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The Company We Keep

Apropos of nothing, really, but why am I not surprised that maverick “conservative”-libertarian Glenn Greenwald is on the “Townhouse” list? 

I sure do hope Mona had an invite.  Or else some champion of FISA I know is going to be losing a world-class sycophant, you can bet the unbugged farmhouse on that.

62 Replies to “The Company We Keep”

  1. David R. Block says:

    I’m not surprised either.

    I just had that feeling.

  2. Pablo says:

    That Steve Gilliard is on the list tells me all I need to know about the seriousness of the threat it poses.

    I don’t think we can ever invade. At worst, we’re gonna run out of snacks.

  3. Phinn says:

    The Townhouse Conspiracy (2007). 

    Synopsis: They own the media.  They own the government. 

    An ultra-secretive political sect calling itself the Townhouse Group, led by one-time political blogger Markos Moulitsas (Steve Buscemi), conspires to take over the government.  The only man standing between the conspirators and world domination is burned-out Treasury agent Agent Terrence Macaully (Bruce Willis).

  4. ahem says:

    I love this remark, dripping as it is with plaintive, adolescent angst:

    ‘This “movement” is bigger and more important than any one of us.’

    That pretty much says it all, doesn’t it? Those on the progressive/left appear to have an innate tendency to think of themselves collectively, as parts of a greater whole–just as Lenin wanted them to. Those on the liberal/right tend to think of themselves as rugged individuals. Children vs. Adults; Romantics vs. Classicists; Irrationality vs. Logic; Feeling vs. Reason.

    Other than actus’ revelation of a total incomprehension of Islam, that is the best laugh I’ve had today–plus, it’s fun to see them claw each other’s guts.

  5. actus says:

    Those on the liberal/right tend to think of themselves as rugged individuals.

    There isn’t a conservative movement?

    Other than actus’ revelation of a total incomprehension of Islam,

    I admit I can only name 1 of the four pillars.

  6. BumperStickerist says:

    fwiw, Cole at BalloonJuice had some people ask why Greenwals was on the “Center Right” side of the blogroll list.

    John replied that Greenwald had asked to be placed there.

    Go figure.

  7. ahem says:

    actus, you are a pillar….

  8. gahrie says:

    I admit I can only name 1 of the four pillars.

    Just for the record, there are five pillars:

    1) frequent profession of faith

    2) daily (five times a day) prayer facing Mecca

    3) charity (especially in enabling the poor to make the Haji)

    4) fasting during the daylight hours of the month of Ramadan

    5) the Haji (pilgrimage to Mecca)

  9. topsecretk9 says:

    but why am I not surprised that maverick “conservative”-libertarian Glenn Greenwald is on the “Townhouse” list?

    Authoritarian cult expert…takes one to know one.

  10. Walsingham says:

    It’s funny.

    The Left makes fun of the Right for The Pledge of Allegiance (which is never enforced)…and the Left has no such Pledge of Allegiance but they enforce the sh** out of it.

  11. McGehee says:

    Those on the liberal/right tend to think of themselves as rugged individuals.

    In order to clarify for the benefit of retarded telephone poles, the use of “liberal” in this formulation is, I believe, a reference to “classical” liberalism.

    And therefore, in reply to the purely hypothetical possibility of a question about a “conservative” movement, in classical terms conservatism doesn’t move. Not even with Ex-Lax.

    We need to keep in mind that some of our victims fellow readers may not know about anything that happened before yesterday the day they were born.

  12. Crank says:

    Greenwald should have known that his presence compromised the list’s secrecy, given that BushCo reads his emails and taps his phone.

  13. actus says:

    In order to clarify for the benefit of retarded telephone poles, the use of “liberal” in this formulation is, I believe, a reference to “classical” liberalism.

    I understand. I also know that there is such an animal as a “movement conservative.”

    And therefore, in reply to the purely hypothetical possibility of a question about a “conservative” movement, in classical terms conservatism doesn’t move. Not even with Ex-Lax.

    You mean classical liberals don’t agree on what classical liberalism is, and how to move it forward? CATO doesn’t attend strategy meetings?

