Oh Lordy.

What...the...?

Did Hugh Hewitt used to work for the Stasi?

Related thoughts here.

Rudy going down?

So many scandals, so little time.

Noted without comment.

Sullivan:

I think you have to be a GOP tool to think Romney did well.

Hew Hughitt:

"Rudy swung hard and didn't phase Mitt. Huckabee played the victim card and Mitt refused to let him do so. Mitt wins both rounds. And the debate. And, I think, the nomination."

GOP Debate.

Republicans debate, wingnuts whine.

Do you like me? Do you really really like me? Are you SURE you like me???!?!

Every day, Putz sounds more and more like a clingy pathetic insecure college girlfriend.

John Ashcroft hearts waterboarding.

Post on Mr. Eagle Soaring's odd definition of torture's up at FDL.

Clinton: I did not have war with that Iraq.

My post on Bill Clinton's sudden revisionism on Iraq is here.

Atlas blows.

Her top, that is:

Bush has lost his mind and his moral compass. This statement is an outrage. A lie and a blood libel. Israel has never committed any acts of terrorism. What a tool of Islamic jihad. Based on that, Bush is a terrorist, anyone that defends himself, his family, his country is a terrorist.
This is a sad sad day.

You can see why Bush has totally avoided doing anything productive at all in the Middle East since he became Preznit. Had he attempted this in '03, he would've been run out of town by the Likud segment of his base.

Frank Gaffney: Condi Rice is "raping" Israel.

It doesn't get any better than this:

It is fitting Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice chose the U.S. Naval Academy for the venue of today's so-called Mideast peace conference. The reputation of that extraordinary institution in Annapolis has been sullied in recent years by a succession of rapes of young women.

Nice. All we need now is a Chamberlain/Nazi reference.

Despite official efforts to low-ball its significance, Miss Rice's conclave is shaping up to be a gang-rape of a nation on a scale not seen since Munich in 1938, when the British and French allowed Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini to have their violent way with Czechoslovakia.

Bingo!

The wingnuts will never get tired of the Hitler Hitler Hitler Chamberlain Chamberlain Chamberlain song, will they?

Romney and Dennis.

I've got a couple posts over at FDL -- one about Dennis Prager's batty column today and the other about Willard hating on the Muslims.

And McCain recants.

Or does he?

I can't keep up.

Glenn Reynolds on credibility.

It's always smirk inducing to see Mr. We've Always Been Winning questioning other people's credibility.

St. McCain's end zone dance.

My post this morning on John McCain is at FDL.

Pajamas Putziness.

Foreign affairs expert Michael "The Ayatollah Is Dead!" Ledeen on Howard's thumping down under:

This election reminds me of the day (or was it the night?) when the British Tories overthrew Margaret Thatcher in favor of David Major.

Zzzzzt. That would be John Major, Michael. But thanks for playing.

Indeed.

Heh.

I would only add that Putz already thinks Klein is on the other side, since he's a member of the media. Ipso facto.

Glenn Reynolds and Jeff Goldstein Dan Collins can't read.

Putz links to this Collins post containing this from the NY Post: (updated)

Nearly two-thirds of Americans believe the federal government had warnings about 9/11 but decided to ignore them, a national survey found.

Added Goldstein,

Those Creationists, though . . . they’re WAY out there.

Um, did Goldstein and Putz forget the August PDB? There is no debate that the Bush Administration ignored many warnings. The key phrase here is "decided to" and what that exactly means.

Bush clearly decided to ignore the PDB, because no significant action was taken after August 6, 2001. That in itself doesn't constitute a "conspiracy" -- that he knew what was coming and wanted it to happen -- it indicates incompetence.

How this is a defense of biblical literalists is anyone's guess.

UPDATE

Someone in comments baited Collins into this unbelievable rant, which is so perfectly indicative of how batshit crazy the wingnuts are:

People believe that the anthropogenic component of global warming is grossly overstated, that the data has been manipulated and misinterpreted to serve ideological ends and for the simple pleasure of self-flattery, that Valerie Wilson wasn’t undercover in any serious sense of the word, that John Kerry has a talent for shooting himself in the ass and that you can’t explain why certain fundamentalist Islamist terrorists had been given sanctuary in Iraq.

You see--global warming isn't being caused by humans. That's a phony lefty conspiracy. And Valerie Wilson wasn't undercover, despite what the current head of the CIA says. And John Kerry shot himself. And Saddam had ties to 9/11.

They really are nuts.

Yowza.

Fucknut Foxtrot sez:

So, I guess it is no wonder that the left loves guys like Stalin, Pol Pot, Castro, and any other commie dictator. Based on the number of people they have killed, they are enviro-heroes!

Hmm. Otay. I think we can all agree this was inevitable, eh?

(Check you later, BT.)

Thanksgiving hangover.

Coming in the form of a bad cold. Not much bloggy today.

I am posting at FDL, but will continue to monitor Putzy and the PJers and whoever else strikes my fancy, here.

TS is on vacay near the equator, the bastage.

Yeah, The Atlantic Blows.

But remember: it could be even worse. If not for a mysterious, unspecified "falling out" with management, Mark Steyn would still be on the payroll!

This is Michael Kelly's legacy.

What? No "Heh"?

Yesterday, Putz was so happy with Damien Cave's story on Baghdad that he airily declared that the paper owed David Petraeus an apology.

Today, he writes:

SOME CONTEXT ON THE SURGE, from Damien Cave.

You'll notice he's a tad less sanguine, which suggests he actually read the Q&A in question. Here's what Cave says, since Putz doesn't seem like excerpting:

-- The current period of peace is "the calm before the storm."

-- "Nothing tangible" has come of reconciliation talks between the Sunnis and Kurds.

-- "American commanders have said that they are aggressively negotiating with Sadr officials to help keep his militia, the Mahdi Army, in check. But if the cease-fire ends, if Mr. Sadr’s whims shift, that could push violence up again — no matter how many troops are here."

-- "Among many Iraqis, especially Shiites, there is still a lot of frustration with the American presence — which feels to them like an occupation."

As a wise man once put it (albeit crudely and with a disturbing lack of civility), "Let's not start sucking each other's dicks quite yet."

A.O. Scott's Subconscious Debt to John Updike.

A.O. Scott, 2000:

Each of John Updike's four Rabbit novels concludes with a one-word sentence, a condensed, almost ideogrammatic summation of the moral state of the hero, his nation and, perhaps, his creator. The first book, ''Rabbit, Run,'' published in 1960, left Harry Angstrom, the former high school basketball star, in flight and in flux: it ends with the breathless, subjectless verb ''Runs.'' A decade later, ''Rabbit Redux'' faded out with an anxious question -- O.K.?'' -- as though both author and character were seeking reassurance after the marital and social upheavals of the 60's. By the end of the 70's, with the Reagan presidency on the horizon and his father-in-law's Toyota dealership thriving, Harry Angstrom could settle, with satisfied amazement, into the comfort and complacency of worldly success: the last word in ''Rabbit Is Rich'' is ''His.'' Finally, 10 years ago, as his maker pushed poor Rabbit, too young at 56, toward his final rest, the two men let go of each other with a sigh of resignation, regret and perhaps a measure of relief: ''Enough.''

