I really have been jonesing for a good kerfuffle, since most of the good kerfuffling was pushed aside by coverage of the elections, so if you’ve got a hankering, I’ve got two.
The first is about CNN making YouTube pull a segment posted by Avarosis of AMERICAblog in which Bill Maher, on Larry King, “outs” outgoing RNC Chair Ken Mehlman. CNN subsequently whitewashes their transcript of the interview. Hilariously, crooksandliars touts the same story without understanding the background.
The second one is just too rich: Glenn Greenwald gives us Intellectual Dishonesty Personified: Charles Krauthammer.
Now that is some funny shit right there.
From Gleen:
Candidates planning to caucus with the Democrats took 24 of the 33 Senate seats at stake this year, winning seven million more votes than Republicans. In House races, Democrats received about 53 percent of the two-party vote, giving them a margin more than twice as large as the 2.5-percentage-point lead that Mr. Bush claimed as a “mandate†two years ago  and the margin would have been even bigger if many Democrats hadn’t been running unopposed.
However:
The 2004 victory by President George W. Bush with a margin of 3.5 million votes (and by one closely decided state) was a “resounding endorsement” and a glorious triumph that vests the President with a powerful and clear “mandate.” That was a “serious majority.”
The 2006 victory by Democrats with a margin of 7 million votes was a victory by the “thinnest of margins” and was “razor-thin.”
Uh . . . how many Presidential candidates does one vote for, and how many Congresscritters, for one thing, Glenn?
What was GiGi’s opinion of Bill Clinton’s 43% “mandate” in 1992, and his 49% re-election “mandate” in 1996?
When your guy wins, it’s a mandate. When the other guy wins, it isn’t. When two guys go out together, it may be.
Only if one of them is carrying a manbag.
Uh . . . how many Presidential candidates does one vote for, and how many Congresscritters, for one thing, Glenn?
Uh….. how many political parties does one vote for Dan?
Answer: One. Same as in the Presidential election.
Now really, Dan, that wasn’t so hard now was it.
You’re looking for a fluffer?
Th US had Democratic House and a Republican president for 20 of the 24 years between 1969 and 1993. We had a Democratic President and a Republican Congress from 1995-2001. So maybe some voters vote for more than one political party—sometimes in the same election.
I was tempted to end with “Now really, Nick, that wasn’t so hard now was it?” But maybe it is that hard for Nick, and I wouldn’t want to be insensitive.
The exit polls show that for the first time in three elections, the moderates mostly left the Republicans and voted Democratic. Somehow, I doubt that means the moderates are suddenly enamored of liberalism.
The exit polls also show that this was overwhelmingly an election that expressed disapproval with the Republicans over the war. It was an anti-Bush, anti-Iraq vote. The voters don’t want to see more of the same in Iraq.
However, that is not the same as saying voters want us to lose. The liberals want us to lose, but I believe the moderates who made this election possible want to win.
So now I am ready to hear the Democratic plan for victory in Iraq.
No, Nick. One does not vote for one political party in one race, as in the Presidency. One votes for a variety of candidates of a variety of parties. Are you saying that everyone votes straight Republican or Democrat or Independent, or whatever, and only votes on one Congressional candidate, or that that is what the number, 7 million, represented? Wrong. It’s an aggregate of Senatorial and House votes, dumbass. Only you and Greenwald don’t seem to realize the difference.
More “wisdom” from Krauthammer’s article:
Reagan and Clinton, on the other hand, left office popular, which to me is a great failing. They retired rich in political capital. What a waste.
Bush will not waste his.
Hehe.
Reagan was at least popular enough to get his vice president elected to the head office……….
As usual, monky, eschewing the evident for the peripheral. What’s this all about, anyway? If you wish to leave a lasting mark, please offer up a thesis, and I’ll be more than happy to publish it.
We’ve read the monkifesto, so my question is: How many Dems won Tuesday running on a platform of adopting Chinese industrial policy?
What is the real issue, Dan?
Which neocon pundits will still be relevant in the new order?
Doesn’t matter to me, monky. What’s your thesis? What’s our best shot? You don’t have any ideas, do you?
As far as which neocon pundits will be relevant, it doesn’t matter. What matters for the purposes of this thread is how a sockpuppeting fraud gets bent out of shape enough to say that Krauthammer is emblematic of intellecctual dishonesty, but clearly that’s an equation that you cannot grasp.
Oh, and let the record show that I’m all for killing as many Islamofascist Caliphate dreamers as it takes, within a thousand or so, if possible.
Dan, my thesis is that you are jealous, because you do not have a super-important New York Times Best Selling Book on the Bush Administration and its abuses of executive power, or one of the most-read blogs on the Internet after only nine months of blogging, the readership of which includes Senators who read from that blog at Senate hearings, and that your posts do not lead to front-page news stories in major newspapers in this country, by which I mean the US, rather than Brazil.
tw: almost13… Is that legal in Brazil?
