Pajamas Media's demise: the marketplace has spoken!

Clearly, the inability of the wingnut blogosphere to turn a profit is due to the fact that they present the news in a biased fashion that's out of touch with most Americans. (UPDATED)

Roger:

And, really, Rog-el, a professional writer putting out work like this?

In the last few months we have strengthened the PJTV lineup with shows covering Media Bias, Education Bias, Middle East Update, Sharia and Jihad, Powerline Report, Ask Dr. Helen, Hugh News, Poliwood, Conservatism 2.0, Economy and Finance, National Security, and others.

Shows covering Ask Dr. Helen and Hugh News? Now that's narrowcasting.

Hehindeedy!

Meanwhile, the whiny bitchiness of these wingnut welfare recipients is staggering.

Ace, looking for a sugar daddy:

Damn. I was finally starting to make an amount of money I wasn't utterly embarrassed by, too.

Any entrepreneurs out there who want to try something similar?

And Goldstein, whiny and bitch-like at the end:

What this means is that as of April 1, I am officially out of work. So save going to a pay model, this site will likely have to shut down.

Everyone, all together now: awwwwwwwww.

UPDATE

And another hehindeedy:

PJM’s new hope is PJTV, a pay video site. Where you can pay to watch Glenn and Helen Reynolds. This is not unlike asking people to pay to be punched in the face. It will fail. I can’t understand why anyone would think it could succeed.

Priceless.

The Rest Is Silence Schadenfreude.

Isn't this all a little pie-in-the-sky, however? Who could imagine supplanting the venerable Associated Press wire service, for instance?

"We'd be foolish not to try," Simon replied, grinning toward Johnson. "You're sitting four feet away from the guy who ended Dan Rather's career."

And so it ends. Pajamas Media, a laughingstock even in the embryonic stage, is no more. Putz, one of the founders, is already attempting to distance himself from the operation, despite spending more than three years driving most its traffic:

I don’t have much to do with the PJM business side...

Althouse -- who had PJs number from the get-go -- is not as gleeful as I'd hoped, merely observing that PJs has "collapsed." Immolated seems to me a better word, but that's a quibble.

For the point-and-laff crowd, there are some pleasures to be had. Getting slapped in the face by Roger Simon has sent The Anchoress even further off-kilter. Here she is, explaining why PJTV just ain't for her:

...[T]he Lord’s overgenerous endowment in my chestal area makes any notion of camera work unthinkable, particularly in HD where the girls might terrify some.

If that isn't proof of a malevolent god, I don't know what is.

Anyway, I'm sure there will be lotsa recriminations and fun to be had. You can expect, or at least hope for, this estimable gentleman to weigh in. Beg him, if you have to. Or go check out K., who speaks for all: "It took a lot longer than I ever imagined it would..." No kidding! Who knew PJs would outlast its own death pool?

So Funny.

Hahahahahahahaha.

So yet again, the black man kept Dawson down.

Noonan: Republicans unanimously rejecting stimulus bill is Obama's fault.

Interestingly, she didn't feel bipartisanship was necessary in 2001.

It's the New 'Army of Davids.'

Class, please have your copy of Wingnut Debate Dictionary at the ready.

It's inevitable that "a herd of Gannons" will enter the vernacular and I would appreciate your help with the definition, in comments...

Soft Bigotry of...

Putz professes surprise that students at Baylor University, which lobbied for privilege of hosting the George W. Bush library and, according to Princeton Review...

was ranked third on the list for, "Alternative Lifestyle Not an Alternative," which rates campus acceptance of the homosexual community.

"I think that comes from (the fact) that there certainly are policies at the university different than you would find at a number of places on a number of different levels," Oliver said.

"Students are saying they recognize Baylor is a place that's different than any other public institution," he said.

"I agree there is low acceptance [of an alternative lifestyle on campus] but because it's a Baptist university, people with alternative lifestyles should be aware of that when considering Baylor," said one gay student who is a junior from Texas but didn't want to be identified for personal reasons.