2003 (last graf, Masked & Anonymous review):

And ''Masked & Anonymous'' works best as a meditation on, and a tribute to, his mysterious, implacable self. When he sings, he is in very good voice, and the band behind him is fiery and tight. The soundtrack is filled out by covers of some of his best-known songs, in languages from Japanese to Italian to Turkish, and the movie includes part of an a cappella ''Times They Are A-Changin' '' sung by a wide-eyed young girl. At the end, Mr. Dylan -- I mean Jack Fate -- sits on a bus, musing on what things do and don't mean, and listens to himself sing ''Blowin' in the Wind,'' which is where the answer, my friend, still is.

Today (last graf, I'm Not There review):

“Live in your own time.” That’s the advice young “Woody Guthrie” hears from a motherly woman who offers him a hot meal and a place to sleep. It’s sensible advice — he’s daydreaming of the Depression in the middle of the space age — but also useless. It’s not as if anyone has a choice. To slog through the present requires no particular wit, vision or art. But a certain kind of artist will comb through the old stuff that’s lying around — the tall tales and questionable memories, the yellowing photographs and scratched records — looking for glimpses of a possible future. Though there’s a lot of Bob Dylan’s music in “I’m Not There,” Mr. Haynes is not simply compiling golden oldies. You hear familiar songs, but what you see is the imagination unleashed — the chimes of freedom flashing.

I'm no Donald Foster, but I do think it's interesting that Scott ended his last two reviews of Dylan-themed movies with lyrical references. A subconscious nod to Updike's Rabbit habit? I'd like to think so.

QOTD.

Ahmad Chalabi to Hugh Hewitt:

HH: Dr. Chalabi, do you expect to be prime minister of Iraq someday?

AC: I hope not.

HH: (laughing) Why not?

AC: Well, because it is a thankless task.

Dear Phyllis Chesler...

...this post, while deliciously nutty, is, I regret to inform you, unnecessary.

Pajamas already has a crazy lady foaming at the mouth every day about the America-and-Israel-hating UN.

See Rosett, Claudia.

Glenn Reynolds offers helpful advice to Democrats.

Putz's helpful concern troll of the day:

Democrats in Congress failed once again Friday to shift President Bush’s war strategy in Iraq, but insisted that they would not let up. Their explanation for their latest foiled effort seemed to boil down to a simple question: “What else are we supposed to do?”

How about admit things are going much better, and try to help?

Which begs the question, when have the Democrats not given Bush everything he's wanted? Call me crazy, but that hasn't worked out too well, has it? And I suppose the American people's desire to end the war quickly means absolutely nothing. We should all just shut up and go along and try and help Bush.

Asshat.

Pajamas Putziness.

Claudia Rosett: Despite what the UN says, global warming, just like AIDS in Africa, really ain't no thang.

Er, No.

Sissy Willis on Bedwetter Media's Fred Thompson interview:

Wicked impressive. The MSM can eat their hearts out.

Isn't that adorably earnest? Ms. Willis actually believes that the AP, NYT et al should be concerned about Tom and Jerry's softball-fest. Because "Senator, does that soothing baritone come naturally, or is it the result of throat exercises?" is terribly penetrating.

...The point being, blog triumphalism, at this late date -- talk of Big Media and Little Media, etc. -- is stupid. The liberal blogs have some legit scalps -- Social Security reform, for one -- but the conservative blogs have accomplished nothing. If there's anything beyond the Dan Rather departure and the Frost SCHIP stalkathon, I'm not aware of it.

Kill Me Now.

Michael Massing:

[Kenneth] Pollack did acknowledge that he had been wrong on one key issue—WMD. And, he said, it was fair to take that into account when evaluating his current writings. But, he observed, “I don’t think you should make a judgment about my work based on any [one] particular thing I’ve done. I would argue that if you went back and looked over my grand record on Iraq going back to the 1980s, I’ve actually got a very good track record.”

But other than that, Mrs. Lincoln...

[via J-Ro]

Yuck.

First line of Robin Sidel's C1 Journal story:

Citigroup Inc. had a Prince, but now it needs a king.

Have you no shame?

I Get E-mail.

Dear ---,

As a New Republic subscriber, you've relished coverage that penetrated the inner sanctum of politicians...intellectuals...media mavens...and statesmen. You've feasted on opinions that challenge orthodoxy and redefine major issues of the day.

Now you have just a few issues left...can you really afford to be uninformed about the key issues of the day?

Don't let your subscription expire! Keep The New Republic coming, replete with exposes, eye-opening insights and maverick ideas.

Continue to indulge your intellectual curiosity with the publication that's independent, feisty, and free-thinking. Sign up for another year of The New Republic. Renewing is quick, easy and savings are guaranteed. Simply CLICK HERE to avoid a break in service.

Sincerely,

Martin Peretz
Editor-in-Chief

Ha. Like Peretz has ever written something this cogent.

Obama makes a move?

He takes the lead in Iowa.

It's important to note, however, that he's led there several times, and this latest uptick could just be part of the back-and-forth.

Highbrow Bleg.

Was rooting around The Paris Review site I clicked over to the masthead:















Emeritus means 'retired,' yes? Mssr. Styron is, sad to say, dead and gone.

If I'm wrong, and this usage is acceptable, let me know.

I Do Not Think 'Low Profile' Means What Eli Thinks It Means.

Eli Lake:

Since resigning from the Bush administration following the Democratic takeover of the House and Senate in November 2006, Mr. Rumsfeld has kept a low profile.

Sure, Eli. Nothing says 'under the radar' like a profile in GQ.

...In a related note, I'm sorry I missed this. Pat Sajak!

Just Asking!

Why hasn't The Journal or Andrew Ross Sorkin floated at least a rumour that Berkshire Hathaway is in talks to buy Citigroup?

It's possible, right?

This Hurts Me More Than It Hurts You.

Joe Klein has written something worth reading.

The structural defect of oral history is that it is easy, given a life like Hunter’s, to lose track of the reason he was special in the first place: the inimitable, hilarious whoosh of words, the cascading skeins of hyperbolic invective that came so close to replicating the disoriented epiphanies of a drug trip. The authors occasionally lay in samples of Hunter’s writing, but not really his best stuff — although the rejection letter he donated to Rolling Stone to handle the hordes of would-be imitators does sing. “You worthless, acid-sucking piece of illiterate” you-know-what, it began. “Don’t ever send this kind of brain-damaged swill in here again.”

On vacay in Austin.

Blogging will be sporadic from me with the holiday. But the Brooklyn office will be open for business.

...TS ADDS: Well, yes, but not for long. Shortly after Thanksgiving, I'll be headed to an undisclosed location near the equator. I'll be there for a solid week, during which time Dan Collins could have a three-way with Mickey Kaus and a herd of goats and I won't give a damn.

Glenn Reynolds, Rudy, and gun control.

When Rudy called the NRA "extremists," this is exactly the kind of wingnut he had in mind.

GUNS DON'T KILL PEOPLE: Gun control kills people.

Rudy:

To purchase a gun in the State of New York you have to give your full name, your date of birth, your residence, your occupation. You have to prove that you're a United States citizen, you have to show you are of good character, competency and integrity. And you have to demonstrate a real need for the weapon.