Good DAY, Sir!
A-men, Dan. Poor monkyboy hasn’t yet grasped that the situation is that the hectoring fan in the stands, yelling, “You throw like a girl! You call that a pass? Hey, what are you wearing pads for, you ninny? You’re not going to get hit if you keep chasing around behind the line -” whatever all, is now in the game. Got a play yet?
Hmmmm?
I read a quote the other day (I wish I could remember where) that said that the Democrats “for reasons of etiquette if nothing else” (words very close to those, but I’ve recreated the quote) needed to come up with actual ideas about what to do next. For reasons of etiquette?? Some of the voters might tend to believe that the Democrats’ obligation goes a bit beyond good manners…
TW: woman35. Well, not that long ago…
Dan,
I think you guys are finally going to have to get together, form your own private army and catch a plane to the Middle East if you want to continue the slaughter.
Good luck with all that…
As for relevant neocon pundits, I’d say only those who jumped off the bus before it went over the cliff will be taken seriously…
Krauthammer, Hewitt and Co. are the new Tokyo Roses.
What slaughter is that, baboonboy?
Maybe this one?
Despite the simian turd flinger’s efforts, Dan’s point stands – Greenwald the Great’s critique of Krauthammer displays an arithmetic ignorance one would not expect in a fourth grader. Of course, fourth grade probably seems wicked smart to the ape onanist.
I imagine they’ll patch things up once we bail out, Karl.
As for the Republicans…I think the person they fear the most now is my hero, Bunnatine Greenhouse.
Remember this cool name, you’ll be hearing it a lot soon…
http://tinyurl.com/dncyg
If John Lennon was still alive, I’m sure he would be adding that to his list. It would still be delusional, but at least you could whistle to it.
I imagine they’ll patch things up once we bail out, Karl.
– Underwhelming enthusiasm for all those women and children you’re worked so hard tp protect from the evil NeoCons. Who exactly doesn’t give a shit about Iraq monkeypiss?
Hezbollah stopped firing their rockets once the peace treaty was signed, guys.
Iran, afaik, hasn’t attacked anyone since the mullahs took over.
Muslims seem to want peace far more than the neocons do.
I imagine now that Bush’s Texas cronies are starting to envy Ken Lay…the circus is about over.
Except for the three hundred they tossed into Israel during the truce, right, monkyboy, you ass?
Stab out mind’s eye. Stab out mind’s eye. Stab out mind’s eye.
Ahhhhhhhhh.
Ack.
Stab out mind’s eye. Stab out mind’s eye. Stab out mind’s eye.
Damn you.
Muslims want peace? You mean only when you starve Hamas of its wonted international funding, monky?
The circus, as you put it, has only begun. And if the Dem Congress interferes with the war effort, it will cost many more hundreds of thousands of lives in the long run, asshole. They have the power to extend this conflict by a generation, and when its history is written, you will be remembered as “one of the assholes.”
Actually I predict the conservative pundits are gonna have an awful, awful good time over the next two years. There’s gonna be so much material, it’ll be hard to know what to write or talk about first.
It’s gonna be fun watching the psycho-left deal with all those new Blue-Dog Dems as well. That in itself will be a riot.
Mmmph. Most neocon pundits were predicting the election outcome. Does that mean they were on the bus, or off it?
Does achieving an average seat-swap number for a second-term mid-term election mean a major shift in national electoral politics? Yes, by the gods, MB, it does! It does! Keep believing it, MB! I agree with you. We all do! We are so depressed!
What is interesting to me is that the progressive left, as represented by m-bot and actat, eschew Wilsonianism*, which has traditionally been a hallmark foreign policy of the American left.
Yet now, after this type of idealism was actually taken up by a portion of the American right, they abandoned it. It brings to mind the punchline of the old joke: “I know what you are madam, we’re just negotiating on the price.”
*Neocons are Wilsonians. Just to make sure all others are clear on this.
Hehe, SGT.
Perhaps you are too young to remember Watergate.
Every single day, Congressional testimony will be on the news.
Every single day, some underling will be selling out his masters to stay out of jail.
Every single day, some retired general will be outlining exactly what we did wrong in Iraq.
Some things are beyond spin.
To follow up on my last post:
Wilsonianism failed in the early 1920’s, trying to bring democracy and rule of law into Europe. The US wasn’t interested, and the projectdied. Yet, if the US had stayed engaged, would the middle history of the 20th century been the same?
For years after the second world war, the US followed the Kissingerian realist brand of diplomacy, to the wailings of the left who wanted the US to use its power to remove dictators.