  14. Turing Word: known, as in actus is a known unknown.

  15. ahem says:

    If you think this is conservative, you ought to go over to Free Republic. They’d have you for dinner.

  16. Actus, please go play your game somewhere else.

  17. Brian says:

    I am having fun today.  Frustrating fun….but fun nonetheless.

    I keep going from liberal blog to liberal blog, asking the same question, and doing so very politely:

    “Why follow Kos so willingly?  Is this in your best interest?  Can you please take a position on the issue being raised about him?”

    I am instantly banned from the site.  I have been banned from six so far.  The latest one banned me because I commented under a post about Jane Hamsher’s mom who just passed away, but the blogger (C&L) used the opportunity to trash TNR for being so cruel as to write about the issue while Jane was going through personal crisis.  Since he brought it up, I challenged him on it, but am now blocked.

    These folks have no shame.

  18. topsecretk9 says:

    but why am I not surprised that maverick “conservative”-libertarian Glenn Greenwald is on the “Townhouse” list?

    Authoritarian Cult expert, indeed! Projectionist irony of the juiciest delight kind to be savored.

    but the blogger (C&L) used the opportunity to trash TNR for being so cruel as to write about the issue while Jane was going through personal crisis.

    Personal crisis aside, do these people know there is a big wide world out there that does not necessarily operate on FDL schedule?

  19. Karl Rove says:

    OK, I’m having far too much fun watching this.

    [url=”http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=w060619&s=chait062206″ target=”_blank”]

    DAILY KOS STRIKES AGAIN.

    Excommunicated

    by Jonathan Chait [/url]

    Beyond The Plank: TNR Strikes Back

    It’s behind a registration wall which bugged me not, if you get my drift.

    Kos announces in his headline, “TNR’s defection to the Right is now complete.” If this sounds vaguely familiar, it’s because it is. More than two years ago, Kos launched what he called his “anti-TNR campaign,” in which he declared us to be enemies of the people. Wait, sorry, wrong jargon–I meant, enemies of the people-powered movement. Some examples of the anti-TNR campaign can be found here, here, and here.

    They’ve been reading too much Goldstein over there at TNR. I love that last one.

  20. ahem says:

    Oh, better still, actus, go over to the Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiller and tell Mischa what you think about the two soldiers who were tortured. We’ll be standing by with a small wagon to cart off the pieces.

    Don’t kid yourself; you know you can get away with quite a lot here.

  21. Jay says:

    Okay, I admit it.  I’m on the Townhouse email list.

    But I only read the emails for the stock tips.

  22. N. O'Brain says:

    Since they are a bunch of self-important leftist intellectuals, I guess they wouldn’t want to be known as the “Townhouse Crackers”?

  23. 6Gun says:

    Actus, please go play your game somewhere else.

    You mean the dancing naked thru traffic part?  Without all these internet store windows to preen in, what would be the fun in that?

  24. topsecretk9 says:

    and the hits just keep on coming….

    Influential website the Huffington Post tried to ban one of its bloggers after he discovered an anonymous heckler on his blog was actually the Post’s technology manager.

    In his Huffington Post blog, Peter Rost exposed the identity of the heckler – known as a “troll” in blogging parlance – which prompted the Post to temporarily block his access.

    He recounted the incident on a new blog site he created separately to the one co-founded by journalist Arianna Huffington.

    “This is a sad day for online journalism,” Dr Rost wrote on his new site. “I was terminated without any investigation of the statements in my blog post, all of which were referenced using independent sources.

    “I presented facts and made no allegations. Arianna Huffington’s newspaper decided to shut down the whistleblower and proved that her online magazine is no more ethical than the people and organisations she criticises on a daily basis.”

    Dr Rost, a former vice-president of drug company Pfizer, became suspicious after his blogs were persistently attacked by a poster called yacomink.

    One comment by yacomink – “This thing reads like a sixth grader’s first attempt at a research paper” – was voted a “readers’ favourite comment” within half an hour of its posting, the speed of which aroused Dr Rost’s suspicions.

    Dr Rost had blogged at the Huffington Post for about three months and written over 60 blogs.

    He was also suspicious of the incident because, out of 1,278 responses, only 18 comments had ever been popular enough to be voted a “readers’ favourite”.