And thanks in part to our stricter gun control laws, crime is down dramatically in New York City. Shootings are down over 50 percent. Murder is down over 50 percent. But the fact is that 90 percent of the guns we take out of the hands of criminals in New York City come from out of the State of New York.

We need a federal law that bans all assault weapons, and if in fact you do need a handgun you should be subjected to at least the same restrictions -- and really stronger ones -- that exist for driving an automobile.

The United States Congress needs to pass uniform licensing for everyone carrying a gun. Congress must do more to prevent a tragedy like the one that happened at the Empire State Building from ever happening again.

Greatest Comment Ever.

From the Ron Silver post:

Were you and Dennis Miller separated at birth?

This is the first and last time anyone will ask this question without derision.

Yep. (Update)

"Dan Collins, fill-in insufferable twat at Protein Deficiency, has taken loathsome douchebaggery in the blog world to a whole new level," writes Kevin K.

Is true! Is true! When you read shit like this, the Graeme Frost business makes a hell of a lot more sense.

...Mr. Goldstein, to his credit, realizes that Collins' wankery is bad for business.

Ron Silver, Not Dead.

But still flamingly stupid!

Since speaking in support of George Bush at the 2004 Republican convention I’ve become increasingly disadmired by members of my profession as well as many others.

Disadmire is not, as much as Silver might want it to be, a word. How about resoundingly mocked?

The War Continues.

The War on Fucking^TM, that is. Generals Parker and Karrs command the coochie cobweb brigade from the front lines of I'mGoingOutForCigarettes and I'llCallYouTomorrowISwear.

Good luck, ladies!

IN THE MAIL: Best Lesbian Erotica 2007. I'll have my review up shortly, after I get back from the, er, bathroom. Heh. Indeed.

Tim F. is a My Co-Pilot.

Wow.

If we’re allowed to stipulate ridiculous assumptions then pretty much anything can be justified. I can imagine any number of hypotheticals where Patterico having sex with ten men, and believably faking his orgasms, unquestionably outweighs the horrendous, guaranteed-if-he-doesn’t alternative. Krakatoa. The Armenian genocide. Pearl Harbor. This isn’t meaningful debate. It’s a cynical word game by a formerly decent guy trying to square his residual conscience with the deep dark hole down which he has followed his party.

I quibble with the "formerly decent guy" bit, but other than that...bravo, sir, bravo.

Why Doesn't This Surprise Me?

AA:

After the break, the candidates are sitting now, and the questions come from the audience.... I'm not going to summarize all the talk about policy. I found this part pretty dull...

Coming from a gal who prefers blogs to novels because, she once wrote, novels have "foolish notions, tedious observations, phony depictions of human nature, and awful writing," I guess it's to be expected.

Prototype.

...Price: $9.11.

Everyone's coming to Austin.

I'm pretty sure Knoxville wasn't in the running. Even Atrios is coming.

Feel free to hit me up for Austin tips via e-mail.

I think TS and I should have t-shirts made.

Post #2,201

I just got off the phone with Andy's, a Chinese place on Montague. After a year of enjoying their delicacies, I noticed that when they say goodbye, I -- without exception -- answer with a Chinese intonation: "Byebye."

Is this racist?

Boehner's on the Rag.

He really should be institutionalized. I mean, I could give two fucks about the Republican party, and I'm still embarrassed.

Just for Scuz

My Congressman can beat up your Congressman.

Go Lloyd! (h/t GG)

Mormons for Wallace.

Re: that piece about Willard in the NY Times today, this was nice:

Mr. Romney switched to Brigham Young from Stanford to be near his high school girlfriend, now wife, Ann. But the move also continued his isolation from the upheaval of the era. Brigham Young was one of the few places where students had demonstrated in support of the war in the mid-1960s. When Mr. Romney attended, the university president enlisted students to spy on supposedly liberal professors, and the handful of students who displayed peace signs in their windows were told to remove them. Although liberal groups were banned, a chapter of George Wallace’s American Independent Party flourished.

Lovely. Willard is a graduate of the Bob Jones University of the 1960s.

What's Peter Beinart doing in Mitt Romney's glee club?

One, go read Greenwald's hilarious take-down of Chickenhawk Willard.

Two, I always knew Little Petey Beinart was a too cozy with the wingnuts, but I never knew how much.

Andy Hatin' on the Clenis.

Sullivan:

As readers will remember, I have always found it very hard to actually hate George W. Bush. He maddens me, his policies have shaken my political allegiances and identity to the core, but I've always found him pretty congenial as a person from a distance. I'm glad I've never met him because I'd probably be totally suckered. Even on some of the deepest betrayals - spending and torture - I think his main crime has been criminal negligence and shallowness, not evil. But I do despise what he has done to this country, the wreckage in Iraq, and the dishonor of the torture/interrogation policies. I despise what he has done to conservatism, and the economic and environmental debt he will pass to the next generation. But I really, honestly don't hate him personally. Certainly not in the same league as my visceral dislike for the Clintons.

Was the last sentence an 'editing error'? Or is Andrew really this nutty? Sometimes I think it would take very little for Bush, Cheney, Addington, et al to lure Andy back to the fold.

Somehow, Sullivan's post gets worse: he admits that instead of hatred, he feels towards Bush "pity, sorrow and outrage at what he's done."

Pity? As always, I look to Friedrich Nietzsche to strengthen me on life's path: "Pity is extolled as the virtue of prostitutes."

I Do Not Think 'Targeted Advertising" Means What Redford Thinks it Means

Vietnam turned out great! Let's stay in Iraq forever.

Karl Rove's favorite blogger sez:

MEGAN MCARDLE is blogging from Vietnam, where Americans are beloved and capitalism is in the air.

So despite the cries of the stabbed-in-the-back right, which to this day thinks we should've stayed in Vietnam until we achieved "victory" (and would've if it weren't for the nightly news) -- and who are now making the exact same arguments about about Iraq -- we retreated from Vietnam and the world didn't come crashing down.

Funny that.

9/11: The Best Thing to Ever Happen to Rudy Giuliani

Via the incomparable TPM.

InstaPutz Victorious in Fink's Family Fists of Fury!

We kicked ass! (Apparently, a fox is not a small animal!) Free shots for all!















Above: Brad Pitt.

Hanson.

No wonder W. is giving Hanson a medal. For VDH, Iraq is still all about the Democrats.

Now that the Democrats suspect that the U.S. is not only not losing Iraq, but may well “win”—victory being defined by stabilizing the country with a radical cessation of violence—expect the critique suddenly to morph as well. We will soon hear that the war, while granted that it may be winnable, was not worth the commensurate cost, from liberal critics who have embraced much of the realist and neo-isolationist creed of the past (at least apart from Darfur). That is a legitimate debate—as long as opponents accept that it is a fallback position, and Harry Reid was mistaken when he announced the war “lost”. Also expect Democrats to find ways to exaggerate the aggregate costs...

This country is lousy with Democrats and liberal critics!

11/5 NBC/WSJ

"In general, do you approve or disapprove of the job that George W. Bush is doing in handling the situation in Iraq?"

27% Approve
68% Disapprove

ABC 11/1

"Which political party -- the Democrats or the Republicans -- do you trust to do a better job handling the situation in Iraq?"