This administration, after 9/11 pursued Wilsonianism. If it fails in Iraq, then it will be rejected again, Kissingerianism will be followed, with the brutality that type of foreign policy is known for. Yet the left wants the US to follow that. Why? Could it be that they actually saw their wish being granted, US power actually tied to a noble goal, and reacted in horror at the thought? I believe so, for if the US actually did this, then they would have to stop hating the US; and that comfort-blankie they do not wish to get rid of.
They have a play; the villian is set; and he durst not step out of that role or they would have to start…thinking.
Horrors!
Perhaps you are too young to remember Watergate.
Every single day, Congressional testimony will be on the news.
Every single day, some underling will be selling out his masters to stay out of jail.
Every single day, some retired general will be outlining exactly what we did wrong in Iraq.
Some things are beyond spin.
No they won’t.Still no ideas of your own I see.
Didn’t somebody muslim threaten to blow up the Whitehouse today? And where is OBL anyway. Didn’t Nancy say just the other day that once in power the dems wouldn’t have any trouble catching ol Osama? So what gives, cheeta? Cough up the terrorist, already.
Not somebody muslim, Rusty.
A terrorist.
There’s a difference now…
Greenwald is just sorry there is no conspiracy from this election–Voter intimidation! Machine Malfunction! Disenfranchised!
So now the conspiracy is that the Democratic wins aren’t being praised enthusiastically enough. We expect irrational exuberance and we want it now!
monkyboy:
Except us, and then us, and then us. But then we imperialist earth-rapers deserved it anyway, right? We were wearing a revealing Gross National Product in a bad neighborhood.
…christ…Just because you hate conservatives as much as the Muslim terrorists do, that doesn’t make you their buddy. They’ll kill you as quickly as they will any of the rest of us. All of our futures depend on winning this war!
To get back to a previous point, I would like to know what your reaction was to Ms. Greenhouse’s accusations and her subsequent squelching. How can someone, who from all I have read, be so credible and yet be so cruelly kicked to the curb? The mode of operation is obvious, and sickening. The powers that were are brazen, and it’s about time they were accountable. Why not sooner? Whimpy-ass people in congress, and they’d better grow a spine.
The press was never going to give Bush or the Repubs any slack, no matter who won. This is from the NYT, their editorial the day after the ‘04 elections:
Sooo… Winning the electoral vote by a clear margin, winning the popular vote with the most votes ever won in an American election, winning a popular majority for the first time since 1988, expanding the Republicans’ hold on both houses of Congress for the first time since McKinley–none of that was good enough for libs in our system of democracy to earn the right to be seen as leader. It needed some certain je ne sais quois to get progressives to assent to lose the BUSHITLER!!!! signs.
Well yeah. They hate him. That’s all there is to it. I thought they were pretty clear about that.
Why, yes, as a matter of fact some of us do. And your point?
Plus, please prove your stats. Thanks.
Monkyboy, really thinks Cheney, Bush, et al; really care about the blizzard of toilet paper
the Democratic committees will be issuing. Unlike
in Vietnam, we will still have tangible
indications of a war footing; and the need for
action on that front. Seeing Ayub al Masri’s comments as a follow up; I see bombing in major
European capitals, army installations, et al;
conducted by AQ in Iraq, Taliban elements, HB,
et al. Probably they’ll for Ab Quaiq, or other
major facilities in Saudi, Kuwait, Kazakhstan,
(another reason why S.B. Cohen’s Borat jokes
fall flat) They’ll probably be strikes against
US cities (does Harry and Nancy, really think
Frisco and Reno/Las Vegas will be spared) If
the crusade against wireless intercepts against
Al Queda principals and agents were to continue;
can you believe they really want to go on this
tack, as an exploratory gesture; it must be the
result of relying on Jonathan Turley as the con
law braintrust; or possibly Glenn Greenwald.
I’m more of a brouhaha fan, myself.
Which stats, these stats?
You can look all of them up, you know. In 2004 George W. Bush did in fact receive more popular votes than any candidate in any presidential election previously. Granted, there were more people in the U.S. in 2004 than previously, but the stat is a simple matter of numbers. You can find the popular vote totals online for every presidential election in which popular vote totals were recorded, and the stat will stand.
As for the first popular vote majority since 1988: Clinton in 1992 received only 43% of the popular vote. In 1996 he received only 49% of the popular vote. Neither Bush nor Gore received a majority of all votes cast in 2000. In 2004, Bush received a majority. You can look it up. I didn’t have to, because I was around at the time and I remember these things.
I can’t vouch offhand for the McKinley/Congress thing, but how’s about you go out onto the innertubes and disprove it if you can?
Sorry, that first quote from cynn was supposed to be
I imagine that was obvious from context, but one never knows who can and who cannot grasp context these days.