    He found yacomink’s IP address and, after a further search, found a web page for Andy Yaco-Mink, which included the following: “Andy Yaco-Mink is the Huffington Post’s technology manager. He lives in Brooklyn.”

    Dr Rost wrote a Huffington Post blog exposing Andy Yaco-Mink as the troll, suggesting that he had probably manipulated the Post’s systems to get his comments placed in the readers’ favourite comments.

    He wrote: “In order for the Huffington Post to maintain its credibility, the site needs to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest or rigged rankings.”

    This prompted the Post to block his access to the site.

    “You have not been ‘fired’ but rather asked to refrain from posting as our editorial staff felt that your recent blogs were not in line with the mission of our site,” the Huffington Post wrote in a letter to Dr Rost.

    The guy’s New Blog Here…with screen shots and where this Gaurdian UK story exceprted above can be found…

    Ban, Ban, Ban and Delete, Delete, Delete those comments…Remember the WAPO Blogswarm?

  25. Out in Cal we still think of Arrianna as our fav fem polito-slut…she almost never actually writes anything, never really has, even on her old site. What is posted there is immature, wrong headed trash, not writing, so who would possible care about posting there, let alone being banned. pffftttt….

  26. BoZ says:

    why am I not surprised that maverick “conservative”-libertarian Glenn Greenwald is on the “Townhouse” list?

    Because anyone who claims to be a moderate, or any such pseudo-rebellious maverick-hyphenated “shades of gray” nonsense, is either making excuses for being thoughtless, or is a status-seeking dissembler. There are partisans, and there are extremists (philosophical and/or psychological), and nothing else.

    And they’re easy to tell apart. Look what happens at “moderate” and “both sides” websites like Cole’s, Obsidian Wings, The Moderate Voice, Donklephant, (increasingly) the Reason blog, [blah blah etc.]. Eventually the pose fails and they take shelter back home with the clan. By contrast, beyond-the-palers at places like Anti-State, Anti-Politics, No Treason, Catallarchy, Strike The Root, Antiwar.com, [etc.] stay extreme. They have no home to run to, and they don’t want one.

    (Those lists were impossible to “balance,” because both the moderate’s and the extreme leftist’s pose so reliably fail Democratward (the more “radical,” the more reflexively go-team (see The Valve)), while their right-identified counterparts almost never default Republican. I could only think of accused-libertarian Instapundit, but he’s really an average Republican voter. Point: There was a “Commies For Kerry,” but there couldn’t be a “Spoonerites For Bush.” Why? Well.)

    (And none of the above applies to actual politicians.)

  27. McGehee says:

    I also know that there is such an animal as a “movement conservative.”

    In classical terms, they are liberals.

    This all happened before you were born.

  28. jdm says:

    Just for the record, there are five pillars

    Splitter!

  29. topsecretk9 says:

    Out in Cal we still think of Arrianna as our fav fem polito-slut

    I’m in CA too, so I am well aware of what she is thought of and not sure those thoughts are confined to CA…I mean she was the driving force of spawning MoveOn.org…she started the online petition to impeach Clinton.

    Arrianna, I agree is not what one would consider as a great writer, but like the blogger Dr Rost said:

    “I presented facts and made no allegations. Arianna Huffington’s newspaper decided to shut down the whistleblower and proved that her online magazine is no more ethical than the people and organisations she criticises on a daily basis.”

    Which I think is worth pointing out since she considers herself along with other lefitist hypocrats, a leader in the “people-power movement”

  30. ahem says:

    To read him, you’d think that trolls were verboten at HP (strange but true). Why? Everyone else is infested with them. Why should HP be any different?

    Actually, it’s pretty funny how he cranked them. It’s hell when your troll is in control of your blog.

    The neocons have planted people everywhere to undermine advancement of the progressives in our society. In the blogs, radio and even in the Democratic party. We’ll need to focus on these people like lasers and root them out…

    O, god, I’m crying.

    tw: left. No shit.

  31. I propose that the Kos-and-fellow-travelers crowd start their own third party, since they ain’t getting along with the Democratic National Committee, and will never align themselves with the Republicans.