Democrats 50%
Republicans 34%

"All in all, considering the costs to the United States versus the benefits to the United States, do you think the war with Iraq was worth fighting, or not?"

Not worth it 63%
Worth it 35%

Congratulations, Pajamas Media!!!

Wow.

STANFORD, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Victor Davis Hanson, the Hoover Institution’s Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow, was named by President George W. Bush today as one of ten recipients of this year’s National Humanities Medals.

The medals will be awarded by the president in a White House East Room ceremony tomorrow. The president will be joined by First Lady Laura Bush; Mrs. Lynne Cheney; Dana Gioia, chairperson, National Endowment for the Arts; Bruce Cole, chairperson, National Endowment for the Humanities; and recipients of the National Medal of Arts, who will also receive their honors at the event.

Past recipients have been primo examples of wingnuttiawankerus, so John Updike and Taylor Branch -- bless them both -- may be considered outliers.

The last word on St. Reagan's welfare queens.

Indeed:

Let me heartily endorse Krugman and Herbert’s respective takedowns of David Brooks on St. Reagan and race. Even excluding Philadelphia (which shouldn’t be excluded), Reagan’s race-baiting is beyond dispute. It happened too often, for too long, and too systematically. The more interesting question is why modern-day defenders of the Order of St. Reagan (like David Brooks) continue to whitewash it. Why not just say, “Yes, that part was shameful, but that’s not the complete picture.” Let’s just be honest about it.

"I'm not my brother's keeper."

Pants on fire.

The Stench of Victory.

Reuters:

BAGHDAD, Nov 14 (Reuters) - Sectarian strife remains a great threat despite improving security, Iraqi leaders warned on Wednesday, only hours after a big blast rocked central Baghdad and the U.S. military said three soldiers had been killed.

A roadside bomb killed two civilians and wounded three just outside the heavily fortified Green Zone that houses the U.S. embassy and government ministries, police said.

The explosion, which shook buildings in the Green Zone, was close to a checkpoint where hundreds of Iraqis who work inside the sprawling complex queue every morning.

[snip]

South of Baghdad, police sources said a bomber wearing a vest packed with explosives killed two people and wounded six at a meeting of local Sunni Arab tribal sheikhs in Iskandariya, a volatile town in an area known as the "triangle of death".

Iraqi leaders gathered at a reconstruction conference in the Green Zone, not far from the Baghdad blast site, and warned that money alone would not solve Iraq's problems.

But whatever. But Putz is optimistic! Yay!

...Fuck. Me.

There's a lot of Good Ways for a Man to Be Wicked.

D profiles La Shawn Barber Fred Phelps. One qualm: why no mention of the Phelps family marathons?

Tbogg's First Law of New Media

Let the Old Media do all the work, then nitpick it until Glenn Reynolds links to you. Claim victory. Masturbate.

When in doubt, skip steps one and two.

One of the most horrible things I've ever seen.

This is beyond tragic. Horrifying.

I'm speechless.

When has Glenn Reynolds ever not thought we were winning in Iraq?

He really is a Putz. There's no better word for him.

JOE KLEIN: Are we winning in Iraq?

Yes. "We are winning" isn't the same as "we have won." But it's a cruel blow to those who've had a lot invested in the notion that we've lost, something that's even been noted on the left. If things continue to play out as they are, Iraq will be stable, and its people will remain deeply unhappy with Al Qaeda, and those -- in Iran and Saudi Arabia -- who have backed its violence and the effort to keep Iraq chaotic and deadly.

Look, it's simple. Anyone who's been saying "We're winning!" since the invasion and for 6 years has been wrong about everything does not have the credibility lecture anyone on taking a realistic, unvarnished view of events in Iraq. Period.

And seriously -- "if things play out as they are"? How are they? There is no political progress. If things "play out" with no Iraqi government Iraq will be stable? And suddenly the Shiites in Iraq will turn on Iran and the Sunni in Iraq will turn on the Saudis?

Delusional.

FBI: Blackwater killings of 14 Iraqis unjustified.

Dear pro-Blackwater wingnuts:

Federal agents investigating the Sept. 16 episode in which Blackwater security personnel shot and killed 17 Iraqi civilians have found that at least 14 of the shootings were unjustified and violated deadly-force rules in effect for security contractors in Iraq, according to civilian and military officials briefed on the case.

Don't expect Putzy to mention this. He hearts Blackwater.

AND HERE I THOUGHT THEY JUST RANDOMLY SHOT PEOPLE...

No Doubt!

Mary Kathryn Elizabeth Jean Lopez:

[Mitt Romney] ought to encourage Americans to read the new Sally Bedell Smith book, For Love of Politics: Bill and Hillary Clinton: The White House Years, wherein you’ll find passages like: “Finally, on Friday, February 28, Bill invited Lewinsky to an evening taping of his weekly radio address. Afterward he instructed Betty Currie to escort Lewinsky into his private study . . . For the first time in eleven months, they were sexually intimate, first in the hallway and then in the bathroom. When he pushed her away during oral . . . “

Why read this stuff? Voyeurism? Nope. There’s a substantive reason.

Mark Hemingway thinks you're an idiot.

Sez Markie Mark:

Nobody believes Reagan is a bigot.

Again, I don't think this is worth understating: the capacity for wingnuts to argue with strawmen is really something to watch.

There is a huge massive gigantic freaking gynormous gap between "Reagan is a bigot" and Reagan willfully appealed to bigots.

Idiot.

UPDATE

Incredible!

I missed this but Dick Miniter plays the same straw man game with the totally idiotic question, "Did Reagan rely on racism to win?" Miniter goes on to state,

As it happened, Reagan did not win on racism and campaigned hard for black votes.

Again, no one is arguing that Reagan "won on racism." Who's made that claim? Where?

To recap, yet again:

"Reagan won the 1980 election because of racism";

and,

"Reagan used racist code words and race-baiting throughout his political career" isn't the same thing.

Can't they just argue the second point honestly?

Join the Club, Pal.

Thers:

I go three sentences without saying "asshole," and my syntax is shot to hell...

[As soon as I buy groceries and a three-pack of condoms -- I'm expecting a bountiful '08! -- I'm gonna buy this. You should too, if only because it will make a certain fellow deeply unhappy.]

Shorter John Derbyshire:

'Tis a shame the comely lass is so long in the tooth.*

*

QOTD.

Sullivan, on Putz's most recent glib declarations of victory in Iraq:

Let's hope he doesn't unfurl a banner over his blog.

Classic Hugh Hewitt

Aug. 4, '06:

I do believe that Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Powell, Gonzales and Ashcroft have run the global war on terror about as well as it could have been run, and their commitment to its prosecution has been unyielding. I admire their courage and their consistency. This presidency is already among the most significant of our nation's history, and like Reagan's, will be admired for generations long after the Bush haters have been forgotten.

Glenn Reynolds: Iraq is not part of the war on terror.

Excuse me?

...while it's true that Iraq is not the war on terror, it's also likely that the post-2009 phase of the war on terror will involve less outright war and more spying, backstabbing, subtle undermining, bribery, extortion and cooptation.

Putz hasn't always seen it this way.

DEFIFING VICTORY IN THE WAR ON TERROR: Austin Bay has an email from a Senior Military Official giving the view from Iraq.

