I thought I’d do some digging (even though Glenn Greenwald tells me it’s wrong) to find out what the liberal blogs were saying about Barney Frank’s joke on Bill Maher’s show that the bomb that blew up during Cheney’s visit was wasted (although it killed about 20 people outside the base where the Vice-President was visiting and drew attention to the terrible conditions prevailing in that country since ChimpyMcHalliburtonSorosCon diverted troops to Iraq). I was delighted to find (on Technorati) that . . . uh . . . well . . . honestly I can’t find any leftie blogs that denounced it. C’mon, though. It’s not as though Bawney Fwank weawwy wepwesents anyone.
UPDATE: Tommy Marx at Confessions of an Amateur Queer dumps on Maher (hatred is hatred, no matter from what corner); Michael Linn Jones says Maher was way out of bounds at Gun Toting Liberal; Donklephant says it’s ridiculous and some of his commenters disagree.
Well, I guess this is as good a chance as any to weigh in about the Republican presidential candidates.
First off, since all national politics these days are really drag queen beauty contests, I admire the fact that Rudy Giuliani is aware enough of the fact to embrace it. Having said that, I don’t know enough about his fiscal policies to know whether I’d care for him. For a New Yorker, I think, he’s got enough of the common touch to appeal to Flyoverville. I want him to show me what his principles are, though.
Romney I admire for his business acumen. What he did with medicine in Massachusetts will take a lot of overcoming to make him a serious candidate in my estimation. A great deal was made about the young man who died of a toothache in the media here; a great deal less has been made about the NHS’s investigation into birthgiving deaths in the UK. Every trouble brings more regulation and another level of stupidity into the picture. Doctors, like scientists, ought to have more say in how resources are distributed. Of course, many university professors who scream about interference from legislatures feel otherwise. Medicine, in my opinion, ought to be re-elevated to a profession, and not some kind of social services morass.
Newt thinks clearly, but he’s a lousy politician in certain ways. His divorce and remarriage would be a much bigger issue than Rudy’s two because of his prior moralizing. In a way, it’s the converse of Hillary’s marriage baggage.
McCain? “Renegade” is not a strategy.
Got a link to the transcript, Dan?
I think you’re mischaracterizing what Frank said.
Here it is.
Maher: What about the people who got onto the Huffington Post – and these weren’t even the bloggers, these were just the comments section – who said they, they expressed regret that the attack on Dick Cheney failed.
Joe Scarborough: Right.
Maher: Now…
John Ridley: More than regret.
Maher: Well, what did they say?
Ridley: They said “We wish he would die.†I mean, it was (?) hate language.
Barney Frank: They said the bomb was wasted. (laughter and applause)
Maher: That’s a funny joke. But, seriously, if this isn’t China, shouldn’t you be able to say that? Why did Arianna Huffington, my girlfriend, I love her, but why did she take that off right away?
From that you get Barney Frank was saying the bomb was wasted?
Oh, c’mon, alphie! He didn’t denounce it! The audience applauded!
Bill Maher represents everything that’s wrong with political discourse in this country. And there are millions of hard-core proggs who agree with him about everything. He’s not an aberration. And then there’s Barney Frank making fun of this. Everyone who blogs liberally who watched that show should denounce it.
I would say Maher represents everything that Jeff is for.
He’s not worried about using words and ideas the right can (and does) twist into something else.
Dick Cheney is repsonsible for a lot of deaths.
Spin that how you want, but that’s what maher and a lot of people believe.
And you know what, alphie? I might even have chuckled about that if it weren’t for the 20 dead Afghanis. But what the fuck, right? We’re so much more sensitive to actual human life.
Bite me.
Why is monkyboy still here? Anyone?
Because equivocation and intellectual unseriousness is not a crime, at least not one of overt malice.
Er… are… not crimes.
AS A REPUBLICAN I AM NOT AFRAID OF SAYING FAGGOT, NIGGER, OR SENTENCES WHERE SUBJECT/VERB QUANTITIES DISAGREE!
Friggen godbags.
No, that old guy survived.
Well, whaddya know?
http://northshorejournal.org/index.php/terrorist-death-watch/!!!
I stand corrected.
(let’s try that again…)
Whaddya know? You’re right!!!
Well, Dan, I guess this just highlights the rather schizophrenic nature of PW these days.
Jeff writes a rather thoughtful post saying that nobody on the right should feel obligated to distance themselves from Coulter’s remarks.
You take the moral equivelence route, grab something Barney Frank said out of context and ask where all the outrage is on the left.
It’s hard to keep up, but it looks to me that by attacking Maher and Frank for what they said, you’re doing exactly the opposite of what Jeff has counseled.
First, I’m mocking the whole idea. I signal that by closing reproducing the language/argument of the post(s) in question.
Second, I’m making fun of you, alphie, for your comment about what every blogger at CPAC should have done, because I knew you wouldn’t be able to refrain from commenting.
Third, I really do think that it’s a bit appalling that these guys would have joked about it, given the actual deaths. I might have thought that, and I might have been amused in a formulaic way, but I would certainly never have said what they said in mixed company, much less on television, unless possibly I were very, very drunk.
closing=closely
So alphie is just WILLFULLY obtuse now…
now?
Does obtuse mean ignorant, confused and irrational?
The gentleman will subside his digging! *furious banging of gavel, accompanied by spluttering and frothing*
I’m repudiating all of you in advance, just to be on the safe side.