Peein’ in the wind, McGeehee. cynn doesn’t like those facts. They aren’t compassionate enough. Therefore they don’t exist; cynn will be back contradicting anyone who brings them up again in future. The pronouncements of the Left are Natural Law, and mere fiddlin’ facts don’t mean much. Like monkyboy. Saddam and the Ba’athists gassed some tens of thousands of Kurds, massacred Marsh Arabs more or less freely, chopped hands and heads and other body parts off of people who disagreed with them, and tossed live babies into ditches before suffocating them in the bodies of their parents… but there was no killing in Iraq until the U.S. showed up.
I was pretty depressed for a couple days, but I was on a trip meeting and greeting folks I like a lot but don’t see but twice a year, and now I’m starting to chortle. Is there anybody who has a real archive of political speeches from 1974-76? As the Democrats start bloviating about “peace with honor”, I’d really like to identify the Nixon speeches they’re quoting.
You can’t make this shit up. Do you suppose somebody ought to tell Kakistocrat what the word means?
And it’s fun to watch the Old Lefties crawl out of the woodwork. There’ve been winners and losers at every Presidential election, but as far as I can recall George McGovern is the only Presidential candidate to be flat repudiated in the last century or so. Now who’s jumped up to give advice? I’d recommend we do the same thing, but I think Spiro died a while ago.
Gonna be fun. Spare a thought for the poor Iraqis, who are headed for a new Saddam as soon as Nancy can identify one who’s properly obsequious, but purely locally there’ll be plenty to jeer at.
Regards,
Ric
I think Bush, Cheney and Rummy have already lined up the next Saddam for the Iraqis, Ric.
Muqtada al-Sadr.
Dan, I would like to nominate this for inclusion in the monkyfesto.
Sounds like that monkey creature is a charter member of “Verbose Old Liberals Vexed and Outraged”
AKA VOLVO.
[/thieving from Berkely Breathed]
Ah, Yes! The must-have accessory for the modern leftoid rant: the pungent whiff of antisemitism.
Ven dee democrats seize pow-wuh, vee vill haff ein new ord-duh!
I can see monkeyboy getting a tiny stiffy as he polishes his jackboots. Power is an aphrodesiac, you know.
“Iran, afaik, hasn’t attacked anyone since the mullahs took over.”
What kind of uninformed statement is this? Is your rage so blind?
Iran financed and help planned the bombings and murders in Argentina. They finally issued warrants for Iranian agents. Did you not get the news?
Syria, and Hezbollah are financed and operated by Iran. Hezbollah and Iran are responsible for killing 240 of our American soldiers on a peace mission in Beirut. The list goes on and on. They’ve been financing war against Israel and the killing of innocents.
If this is what represents the left today. I want no part of it. This is sickening. Iran murders and tortures their own people daily. 15 year old girls that were raped are blamed and then hung because the men have all the rights under Sharia Law.
Why don’t you ask the French Police about the Muslims. 2,500 of them wounded this year! What planet do you live on? Planet Smokem and Dopem? Kerry and Puff the Magic Dragon do it for ya?
Geezzzz… I’m sick of this crap spewing forth from ignorant people.
We’re at war. The sons and daughters of this country volunteered and reenlisted at record rates to go back to Iraq. Iraqis are fighting every day to try and create a new country not run by tryants and to keep the new freedom we’ve given them. War is brutal and ugly. But our soldiers are doing everything they can to help these people.
You are sick, twisted and blind if you do not see this.
Why don’t you check out MNF? They show what CutNruN does not show you. They show that our troops are capturing terrorist and killing the murderous thugs every single day. And when they’re not battling these vicious fanatics, they’re building hospitals, giving healthcare to children who never had it, providing water and electricity, and a thousand other acts of goodness. Iraqis are pulling together and working just as hard to kill the unwanted terrorist in their lands.
Yes, there are problems. But this is war. There are problems in Afghanistan too. Unlike Germany and Japan, we do not bomb all the innocents along with the enemy soldiers. This means it takes longer to win. Its not some 3hr movie where Rambo saves the day.
You do not just put down Bush, or Republicans. But you insult our troops who volunteer and who have reenlisted and have stated over and over, the people of Iraq deserve to be free.
This is sickening. If this is what the Democrats bring to the table. Its lunacy. It is hard not to get upset seeing bilge spewed forth by someone likek this. I can only imagine you would stand by Code Pink and taunt the wounded.
Contemporary liberals hate the military, Michael. McGovern hated the military. John Kerry hated and still hates the military. It’s one-half of the reason LibDems want us to lose in Iraq first, and then the WOT. If one has to have a military, one should not exist.
Ric Locke asked regarding “peace with honor”:
Which word? Peace or honor?
Well, let’s be done with it. Let’s just blast a dysduntional civilzation out of existance and replace it with a puppet,
And Ric Locke, I am perpetually depressed these days. It won’t go away i feel like I am confronting something huge and unassailable. There is also that low-level maiaise I have always felt. God help me, I must be a COMMUNIST!