...

MICHAEL BARONE writes about metrics in the War on Terror:

But the most important changes occurring, not just in Iraq but across the Muslim world, are changes in people's minds.

...

TERRORISTS AND INFORMANTS:

The use of rewards in the war on terror has not worked as well as was expected, largely because of the difficulty in getting the word out, and fear of retaliation against potential informants... Many of the American reserve troops in Iraq have been policemen, including some detectives.

...

The Belmont Club has a roundup of how things are going: "Although it may be premature to say that the War on Terror is rising to a crescendo, recent events have imparted a distinct sense of movement, as in 'hey, this thing might actually be going somewhere'. . . . The truism that victory has many fathers while defeat is an orphan may partially explain why the Democratic Party sought to rebrand itself as the War Party during its recently concluded convention in Boston."

Indeed.

UPDATE: Austin Bay emails from Iraq:

Victory has many fathers.. Remember my letter to you where I said we had made the "big move" equivalent to the big moves we made in 1944? I argued there's still tough sledding ahead but we're winning. I was not blowing off steam. . . . I do think we're winning. I'll have more thoughts when I get back in three or four weeks.

...

UPDATE: A reader emails:

"Saudi Arabia, ultimately, is the real problem. When are we going to do something about them?"

We didn't go after Iraq for WMDs, or primarily to free the Iraqi's.

Everybody knows we have to cut off the flow of Saudi petrodollars to Islamic terror.

Interesting and, I think, mostly correct.

...

AUSTIN BAY WRITES ON WHAT VICTORY [in Iraq] IS -- AND ISN'T -- ABOUT:

We've won?

If you mean the War on Terror, the answer is, "No, not by a long shot." Victory in that dark, intricate conflict remains years away. . . .

While the operational victory [in Iraq] is extraordinary, strategic victory in the War on Terror requires focused and sustained military, political and economic efforts.

It's a great victory, but there's still a lot of work to do.

...

TERROR AFFIRMA: Will Saletan notes that the Iraq/Terror connection is now indisputable...

...

THE SADDAM/OSAMA CONNECTION, DOCUMENTED.

Now the Bushies:

George W. Bush:

Some wonder whether Iraq is a central front in the war on terror. Among the terrorists, there is no debate.

Dick Cheney:

"Iraq has become the central front in the war on terror," Vice President Cheney said October 10.

Condi Rice:

Iraq is now the central front in the war on terrorism.

Um...

I think that Stanley Kurtz is arguing that the success of Happy Feet is proof of America's waning appetite for anti-war films.

He is, right?

David Brooks: John McCain is a great man.

I've got a very simple question for McBobo, who calls McCain a "great man," says that there is no one like him, that he's got "great energy," "dynamism," and is a truth-telling straight-shooter.

If McCain is all of this, why did the GOP pass on him in 2000?

Heckuva job, Nordie.

Why the hell does Nancy Nord still have a job?

Corporations seeking larger profits moved production to China, where labor and materials were cheaper. In turn, consumers were satisfied because they got cheaper goods.

But the arrangement is being tested like never before. Chinese factories operate in a closed environment of high competition and lax regulation. In that climate, quality control has suffered.

At this point, the public needs a strong watchdog to make sure products made abroad are up to U.S. standards. We don’t have that in the current Consumer Product Safety Commission.

It’s clear the agency lacks the resources to carry out its mission of protecting the public from unsafe products made in this country or elsewhere. It’s also clear that the agency’s top executive, Nancy Nord, has the wrong idea about the agency’s role in protecting the public.

The New York Times reported that the agency has just one full-time employee to test toys and 15 inspectors to police $614 billion in imports. Yet Nord is opposed to legislation that would dramatically increase the agency’s staff and budget. That is unacceptable.

Has there been a more incompetent administration in our history?

Oooooooookay.

Roger L. Simon, in yet another woe-is-me column, says that "with rare exceptions, the more successful people are, the more wretched they are to others."

I appreciate his candor! He also says that making anti-war movies "make[s] you seem like a good guy to yourself, when in your private life you are a miserable, self-serving bastard."

Eeeenteresting. So, what's his excuse?

NYT's Blind Item. (Updated)

The Times' profile of Daniel Day-Lewis has this weird graf:

Halfway through the 60-day shoot, [Paul Thomas] Anderson realized that the second lead actor, who plays Plainview’s nemesis, was not strong enough. He was replaced by the versatile young actor Paul Dano, but three weeks of scenes with Day-Lewis needed to be reshot. During “Gangs of New York,” Day-Lewis would stay in character and deliberately glare at his co-star, Leonardo DiCaprio, mirroring the contentious dynamic that these men had in the film. While DiCaprio withstood the pressure (and Dano thrived on it) there are reports that the first actor suffered from intimidation. “It just wasn’t the right fit,” Anderson explained diplomatically.

Please help me, people. Whom did Paul Dano replace? I've come up with nothing.

...Thanks, McE! With all the usual caveats about reliability:

don't remember if this has been discussed or how reputable the source is (imdb boards) but it would've been news 6 months ago. apparently Paul Dano was hired to play Eli after another actor...

The original Eli actor was Kel O'Neill (XX/XY). Scuttlebutt on the set this week was that he demanded higher pay and got canned in the ensuing battle of wills. [Dec. '06]

There's a story there -- and a good one. Surely I'm not the only one who wants to know why Paul Thomas Anderson deep-six'd an actor (and who the young man might be)? Maybe the Times doesn't give a shit, but they're probably in the minority.

FWIW.

h/t Actor

Glass Houses, etc.

Just as Mark Hemingway shouldn't call anyone a sissy, he may not want to (in the parlance of Madagascar) fling this brand of grad school poo:

Now I'm not saying that Roth and Updike are anywhere near as bad a writers as Mailer could be, but given the impact they've had on our collective moral consciousness it seems kind of imperative we honestly assess the flawed morality of the Great Male Narcissists as much as their prodigious talent.

Get a hobby, asshole.

Where Are They Now?

Douglas Lute.

Whatever happened to that guy?

Glenn Reynolds: Ron Paul supporters are unprincipled.

What an ass.

RON PAUL is up to 7% in New Hampshire. I actually think the war issue is breaking perfectly for him -- antiwar people can still support him as payback, while people who might otherwise be leerier of him on his war stance can feel more comfortable as victory appears to be in sight, making "send a message" voting more palatable than it was in 2004.

I'm guessing there's plenty of HW Bush Republicans and actual libertarians who support Paul who think invading Iraq was an incredibly stupid thing to do, as well as un-conservative and un-Constitutional. But to a neocon true believer like Putz, there is no principled stance against the war. It's "payback" and "sending a message."

And of course, victory is in sight.

Proof?

Brendan Nyhan:

There's a simple answer to the David Brooks/Paul Krugman fight.

Brooks seems to be correct in pointing out that the frequently circulated tale of Ronald Reagan appealing to racism during a campaign visit to Philadelphia, MS -- which appears in Krugman's new book -- has been exaggerated.

Support for this claim? None! Seems Mr. Nyhan is making a habit of ill-informed accusations.

Karl Rove's favorite non-partisan libertarian blog: Instapundit.