Despite being a school that prides itself on its religious foundations, Baylor ranked 10th in the "Students Who Pray on a Regular Basis" category, thirteenth in the "Students Most Nostalgic for Ronald Reagan" (lean politically left), and 16th in the "Everyone Plays Intramural Sports" category.

...sweat ex-President Bush's nuts.

Naturally, assface Gateway Pundit also thinks this is an astonishing development.

Glenn Reynolds, still fluffling Bush.

So funny.

WAIT, I THOUGHT EVERYBODY HATED HIM: A standing ovation for George W. Bush.

At a women's basketball game. In Waco, TX.

The Failed Obama Presidency.

Suck it, liberals! Obama didn't wait 5 days to sign that bill everyone wanted!

But in all seriousness, what PoliFact is doing is pretty awesome. It makes it easier to put into action that six-syllable word that conservatives, under eight years of Bush, never learned to spell or pronounce: accountability.

Regional party.

Compare:

"We’re all concerned about the fact that the very wealthy and the very poor, the most and least educated, and a majority of minority voters, seem to have more or less stopped paying attention to us," the Kentucky Republican said on the second day of the four-day gathering.

"And we should be concerned that, as a result of all this, the Republican Party seems to be slipping into a position of being more of a regional party than a national one.

"In politics there's a name for a regional party, it's called a minority party," said McConnell.

And contrast:

...we talk to Tennessee Gubernatorial candidate Bill Haslam about budgets, pensions, TennCare, and why Republicans are doing so much better in Tennessee than elsewhere.

The GOP: Tripling Down on the Shrinking Base

But hey, at least they're happy with Republicans in Tennessee.

Glenn Reynolds and Dr. Helen surprised to find Republicans in Tennessee.

Dumbass:

...we talk to Tennessee Gubernatorial candidate Bill Haslam about budgets, pensions, TennCare, and why Republicans are doing so much better in Tennessee than elsewhere.

Gee, why could that be?

This is like asking Diane Feinstein in 2002 why Democrats are doing so much better in California than elsewhere.

The mind reels.

RedState, Don't Never Change.

Gen. Erickson psyches up the troops:

...[W]e must also expect and demand that we are respected as the base of the party. We must fight and our fight must frequently induce pain on our own side. It is frequently the only way to make headway.

Persevere and fight on.

One way to do so is to join the RedState Army. We will be sometimes defeated. We will be sometimes victorious. But most importantly, we won’t be idly bitching and yelling into the wind — we’ll be working to make a difference.

Dear god, let this not be parody.

...A little birdie sends us this footage from RedState's last editorial meeting:

This just in: Phil Gingrey has no testicles.

Pathetic:

Republican Rep. Phil Gingrey of Georgia apologized Wednesday for criticizing conservative hosts Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hanity, assuring his supporters that "I am one of you."

"I regret and apologize for the fact that my comments have offended and upset my fellow conservatives—that was not my intent," Gingrey said in a statement. "I am also sorry to see that my comments in defense of our Republican Leadership read much harsher than they actually were intended, but I recognize it is my responsibility to clarify my own comments."

It's amazing that elected Republicans are this afraid of clowns like Limbaugh and Hannity.

Bad Use of Bandwidth.

Asking former White House press secretaries to give advice to Robert Gibbs is a nice enough idea, but why does TNR -- and why would anyone -- care at all what Scott McClellan has to to say? Of the luminaries to hold the position (he says, with great sarcasm) SM was arguably the most inept.

Meanwhile, this bit is hilariously loaded:

I had very good access, and I was in a lot of meetings, but not necessarily all of them.

Yeah, you think?

Compare and Constrast.

Bush Era v. Obama Era:


[via Curbed]

The Do Nothing Party.

That's what Malkin wants.

Annals of Bad Ideas.

Dan Collins laments that, with Jeff Goldstein all but gone, "nobody at PJM will link to us, so pariahish have we become. What, apart from begging for links, can we do to raise the profile of the site and better serve the faithful audience?"