    The party’s mascot, ala elephant and donkey, could be the hippopotamus, that strong and noble beast. And the party’s name, with a nod to topsecretk9, would be ‘Hippocrats’. Looks like a win for truth in advertising to me!

    TW: ‘country’. For the good of the~!

  32. Thoat wasn’t my point TS – To be more specific, I doubt very much she is involved in the slightest, she seldom if ever knows whats going on. Thats not ment to give her a pass, she just doesn’t go very deep in things. I, along with some other writers, spent some time with her at some press cocktail parties during the Cal Gov. run. She’s really kind of sweet in person, but not the sort you’d trust baby sitting your family pet. All airhead, all the time. She’s reasonably good at mimicking the latest party talking points, and thats about it. Ask any in-depth questions beyond the initial sound byte, and you get aluminum siding….

  33. ahem says:

    By the way, should this blog suddenly disappear, for technical reasons, you can go to my private blog, here.

    I just lost it.

  34. Beto Ochoa says:

    McGehee,

    Actus’s history begins on 11/07/00.

  35. topsecretk9 says:

    Big Bang

    Your are right. I missed the point, and Ask any in-depth questions beyond the initial sound byte, and you get aluminum siding…. is right too. Sorry.

  36. Boy, the comments at Dr. Rost’s site are comedy gold. Except for all those nutbars being no doubt eligible to vote, reproduce, and teach second grade.

  37. topsecretk9 says:

    I just lost it.

    Me too. Even beyond his weird paranoid obsessiveness, it is delicious he’s a traveler too!

  38. Bald Eagle says:

    there are five pillars: …

    2) daily (five times a day) prayer facing Mecca …

    5) the Haji (pilgrimage to Mecca)

    So when the IDF is forced to turn Mecca into a big radioactive glass crater, will that be the end of Islam?

  39. ahem says:

    Probably. They won’t have a pillar to stand on.

  40. So when the IDF is forced to turn Mecca into a big radioactive glass crater, will that be the end of Islam?

    No more than the destruction of the temple was the end of Judaism. Islam would adapt.

    Just look at socialism—repeated failures, and still the faithful Believe.

  41. They won’t have a pillar to stand on.

    – Called “being well pillaried”…

  42. MarkD says:

    Except for all those nutbars being no doubt eligible to vote, reproduce, and teach second grade.

    Would those be the hot second grade teachers who do the lucky guy in their class, or the regular kind?

  43. MayBee says:

    Glenn Greenwald is on the “Townhouse” list

    Oh, it really is too good.

  44. That would be the dumpy earnest ones who bring the Martin to school and sing, ‘Michael, Row Your Boat Ashore’ to their cringing charges. The ones that Icy-Hot in your jock-strap would be preferable to boffing them. You know, that teach English in New York………..

  45. Civilis says:

    – Called “being well pillaried”…

    Okay, so how do we go about getting a fifth column in Islam?

    Sorry… can’t resist a bad pun.

  46. MarkD says:

    Mohican,

    I’m going to have nightmares about diagramming sentences tonight.  In the old green shirt and gold tie.  Parochial school in (gasp) New York. 

    All my English teachers were like that.

    Except possibly the nuns.  Who were probably worse, but who could tell?

  47. MarkD:

    Subject, predicate, verb, verb tense, past participle, modifier, active noun, passive noun……..40 years later, they still echo in my cranium. The horror…..the horror…..

  48. Master Tang says:

    No, guys, the scary thing is that today’s kids aren’t required to diagram sentences, let alone learn the parts of speech.  Some friends of mine teach undergrad English Comp., and the horror stories… it’s not pretty.

  49. wishbone says:

    Kos Manual of Operations:

    Things that should be secret:

    1.  Terrorist phonecalls.

    2.  Google email groups.

    3.  That kickass kungpao chicken recipe from Han’s delivery.

  50. Ric Locke says:

    Don’t ask me how I know (but I’ve never been there) —

    In the Prophet’s Mosque in Makkah, in one of the walls, there’s a black stone. Actually, what there is, is a bunch of shards of black stone held together with silver and gold wire.