The invaluable Charles points us to this puff piece about Turdblossom. His favorite blog? Putzy's.

Rover is very non-partisan!

Happy Veterans Day, Pajamas!

A Veterans Day tribute to all our favorite Pajamas bloggers.

We thank you for your service.

Blogger/Branch of Service

Putz: Never served.
Roger L. Simon: Never served.
Michael Leeden: Never served.
Charles Johnson: Never served.
Dick Miniter: Never served.
Victor Davis Hanson: Never served.
Confederate Yankee: Never served.
Jeff Goldstein: Never served.
Michelle Malkin: Never served.
Dr. Sanity: Never served.
Dr. Mrs. Putz: Never served.
Ron Silver: Never served.
William Quick: Never served.

Glenn Reynolds wonders if the Vietnam Memorial is "wimpy."

(Pictured: a Vietnam vet emasculates himself.)

The Williams-Sonoma enthusiast wonders if our modern war monuments are "wimpy" and links to this piece about the Vietnam, 9/11, and Flight 93 Memorials.

What these modern war memorials have in common with each other is nothing. They portray nothingness. They have no people in them, never mind men carrying guns or swords, statues of Winged Victory, or even doves of peace. Just death and names -- grief without glory.

So that's what's wrong with the Vietnam Memorial. It doesn't have any big strong men brandishing guns or swords. What were they thinking?

And that planned 9/11 Memorial? Too damn depressing. Why is there no Winged Victory to mark the spot where several thousand Americans were killed by planes? Same goes for Flight 93. I mean, shouldn't it have a little "Let's Roll" in there?

Luckily for us we have real, authentic warriors like Putz and Duncan to point these things out.

Pretty Sharp Advice, Doctor...

Go ahead. Read the latest "advice" column for Dr. Mrs. It is teh suck. Let's start with the question itself, which is adorably inexact.

Reader RW writes in:

Hello Dr. Helen, Please help me. I want to find out if I can marry my second cousin. I am in love with my dad’s first cousin. She is my Dad’s mother’s sister’s daughter. We are the same age, please tell me if our children will be deformed. Can we marry?

Thanks,

RW

Ahem. Poor RW asks two extremely different questions -- the most important of which is not, "Can we marry?," but "Should we fuck?"

Let's see how the doc handles this:

Dear RW, First of all, I believe (and I am sure someone out there will correct me if I’m wrong) that rather than your second cousin, the woman you want to marry is your first cousin—once removed. Your great grandparents are her grandparents making her your first cousin—once removed. This cousin stuff is confusing but can be made easier by taking a look at this Wikipedia entry that illustrates the relationships between cousins and how one is to refer to them. In answer to your question, you can probably marry a first cousin, once removed—heck, you might be able to legally marry your first cousin—not removed—if you live in certain states. And in answer to your question about deformed children, you can read about the statistics of cousin marriage at cousincouples.com...

Nice! First, Dr. Mrs. plays the semantics game and then -- as if to prove her total and utter uselessness -- she refers the poor bastard to a couple of websites she may or may not have perused. The joys of wingnut welfare! She also pulls the awesome trick, in a column about cousin-fucking, to avoid mentioning Rudolph Giuliani.

"I hope this information helps you with whatever you decide," she writes.

I suspect it did not.

Obama in Iowa.

Krugman takes down David Brooks.

A thing of beauty.

Norman Mailer, Dead.

To observe his passing, let's take from his review of A Man in Full:

At certain points, reading the work can even be said to resemble the act of making love to a three-hundred-pound woman. Once she gets on top, it's over. Fall in love, or be asphyxiated.

Great writing fueled by what was, I suspect, a harrowing first-hand experience.

He will be missed.

Is it true that Southern Baptists sleep with family members?

I have no idea if that happens or not, or how frequent it is, but if anyone's out there who knows -- what do you think about the Southern Baptist tendency to have sex with their sisters?

What do you think about incest?

Pretty Much.

Mithras:

I think it's a risky strategy to denigrate the physical appearance of a blogger who is a far better writer and thinker than you are when you yourself are an aging, bleach-blond reprobate seemingly in a continuous inebriated haze.

Can I get an 'indeed'?

Tucker gets pwned by Kucinich.

Tucker is corrected when he equates impeachment with "overthrowing the government."

Thankfully, this was before my time.

Dr. Black:

Farley's kidding, but back when I started this blog what he said was exactly the way the blogosphere worked. There was left and right, and Glenn Reynolds played the role of Cyborg Lawyer debate moderator and judge. It was actually kind of sad, with everyone desperate to please Daddy Glenn and get his approval (and traffic generating links).

The good lefties of the blogosphere were rather annoyed at the time that I didn't think much of our benevolent blogospheric ruler.

Advantage: me!

What happened to 60 votes?

Greenwald wants to know.

Every time Congressional Democrats failed this year to stop the Bush administration (i.e., every time they "tried"), the excuse they gave was that they "need 60 votes in the Senate" in order to get anything done. Each time Senate Republicans blocked Democratic legislation, the media helpfully explained not that Republicans were obstructing via filibuster, but rather that, in the Senate, there is a general "60-vote requirement" for everything.

How, then, can this be explained?

The Senate confirmed Michael B. Mukasey as attorney general Thursday night, approving him despite Democratic criticism that he had failed to take an unequivocal stance against the torture of terrorism detainees.

The 53-to-40 vote made Mr. Mukasey, a former federal judge, the third person to head the Justice Department during the tenure of President Bush . . . Thirty-nine Democrats and one independent [Bernie Sanders] opposed him.

Glenn Reynolds wins!11!!!!!1!

And he apparently wanted it. Bad.

November 03, 2007

INSTAPUNDIT HAS BEEN NOMINATED as best individual blogger in the 2007 Weblog Awards.

November 03, 2007

HEY, I DIDN'T NOTICE IT BEFORE, but the Glenn and Helen Show has been nominated for best podcast at the Weblog Awards. Vote early and often!

November 05, 2007

DID I MENTION THAT THE GLENN AND HELEN SHOW is in the running for best podcast?

Yeah, I did, but you can vote every 24 hours.

November 05, 2007

INSTAPUNDIT IS IN THE RUNNING for best individual blogger in the Weblog Awards.

November 07, 2007

INSTAPUNDIT IS STILL IN THE RUNNING for Best Individual Blogger.

November 08, 2007

IT'S NOT TOO LATE TO vote for InstaPundit in the Weblog Awards "Best Individual Blogger" category.

November 09, 2007

THE THRILL OF VICTORY.

David Brooks: Reagan didn't really mean to sound racist when he said something racist.

McBobo says it's a "slur" to criticize Reagan for using racist code words at the site of one of the most notorious racist crimes of the Civil Rights era.

But he concedes,

It’s callous, at least, to use the phrase “states’ rights” in any context in Philadelphia. Reagan could have done something wonderful if he’d mentioned civil rights at the fair. He didn’t. And it’s obviously true that race played a role in the G.O.P.’s ascent.

Callous? Sorry, I'm not seeing any slur except Reagan's -- dropping "states' rights" in front of an all-white Mississippi crowd. And how big of McBobo to concede that race "played a role" in the Republican ascent when the entire Jim Crow South is now solidly Republican and Poppy's Rove said,

You start out in 1954 by saying, 'Nigger, nigger, nigger.' By 1968 you can't say 'nigger' - that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states' rights and all that stuff. You're getting so abstract now [that] you're talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you're talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites.

