “mission” and not a typo for msm. He should reflect on that.
Dwarfs economist Krugman. I knew there was a reason that the whiny snivelling little ass bothered me so much. That, and the fact that he has never been right about anything. And he holds himself out to be some kind of expert on everything.
COL Westhusing: “I didn’t volunteer to support corrupt, money grubbing contractors, nor work for commanders only interested in themselves. ”
Actually, you did. So this guy comes out of the Ivory Tower of Theoretical Warfare and learns that actual war on the ground is, and always has been, a complete moral mess….
I think it is also indicative that all the reasons he gave for going were ‘to validate’ himself and ‘to have the experience’. What about ‘to serve my country’?!
I realized early on in my officer career that the high-sounding talk you are quite rightly indoctrinated with don’t always line up perfectly with reality…. You either cling to your myths and break or you muddle through as best as you can–like everyone does and always has.
The Army can be a bit of a weird academic hot-house for a lot of officers.
He sounds like a brittle personality that didn’t survive his first encounter with reality.
It’s sad. And it’s sad that Frank Fucking Rich would try to make political hay out of it…..
1) I think Krugman is actually about average height, not that it matters.
2) His height has nothing to do with his standing (so to speak) as an economist, or, really, anything else of relevance.
Other than that, I’ve got nothing to say about Krugman, one way or the other.
Well, that makes one consensus for the day…
I think the draw for all those Chinese cooks and dishwashers to contribute to Hillary’s campaign was that after she won they could all, not at one time of course, stay overnight in the
Rincon Bedroom
I’ve got a spokesdonkey from the Jackass Anti-Defamation League on line 2 — and he’s hopping mad.
…he says it’s bad enough they have to put up with being the Democrats’ mascot without anybody asking their permission, but there are limits.
Unrelated to much, currently, other than the 60 Minutes droolfest over Val, I’d just like to dredge up this bit of instrusion into the private lives of people who really don’t want any publicity at all.
Thanks for the corrections, Dan. Takes a big man etc.
My apologies to Darlene. The phrase “on the other hand” led me to believe that the two news items were being compared and/or contrasted on some mutual basis. As I said, I don’t have much book-larnin’.
As for “valid and funny because it’s used by Roy” — okay, pal, you got me.
Sure, Roy. Meanwhile, an assessment of Frank’s logic:
The connection to Blackwater? Bear with me here. The writer, Frank Rich, connects disparate dots worthy of the best tin-foil hat conspiracies. First he draws a line from former Pentagon Inspector General, Joseph Schmitz, who, by some accounts, did a crappy job investigating the Air Force/Boeing lease deal (um, he couldn’t locate the former Pentagon acquisition czar; I think someones asked him if he tried the phone book). Anyhow, I digress. Schmitz then exited the Pentagon, joining up with Prince Holdings, parent company of Blackwater. We assume that makes Schmitz bad, because Blackwater is accused of killing civilians. No Riechers, but wait, I’m getting there….
Well, the only connection is that Pentagon IG investigated the Air Force (yeah, that’s the IG’s job!), and then he went to work for Blackwater. And Riechers worked for the Air Force (a couple years after Schmitz left). Get it? They were practically brothers!
Why didn’t someone just make that final “seven-degrees of separation” connection: Schmitz, for those who don’t read US Weekly, is the brother of Mary Kay Letourneau, the ultra-hot high school teacher who was jailed for sleeping with her under-age student. Betcha didn’t know that! Actually, that’s only four degrees, so that would mean Riechers is linked to Letourneau as well.
Let me be clear. Darleen Druyun is a convicted criminal. Blackwater stands accused of killing civilians in Iraq. Schmitz, according to critics, may (or may not) be guilty of being a lousy IG (and the sister thing definitely isn’t his fault, though it must make for some awkward family reunions). The “epic corruption” in Iraq is well documented. What Charles Riechers — an Air Force official with no known affiliation to any of these characters — has to do with any of this is unclear.
In the meantime, no newspaper, from what I can see, has pointed out the original page one article in the Washington Post on Riechers, under the title “Air Force Arranged No Work Contract,” was misleading, perhaps because the writer didn’t understand science and technology assistance contracts. It wasn’t a “no work contract” because the contractor provides technical assistance to the Defense Department).
If Riechers weren’t dead, the whole thing would be laughable.
Edroso is still posting? Who knew?
Incidentally, in case there was ever any confusion, no one is required to donate anything to my fundraiser. Not like I know where you live, or vote for the kinds of Congressional representatives who will demand that your money be turned over to me.
For the greater good.
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Marx-speak: “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need”
SicProgg(tm) version: “From each according to his gullibility, to each according to his greed”
– Valerie contains her “rage” pretty well it seems, when shes under oath before a judge.
Jeff:
Don’t debase yourself to the bottom of the pond that is Burnsthebridges. He may need to see Adken’s therapist.
Why can’t Roy read?
1) He is a liberal.
2) He is a liberal idiot.
3) See #’s 1 & 2