I have a few ideas, most of which are illegal, none of which are this funny:

...it wouldn’t take place on these pages, but if I were to offer a course on Shakespearean metapoetics (how Shakespeare inscribes his theory of language into his plays), would there be any interest among readers for such a course? Last semester I was overemployed, and this I’m underemployed, so this would be a paying proposition, though I’d try to keep the price reasonable. I think Jeff might be well served doing something similar, but we don’t communicate much these days, and I don’t want to bother him. We’d do Riffaterre’s Fictional Truth (buy it used), Shapiro’s 1599, Garrett Stewart’s Reading Voices, and David Quint’s Epic and Empire as background reading to the Arden editions of Julius Caesar and Antony & Cleopatra, before turning to Othello and Hamlet. We’ll consider the nature of pre-lexicographical English, punning, censorship and interpretation, the legitimacy of reading playtexts as written texts, and the theoretics of what I like to call “hallucidation.” I think I would need a minimum of 6 interested people to offer the course.

Let me know what you think.

Oy. Collins and Darleen have really sunk PW, so it's a small blessing that Jeff pops up in comments to say not-nice things about Bedwetter Media and Patrick Bateman.

Putz's Weird Fixations.

Putz is pretty obsessed with Chris Dodd's mortgage. In the latest installment, he tells us:

...it’s now been 187 days since Chris Dodd promised to release his mortgage documents.

Well, okay. But it's been more than five years since Putz declared the Iraq War over ("Thank goodness. It was starting to seem like a quagmire.") and the U.S. victorious.

So who's the bigger asshole?

QOTD.

The TNR.com comments section considers a replacement for Bill Kristol:

As to Hanson, the man is a parody of the angry, washed-up academic. He hasn't published any serious scholarship in years, and his columns and books since about 2002 have been filled with exactly the type of ignorant know-it-all-ism and slavish acceptance of fashionable but untested armchair generaliship that he made his name challenging as a young man. When we abandon gunpowder and send our spear-carrying hoplites out to meet Persian slave archers in open combat, then and only then should serious people ask Victor Davis Hanson what he thinks about current events.

HalliCheney strikes again.

I wish we could put these people out of business for good.

"Enough."

John Updike's death is ruthlessly depressing. He wrote so many beautiful things, so perhaps it's best to mark the occasion by excerpting the snuffing out of his greatest creation:



And so it is.

...The Times will fix this, presumably, but contra Lehmann-Haupt, Wood's Broken Estate was published in 2000, not 1966 and this -- "More important, the move to a small town seemed to stimulate his memories of Shillington and his creation of its fictional counterpart, Ollington." -- is wrong. It's Ollinger.

Wingnut, Heal Thyself.

Putz hehindeeds some guy who has a problem with Obama appearing on Al Arabiya because the outlet is host to some admittedly objectionable stories.

Funny, I don't remember either of these idiots complaining when Bush, in a humorous attempt to deny that he was an "enemy of Islam," gave an interview to...(wait for it!) Al Arabiya.

(More recently, Bush gave an exit interview to Human Events, a site with such integrity that it has partnered with RedState and currently fronts stories by noted crazies Michelle Malkin, Pat Buchanan, L. Brent Bozell, Emmett Tyrrell, Dick Morris and Ben Shapiro.)

Of course, the real issue here for Putz and his douchebag sidekick, Soccer Dad, is that Obama has taken a diplomatic, conciliatory tone with the Muslim world. This is a threat to the wingnut "more rubble, less trouble" worldview, but also quite clearly a good idea. Thus, the only option for Putz and Sancho Panza -- disingenuous, lazy fucks that they are -- is to dismiss the words and attack the outlet.

[thanks, Riffle!]

...Please see Steve on this, too.

Man, I hate Peter Beinart.

Why? Because he gets paid to write stupid shit like this:

Still, culture wars do end. In the 1920s, immigration, Darwinism, and the Ku Klux Klan dominated political debate, but in the 1930s, they receded as Washington turned its attention to the Depression and the specter of war.

While it's true that Klan membership declined in the 1930s, would anyone seriously argue race went away as a culture war issue after the Great Depression?

And we're still debating immigration and Darwinism.

Geez.

Naturally.