    Pre-Yahweh and before Allah, the Gods of the semites lived in stones. Lithotists? Anyway, The Black Stone is one of the most sacred things in Islam. –but the reason it’s in pieces wired together is that various sects kept stealing it, like fratboys with football mascots, and eventually somebody stole it and smashed it with hammers. When the Good Guys got it back, they wired it together… it’s been stolen a few times since then, but now it’s stuck into the wall, hard to carry off, and will probably be there for a long time.

    Nuke Makkah? The Saudis would import more Pakistanis and Bengladeshis, collect the rubble (the Paks and Bangis can get irradiated, who cares), grind it up, and use it for aggregate in the concrete of a new building. Then they’d concentrate for a few years on slitting the throats of people who claimed that since Makkah was in the air everywhere it didn’t matter which way they faced.

    Waste of a perfectly good bomb.

    Regards,

    Ric

  51. Ric Locke says:

    O, BTW—Mohican etc., if I were to explain the subjunctive mood to you, would you understand it?

  52. Waste of a perfectly good bomb.

    True. There are better targets that would do more to reduce the world jihadi count.

  53. Phone Technician in a Time of Roaming says:

    Hey, don’t be disrespecting the hippo. Kills more people every year than lions, and the ancient Egyptians considered it one of the three traditional killers of men, along with crocodiles and lions.

  54. wishbone says:

    Phone Tech:

    I alwasy thought that was crocs, lions, and husbands who come home earlier than expected.

  55. Vercingetorix says:

    I’d quibble with you Ric over your characterization of the Black Stone, and the Karmathians, but why bother…

    Just wanted to add that the Wahhabist attitude against idolatry runs very strong in its birthplace. A few years ago, the Saudis paved over the BIRTHPLACE of the Prophet Mohammed (Bees Pee Upon Him, or something). Nuking Mecca would empower the crazies.

    The world is a crazy place like that.

  56. B Moe says:

    I’m going to have nightmares about diagramming sentences tonight.  In the old green shirt and gold tie.  Parochial school in (gasp) New York.

    I had a hard corps Baptist English teacher in high school who loved diagramming sentences almost as much as she loved Jesus and quoting scripture in class.  She used to punish anyone who questioned said scripture by making them diagram difficult sentences on the blackboard, so I got alot of practice.  In my prime, I could’ve handled JG’s longest with ease.

  57. capt joe says:

    Dan Riehl finds the real goods on Jerome Armstrong and it is hilarious, absolutely f-ing hilarious.

    Warning the links he has will make you spew your morning coffee all over your keyboard.

    Apaprently before he got into politics, Armstrong used myDD as a stock tips weblog and his special technic was using astrology to predict the markets.  Wow.

  58. Phone Technician in a Time of Roaming says:

    Wishbone:

    Nah, when hubby came home unexpectedly wifey was usually making beer. Who had time for adultery?

  59. Phil Smith says:

    if I were to explain the subjunctive mood to you, would you understand it?

    Heh.  It took me about three bounces before I caught that.

  60. JohnAnnArbor says:

    capt. joe:

    Can’s wait to hear Jeff’s take on that one.  Perhaps the armadillo has some astrological insights….

  61. Ric Locke:

    Far be it from me to run from a grammar tussle, but, suffice it to say, it seems that I went to bed.

  62. Major John says:

    gahrie – nice summation of the 5 pillars.  I always instructed my soldiers that they would have to at least be aware of the prayers (made scheduling a bitch) the Hajj (I saw the impact on some hard bitten fighters that made the Hajj – impressive.  Came back quite subdued, less, uh, grasping in their desire to aquire things) – I made sure they knew these folks deserved special respect/recognition in front of others. And everyone knew the effect of Ramadan on the locals – do your stuff early in the day, ‘cause by afternoon, the poor bastards couldn’t do much and were grouchy too.  We even gaveout sheep to some of the nearby villages for Eid (at the end of Ramadan) celebrations (the #$%&* UAE special forces gave out more, damn them rich SOBs).  To this day, I remember to say “Eid mubarak” on the right day.  Hell, it’s only fair – I had several Afghan militiamen wish me “Merry Christmas” in 2004….

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