QOTD

Digby:

I always enjoy these financial gurus matter-of-factly telling us plebes we need to get royally fucked for the good of the country.

Tsk, tsk. So uncivil!

Kill Me Now.

From the NYP:

Meanwhile, the process of selecting the Time Person of the Year is well under way.

The consensus seems to be that some flavor of an environmental theme would get the nod. But there seemed to be differing views on how to convey that.

Chris DeWolfe, the founder of MySpace, said the honor should go to Al Gore, an Oscar and Nobel Prize winner. NBC News' Brian Williams, who last year accurately predicted the pronoun that won, this year went with someone he called "a woman with a history of abuse: Mother Nature."

Whoopi Goldberg picked the color green.

"When you see it now, it's not about little leprechauns in Ireland," she said.

Former Virginia Sen. George Allen broke the green theme with his choice: Army Gen. David Petraeus, whom Allen called "the architect of the counter-insurgency in Iraq. He's not just a scholar, he's a warrior."

Wheeeeeee! I'm a Bitchy Shrew!

(Lest you think I'm a masochist, here's the context.)

...Related.

Hmm. This Must Be How Chad Lowe Felt.

Actor wins. As I heard it, Sacheen Littlefeather gave a helluva acceptance speech.

National debt hits record.

Arbusto'd!

Bush monkeys.

Heh:

Now I understand Glenn Reynolds a bit better:

“If little children and primates show pretty much the same pattern you see in adults, it calls into question just how deliberate these rationalization processes are,” [psychologist, Matthew D. Lieberman of the University of California, Los Angeles] says. “We tend to think people have an explicit agenda to rewrite history to make themselves look right, but that’s an outsider’s perspective. This experiment shows that there isn’t always much conscious thought going on.”

Instaputz reader smacks Miniter around.

I'd like to buy a beer for the guy/gal who calls himself Guilded Age Redux:

I am appalled and dismayed that one who styles himself a "conservative" would go whining to the courts (of all places!) about one of this country's great corporations. I, for one, am now highly skeptical of you and your motiviations. You and your "co-plaintiffs" contend that your publisher acted to "maximize profits and the profits of its parent company at [your] expense." Exactly. Is this not the ideal corporate model? The profit-focused one that you extolled (or pretended to extol) in "The Myth of Market Share?" Remember? Maximizing profits is the goal of a corporation!! You really should remember that your learned tomes are useful for two purposes: (1) maximizing the profits of your publisher, and (2) creating the appearance that your publisher's political views are widely shared and intellectually sound. Now, you've gone and exposed it all. Not only are you crying like a little girl that your publisher actually tried to maximize profits (oh my god, the corporation is acting like a corporation!), but your greedy lawsuit is exposing your great publisher's very clever practice of selling to vertically owned subsidiaries, thus inflating "sales" for best-seller purposes. Thanks to you, now we all realize that you, your co-plaintiffs, and Ann and Laura don't really sell that many books at all. It's all just a big accounting trick. But if that trick brings in more profits for the corporate ownership, I don't see what your problem is. It's all supposed to be in service of the corporation, right? After all, sir, you're just a scribe, not an owner. So please, stick to typing and stop biting the proverbial hand.

Heh.

Jim Morrison can't get into college.

This is the most random youtubes ever.

Still, I Really miss Catch.

From the newest member of my blogroll:

This morning I was in the kitchen pouring myself a coffee and my wife was in the bedroom watching the news. I heard her say:

“Surprise. Surprise.”

So I said:

“What, we invaded Pakistan?”

Give Me My Pulitzer!

This photo, which I took last week, clearly symbolizes the pony proliferation in Anbar Province. See Thers for more.

Case, Meet Point.

Putz:

IN THE MAIL: Carole Platt Liebau's Prude: How the Sex-Obsessed Culture Damages Girls (and America, Too!). I would venture that the real problem isn't sex as such, but the puerile way it's treated.

Putz, last week:

Glenn Reynolds: "I'm okay on slutty, but not for 9-year-olds."

What if Obama or Hillary had a Kerik?

It's worth imagining for a second.

I'm pretty sure there would be nothing but non-stop 24/7 "is the campaign over" talk from the chattering classes if one of Hillary or Obama's closest friends, former employees, and someone they personally recommended to head up a federal agency, were being indicted on criminal charges.

Needless to say, Putz would be well into the hundreds of posts on the topic by now.

Hugh Hewitt's head explodes.

Watch him try to spin the Robertson endorsement. He doesn't think "it helps very much."

How's that taste, John McCain?

Lotta good this did you.

Will Rudy denounce Pat Robertson?

He attacked Ron Paul for suggesting our foreign policy was a factor in 9/11. Will he denounce Pat for saying we deserved it?

From Roy's Lips to...

Fingers crossed!

This is further proof that conservative insiders are expecting a downturn in fortunes. Soon, these authors figure, wingnuttery will have to go on short rations, and wingnut affinity groups will stop buying their books in bulk rate to hand out as party favors, membership premiums, etc.

That’s why they’re willing to burn their Regnery bridge to get a little settlement money now. They believe the wheels have fallen off the gravy train, and they’re raiding it for provisions.

CPAC 2008 and Tom DeLay

Remember when McBobo kept lecturing us about how Tom DeLay wasn't really a conservative?

Then what's the Hammer doing on CPAC's website?

Robertson

Contra Putz, Ramesh Ponnuru sez:

I do think the Robertson endorsement is a big plus for Giuliani. It's not as big as getting a more current figure, but it beats not having a prominent social conservative. And any of the other guys would have loved to get Robertson. It may also make sense for Robertson, since he has more value to Giuliani that he would have had to any of the other candidates.

Powerline HomoeroticismWatchTM

Powerline:

This afternoon, I attended a reception for French President Nicolas Sarkozy at the French embassy in Washington. Sarkozy looks even better in person than on television.

Robertson nod a setback for Rudy?

Only if you actually believe that Pat Robertson has absolutely no political power within the GOP, and that the Christianist vote means nothing in a general election -- or actually hurts a Republican candidate.

In other words, only if you're delusional.

UPDATE

Lowry, who unlike Putz doesn't have his head totally up his ass (note I wrote "totally"):

Just talked to a top social conservative. He says, hinting that more prominent social cons will end up going with Rudy, "There's plenty more where this comes from." On the impact of the Robertson endorsement on the race: "What it does for Rudy is it says, 'It's OK to vote for Rudy.' I think there will be more of that, pre-nomination and post-nomination." On conservative evangelical voters and Giuliani: "If Rudy is the nominee, they're going to vote for him—period."

(h/t Sullivan)

Regnery calls Dick Miniter "disgruntled."

Pass the popcorn.

Five authors have sued the parent company of Regnery Publishing, a Washington imprint of conservative books, charging that the company deprives its writers of royalties by selling their books at a steep discount to book clubs and other organizations owned by the same parent company.
...
In the lawsuit the authors say they receive “little or no royalty” on these sales because their contracts specify that the publisher pays only 10 percent of the amount received by the publisher, minus costs — as opposed to 15 percent of the cover price — for the book.

