Michael Kinsley gently praises an article by David Brooks regarding the US Attorney firings, and all hell breaks loose in his comments section. Here’s a good one:
Wow. I live in a country where this Bush-enabling, millionaire-fellating clown is considered “liberal.”
Just… wow.
Police: Pakistan cricket coach murdered
”Genteel sport of cricket . . . dealt a brutal blow”
Man arrested in Minn. dog beheading
Police said the man they arrested lived a few blocks from Crystal and may have had a romantic interest in the girl.
I’m glad they caught this cretin before he took up taxidermy.
The public testimony of former CIA officer Valerie Plame before a House committee last week conflicts with what she told a bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee three years ago, a government source told The Examiner this week.
The difference centers on Plame’s role in a CIA supervisor’s decision in 2002 to send former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, her husband, on a trip to Niger to investigate claims that Saddam Hussein pursued uranium for nuclear bombs.
On the plus side, we get to watch the process of historical revisionism in real time:
Before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee last week, Plame testified under oath that a CIA colleague, whom she did not name, first mentioned her husband as a trip candidate during a discussion at Langley headquarters. She denied recommending her husband, as Republicans have reported in their attempt to show why Bush officials discussed her occupation.
According to a U.S. government source, who spoke to The Examiner this week on condition of anonymity, Plame did not mention this incident when she provided secret testimony to the Senate Intelligence committee in 2004.
“This is a whole new story,†the source told The Examiner.
A 2004 committee report quoted a CIA worker, whom it identified as a “reports officer,†as telling staff that Plame offered up her husband’s name. It also quoted from a memo Plame wrote recommending her husband for the trip.
I did not suggest him, I did not recommend him. I did not have the authority. [taken from memory]
A man charged with raping a woman in 2005 is now accused of killing her by slashing her throat because she had agreed to testify against him.
Natasha Ramen, 20, was attacked Thursday just outside her home in Queens, suffering a “very deep wound, almost from ear to ear,” said police Lt. Salvatore Salerno. “It was very brutal.”
Hemant Megnath, 29, a fellow Guyanese immigrant, was arrested Tuesday on charges of murder and criminal possession of a weapon.
Authorities said he was working for a real estate broker and she met him while apartment hunting. In May 2005, he lured her into his apartment and raped her, according to authorities.
Wonder what his residency status was, and what were the terms of his bail.
Return of Rago: He’s back to being sententious in the WSJ
Conspicuous consumption stays with us today. But increasingly, it seems to me, many consumers are not seeking an outright demonstration of wealth. Instead, they consume to demonstrate their innate goodness. They spend not to suggest the deepness of their pockets but the deepness of their hearts. We inhabit, to update Veblen, an age of conspicuous virtue.
I’m not saying he’s wrong, but . . . dude!
I agree with Krauthammer:
It’s not a question of probity but of competence. Gonzales has allowed a scandal to be created where there was none. That is quite an achievement. He had a two-foot putt and he muffed it.
Couple questions;
Brooks “drives conservatives crazy”?
Politics has a ‘spectrum of meanings’?
Well, I think me noggin’ has come up with
an answer.
“First, let’s kill all the (fucking) lawyers”
Dan,
Valerie Plame is a spy. A super covert spy of the covertiest kind. She lies for a living – DOYEE!!!!
Are you going to begrudge her the use of her only talent?
hater
Hey, I don’t mind so much that she lies; it’s just that she expects me to act like an idiot by pretending to believe it. If you’re going to lie, at least have the decency to do so plausibly.
Because of the hypocrisy?
/I love that.
//In his freezer!
///Oops, wrong website.
Waxman didn’t seem to have a problem with believing her. Of course I sensed the flicker of a romantic spark between Plame and Nostrildamos.
On a side note, has Waxman sued the SpongeBob people for using his image w/o his permission?
I don’t know, but I think Lon Chaney’s estate may have an action against Waxman.
Fuck all that shit, this is a straightforward act of war.
Of course, the lion that went to war over a subaltern’s ear is long gone.
That Lon Chaney look pretty good to me!
Lon Chaney, Jr. as the Wolfman – I learned everything I needed to know about morality and picking up girls from watching this movie on Saturday nights, back when I was 10.
Politics has a ‘spectrum of meanings’?