So wait…is this guestblogging thing going long term?! Cause I have some posts that’d just made you all crazy with hate…
Oops. I’d better repudiate myself, too.
Look, it’s Bawney…
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kateannenyc/371454689/
Don’t blame alphie… He wasn’t around (as far as we know) for the post and bazillion comments wherein everyone preemptively denounced everything at the outraged demand of (I can’t help it – got to use Jeff’s formulation) Glenn Greenwald(s). That was so much fun… Of course, I denounce it now.
That’s the problem. Beliefs can be held absent any supporting facts.
If you’re going to continue the argument that Maher et al. have a religious/mystical basis for believing what they believe, then fine.
If Maher and Co. are simply making their arguments based on body counts, then they’re semi-retarded.
No offense to the actually, clinically retarded.
or semis, for that matter.
I like trucks.
Speak for yourself, alfi
Tell me this, alfi. Did you find the remark amusing? Clever?
Not that it matters, furriskey. The Action Chimpâ„¢ is more interested in poking his stick outside of the cage to see if any of the jailers will poke back. The end result is this endless grasping for relevancy through the intellectually dishonest approach of attempting to compare the Gala Apple with the Florida Orange to create an obviously false moral conundrum.
But, hey, he is The Action Chimpâ„¢ so it’s the adrenlin rush of ‘thug sputtering that he craves.
That and peanut brittle … eaten safely behind The Mile High Dirt Bermsâ„¢ that protect him from all things terror …
Like I say, guys, somewhere a programmer is laughing his ass off at the number of people who keep falling for his Artificial Stupidity System. A.L.P.H.I.E. (Artificial Leftist Posting Hilariously Irrelevant Expectorations) shouldn’t be able to fool so many people.
Semi-OT: Does anybody but me get the sense that the epidemic of BDS appears to have peaked? I don’t have anything like statistics, just a feeling that the attacks don’t seem quite as severe since the death of Molly Ivins. Index case?
Regards,
Ric
I didn’t know the excreable Molly kicked the bucket. Is this good or bad?
Ivins died Jan. 31st.
In retrospect it makes sense to consider her the index, or carrier. She was a great proponent of Ann Richards, and when Bush challenged she responded with the “Shrub” derogation and, later, originated the “AWOL from the Reserves” calumny. She also had easily enough friends, allies, sympathizers etc. to spread the infection and continually reinfect if the reservoir got low.
It really is too bad. At one time Molly was an acute observer who was willing to skewer both sides with relative equanimity, and funny as Hell doing it. It’s as well she’s no longer with us. If you had a time machine, Molly at 60 would be an acute embarrassment to Molly at 35.
Regards,
Ric
Ric, I’ve noticed it too. Obviously, it could be just coincidental with Molly Ivins’ death, but then again, maybe not. IMO, the left has a little power now and thinks that it can damage the President even more through that power, real or imagined, so maybe it is letting off the pedal of full bore BDS just a little.
LOL at the A.L.P.H.I.E. Good stuff and about as believable as any other theory for *lph**’s existence.
RFN, I don’t think the “little bit of power” explanation holds water. The confused, or slightly stunned, expression on Nancy Pelosi’s face these days derives from the Awful Revelation that “dissatisfaction with the war” is not necessarily the same thing as “surrender, run like Hell, and throw Bush to the wolves to delay pursuit”. The “kill ‘em all and let God sort it out” contingent is comparable in size, and may be larger. And from what I hear via the grapevine, John Murtha heard from the VFW and veterans’ drinking clubs of Johnstown that he’s well regarded as a pork-delivering machine of awesome power, less so as a strategic theorist. In general, the Democrats’ new power hasn’t worked out nearly as well for them as, e.g., Moulitsas hoped.
IIRC Molly Ivins’s stroke more or less coincided with the rise of George Bush in Texas politics. Gonna be ironic, isn’t it, if the ultimate defeat of the United States and its relegation to second-rate status more or less directly flows from the damaged brain of a single “activist” in Austin.
Regards,
Ric
I think of it more like Wile E. Coyote’s consternation after he finally caught the Road Runner: “Now what do I do?”
Occam’ Razor indicates that it’s the botox.
As you dance merrily on Ivins’ grave, I think you give her too much credit. Neither she nor Murtha are universally embraced by liberals as wizened old sages. Truly, does any sensible person honestly expect the congressional Democrats to just yank the brake and bring the war train to a sudden halt? I know I sure don’t. I’d be surprised if they managed to do much at all about the war, except complicate matters.
That’s kind of the point. Sensible people didn’t vote for these clowns.
Welcome to the slippery slope of “hate speech”, folks.
My take? People can whatever the fuck they want, as far as I’m concerned. If I take serious personal offense, expect a broken nose. Fair warning.
Other than that: Talk is cheap, and so is Bill Maher.
I appreciate your link to my blog, but I wanted to mention that I just finished responding to Maher’s “clarification” of his intentions. With all due respect, I think Maher strongly implied that Cheney’s death would be a good thing, and I think that’s something that should be strongly denounced regardless of where you fall on the political spectrum.
Wishing people dead because they don’t share the same beliefs as you do disgusts me. If we start applauding that view, how does that make us any different from the ones who killed so many innocent people September 11th?
Couldn’t agree with you more, Tommy, and I linked to your site because I thought your post so much more sensible than most of what’s been written on either side–and well written, too. What I appreciate most about it is that it was spontaneous. Nobody demanded that you make a statement; it was decency and fairness that compelled you.