Mr. Miniter said that meant that although he received about $4.25 a copy when his books sold in a bookstore or through an online retailer, he only earned about 10 cents a copy when his books sold through the Conservative Book Club or other Eagle-owned channels. “The difference between 10 cents and $4.25 is pretty large when you multiply it by 20,000 to 30,000 books,” Mr. Miniter said. “It suddenly occurred to us that Regnery is making collectively jillions of dollars off of us and paying us a pittance.” He added: “Why is Regnery acting like a Marxist cartoon of a capitalist company?”

Er, isn't the point of capitalism to maximize profits? Wouldn't it be Marxist for Regenery to share them with the proletariat?

And just imagine, if you will, that Regnery was Air America and Al Franken was suing them. The Anchor Baby and Putz would be doing somersaults today.

UPDATE

Dick has taken the fight to Regnery today, whining:

For a long time, Regnery was the only house that would publish conservative books. My fellow authors and I now realize that it used its monopoly position to take advantage of conservative authors. Like the only gas station in Death Valley.

Maybe no one was interested in your manuscripts because your "conservative" books sucked ass. And maybe you should be grateful, therefore, that Regenery's wingnut welfare program has published you at all.

Continues whining Dick:

Regnery’s practices actually mar the intellectual landscape. It encourages conservatives to write cheap books—blasts of opinion—rather than reported books, which take years and hundreds of thousands of dollars. Those who have invested in serious, reported books found it very hard to break even, even with massive New York Times bestsellers. I am talking about books like those by Gertz, which takes readers inside the national-security apparatus or Corsi, which revealed Kerry’s Vietnam record.

I don't think Dick knows the meaning of the word "revealed."

The perfect Instapundit parody.

Actually, it's really not so much a parody as just a very, very dead on impression.

HERE'S AN INTERESTING POST by a guy named Steve from Des Moines. He highlights the direct connection between the modern Democratic Party and the National Socialist German Workers Party. Some incriminating stuff here. Of course, you wouldn't know this if you only watched CNN...

posted at 05:43 PM by Glenn Reynolds

THE NEW YORK TIMES IS FULL OF SHIT because they quote unreliable sources and make things up.

posted at 05:17 PM by Glenn Reynolds
[...]


THE MEDIA'S WAR ON THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION continues unabated. Recent events have combined with the media's anti-Bush agenda to paint a misleadingly dark picture of Iraq. If you received all your news from CNN, MSNBC, CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox News, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Times, The Army Times, The Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Sun-Times, USA Today, the Sacremento Bee, the San Jose Mercury News, The Orlando Sentinel, The Detroit Free Press, The Detroit News, The Lansing State Journal, the Dallas Morning News, the Boston Globe, the Houston Chronicle, UPI, Reuters, or the Associated Press, you would be under the impression that things are pretty bleak in Iraq.

Fortunately, Michael Ubaldi has several blog posts explaining how good it actually is over there. Just keep scrolling.

[...]

THANKS TO PRESIDENT BUSH'S TAX CUTS, I was finally able to buy new blinds for the upstairs. This has made the InstaWife a diehard Bush supporter. Who says the tax cuts were only for the well-off? Something tells me most Democrats won't be celebrating the windfall.

posted at 04:36 PM by Glenn Reynolds

I do love the "media is untrustworthy so go read this really sketchy guy" posts.

A 2nd place finish for Glenn Reynolds.

As awesome as Putz's nominated post was, there's no question Ass Rocket deserved to win.

Don't Disappoint Me, People.

Christ, even Thers wants you to vote for Actor.

New Pajamas Putzen.

Speaking of Ron Silver, I notice that Pajamas has added a couple other new bloggers wingnuts to their lineup, Phyillis Chesler and Roger Kimball.

I'm not too familiar with either, but I'm already skeptical of Chesler (who happens to teach at my pops' alma mater), who writes today,

Apparently, over the weekend, Barnard quietly (very quietly) granted tenure to Professor Nadia Abu El-Haj. There! Take that you Pushy Jews!

And earlier in the week, she wrote,

Why-oh-why does the mainstream media keep tacking on “The Israeli-Palestinian crisis” where it does not belong? This has become a mindless mantra meant to inflame not inform people and more important, meant to affirm the “goodness” and “fairness” of the journalists who espouse precisely such rank propaganda.

Oy.

So much putziness, so little time.

Ron Silver Death Watch: Day 9

Indeedy!

Karnacki:

So two former Presidents have appeared on “Fox News Sunday” in the span of 14 months. One was asked if he was responsible for 9/11. The other was asked if he preferred to be called “Grandpa” or “Poppy.”

Holy Shit. (Part 2)

A few days ago, Powerline published part 22 of their famed "Who is Keith Ellison?" series. It would seem that even after a staggering number of words, totaling well into the thousands, the silly fools still don't know the answer. (The short answer, I take it, is "Muslim.")

I'm not sure if this is more or less crazy than their Zell Miller opus -- he's their "favorite Democrat" -- which spans at least 21 parts.

...Incidentally, in light of the Golden Wingnut, please behold my favorite, which somehow escaped nomination:

If Kerry does win, the mainstream media will have gotten him elected with their biased coverage and they will pay for it more than they could imagine. And it will be the blogosphere and you, our own supporters, who will make them pay. Our strength will grow incrementally with a Kerry victory in terms of influence and even economic power. And both will be at the expense of the mainstream media. Yes, we too have 'plans.'"

Ah, that's the stuff.

Do Republicans want people to think they're racists?

It does seem so.

(h/t Atrios)

The clueless candidate raises $4M...in one day.

This must really piss off the NPL -- in typical passive-aggressive fashion, he links but doesn't comment.

Remember, Putz the libertarian dismissed Ron Paul as clueless after one of the first GOP debates.

Sullivan explains why the Putz/Malkin/Hewitt base hates Paul so much:

The Christianists and neocons will decry it because it affects their power over the GOP. And because when a conservative stands for freedom again, it resonates and threatens them. Congrats, Congressmen - and everyone who is pulling for him. Whatever happens in this race, Paul's candidacy has already provided a focus for all of those conservatives who despise the big-spending, unchecked executive, busy-body, Christianist wing of the GOP.

Freedom's on the march!

George W. Bush, looking into Musharraf's soul -- last year:

"We spent a lot of time discussing democracy in Pakistan, and I believe democracy is Pakistan's future," Bush said, standing alongside Musharraf, who took power in a 1999 coup.

And how's that coming?

Pakistan's government has continued its crackdown on pro-democracy activists following further protests.

Police rounded up more than 100 people demonstrating after President Pervez Musharraf suspended the constitution and imposed emergency rule on Saturday.

Around 50 lawyers were arrested in the eastern city of Lahore as they tried to assemble on the premises of the provincial high court.

UPDATE

Zachriel writes in comments:

Glenn Reynolds: "WHY IS THE WORLD MORE CONCERNED with Musharraf's coup than with Hugo Chavez's emerging dicatatorship? Because enemies of the United States, like Chavez, get a pass."

Maybe it's because Pakistan has the nuke, neighbors a country that the U.S. is occupying, and is at a major cultural fissure that has led to violent upheavals in the recent past.

Indeed.