I thought the Left had a lock(box?) on subtlety and nuance? So why is it every time bona fide nuanced arguments are presented, your side of the isle seems unable to understand them? Yes, Virginia, politics does have multiple meanings. One is the activities of government; everything a politician does on the job is “politics”, the other, the one the public thinks of, and what the left is relying on in a classic example of equivocation, is “partisan politics”, that is, scheming for personal gain, or the gain of the party. What the left is hoping to do is get the Administration is admitting that the firings were because of definition “a” politics, and then claiming that this is admission of acting on definition “b” politics. It’s underhanded, but nothing new.
dwa;
I wonder how many nuances are inherent in the word
‘is’?
And I know you understand the various incarnations of ‘covert’. But I wonder if you know what I mean when I say ‘……kill all the lawyers.’?
Wrong. Answer should be – “I need Lexapro”
I’d just like to state for the record that the disturbed man in St. Paul is not me. Which is to say, I am a disturbed man in St. Paul, but not that disturbed man in St. Paul.
Thank you for your understanding.
semanticleo;
I do know that I could not possibly care less what you mean when you say ‘……kill all the lawyers.’ If that helps.
Question: do you know the difference between “lawyering” in a very sad attempt at dissembling while in full CYA* mode (the former) and “lawyering” in a very important attempt to provide for maximum protection of vital operational abilities while at the same time guarding against abuse for “political gain”
*Cover Your Ass-ed.
Pro-gamer tip: former is the first**, latter is the second***, and last, in a series.
**that’s the “is” reference!
***that’s the “covert” reference!
dwa;
I do notice the salient insertion (almost covertly);
“while at the same time guarding against abuse for “political gainâ€Â
Do you read what you write?
I wonder where Kinsley will go with the reaction to his essay. Here’s a guy who would never be considered anything but a liberal. A principled liberal to be sure, and because of his principles, he feels constrained to point out some problems with the liberal’s reaction to the USA issue. Bad move. Run in the same direction as the mob or get trampled. Swerving a couple of degrees is all it takes.
I did not read the comments to Kinsley’s prose in anything like detail, but it’s sage to say that the overwhelming majority of those people are pre-disposed to assume that letting the 8 USAs go is an open and shut case of corruption. Since any real data at hand indicates it is no such thing, the circular logic that presuming guilt by association to an administration they just plain know is corrupt is their evidence of that administration’s corruption prevails.
Another referee gets pelted by bottles from the peanut gallery for making a call against the home team. And so it goes.
An interesting obserbation is that a lot of the commenter’s handles are recognizable. A couple are recognizable from past appearances on this site.
I see that the good Dr Haggerty is of the opinion that this legislature was elected to the purpose of crippling the administration by issuing subpoenas and we should all get used to it. It’s interesting that this clown believes that the democratic process means that being unable to unseat the administration at the ballot box justifies setting separation of powers aside and the house getting by issuing illegal subpoenas. Can’t win on a level playing field? Steal the other side’s cleats and poison their gatorade for good measure.
Another progressive light who graced this joint with his presence back when is NTodd. He’s favoring Kinsley’s comment section with his usual mixture of insightful vulgarity and thought provoking invitations that those holding dissenting views blow him. I know I’m impressed when I read the times blog and am treated to such well considered political positions.
Sky Sports has reported the EXCLUSIVE that Bob Woolmer, the S. African who managed Pakistan’s losing cricketing side, died when he fell and hit his throat on the toilet whilst vomiting.
Amidst allegations of mafia hits, match fixing, and bloodthirsty Pakistani cricket fans, Sky did mention that these new findings do not necessarily rule out murder. Jamaican police are still treating his death as foul play.
So, to recap: broke his throat on the crapper whilst hurling, and CSI: Jamaica are on it. Possibly while high.
Developing…and not the least bit darkly humourous.
TW question and answer: CBS airs how many different “CSI” programs23
Pfft. If you aren’t typing blindfolded and blidly mashing at the keyboard, not even caring if coherent words come on the screen, you’re not typing the way real men do it.
Question: do you think before you respond? I mean, aside from in what manner would best help you to come across as an undignified dick?
There is a particular, legal definition of “covert” that applies for that statute that says exposing covert agents is illegal. Plame does not fit the definition; therefore, it was not illegal to reveal she worked at the CIA.
If we simply declare that a law’s particular meaning is null and void, that an offense is what some random person wishes it to be, then we’ve arrived at a tyranny.