The Corner's resident virgin is not familiar with the phrase "if it bleeds, it leads":

Over the weekend, the Vatican de-excommunicated (not a technical term) members of the schismatic Society of St. Pius X. The media is, naturally, focusing on the crazy Holocaust-denying bishop among them.

I know! It's a shock to me too!

Elections Have Consequences.

Michael Novak, last seen offering himself up as a gay sacrifice to Osama bin Laden, reveals himself to be a whiny bitch of the highest order. He says that Obama's call for the repeal of the Defense Against Marriage act is

a relapse into paganism.

I don't even know what that means.

He's also pissed that Obama issued an order that authorizes tax dollars for abortions abroad.

These decisions humiliated those who voted for President Obama because they had been assured, and assured others, that the new president would take seriously the culture of life.

Yes, you people -- who keep bleating that abortion is "the greatest evil of our time, as slavery was in Lincoln's time" -- were/are suckers. Too fucking bad!

Really. The bipartisan olive branch should not extend as far as cretins like Michael Novak.

Will Texas Execute an Innocent Man Tomorrow?

In case you missed this post over the weekend, Larry Swearingen is scheduled to be executed tomorrow for the 1998 murder of Melissa Trotter. But forensic pathologists -- including the one that originally helped convict Swearingen -- have concluded that the physical evidence shows Swearingen could not have been the killer. (UPDATED)

Although prosecutors theorized that Trotter was killed and her body dumped in the forest the day of her disappearance, the corpse was amazingly well preserved when discovered. Six physicians and forensic scientists who reviewed the evidence concluded that the victim died well after Swearingen’s arrest.

Former Harris County Chief Medical Examiner Joye Carter, who testified against Swearingen in his trial, reexamined the physical evidence and has concluded that Trotter’s death occurred at least a week after Swearingen was taken into custody.

In a nutshell:

Dr. Glenn Larkin, a retired forensic pathologist who reviewed the case, told Texas Monthly that “no rational and intellectually honest person can look at the evidence and conclude Larry Swearingen is guilty of this horrible crime.”

The Dallas Morning News, the Houston Chronicle, and Texas Monthly all agree that there's serious doubt about Swearingen's guilt.

Tell Governor Rick "Culture of Life" Perry to stay the execution. Amnesty International has a petition.

Find out more here.

(crossposted at FDL)

UPDATE

A federal court has thankfully intervened.

A federal appeals court has granted a last-minute reprieve to a Texas man facing execution in the murder of a Houston-area college student, his attorney said.

My Birthday's In March.

The Washington Times comes up with some truly awesome gifts for people who hate their kids and want them to die:

[Click to enlarge for extra wingnuttiness]

It takes a certain amount of balls for the Clinton-hating Times to name a cigar after No-Longer-President-Bush.

...The Weekly Standard, not to be out done, is hocking this:


Classy.

Dear God, No.

This, I presume, is a joke:

It remains to be seen if Rosenthal fills [Kristol's] spot with a conservative or libertarian voice. But some of the writers he's spoken favorably of include the National Review's Byron York and The Atlantic's Megan McArdle.

Or it's an exorcise in sadism -- finding the only writer alive who will make Times readers nostalgic for Bill Kristol.

Way to go, guys!

Krugman v. Donaldson.

Who do you think won?

Is Texas about to execute an innocent man?

Forensic pathologists say the science points to yes.

Four forensic pathologists agree that Larry Swearingen, set to be executed Tuesday, could not have committed the 1998 murder that sent him to death row.

The four include the medical examiner whose testimony helped secure Swearingen's guilty verdict. That medical examiner now says college student Melissa Trotter's curiously preserved body could not have lain in the East Texas woods for more than 14 days — and probably was there for a much shorter time.

The results mean Swearingen was in jail when the 19-year-old's body was left behind, the pathologists say.

The Houston Chronicle calls for a stay and points to other exculpatory evidence.And Texas Monthly's excellent piece on the case, concludes:

The bottom line: Someone killed Melissa Trotter and dumped her body in the Sam Houston National Forest. But that someone was not Larry Swearingen.

Tell Governor Rick "Culture of Life" Perry stay the execution. Amnesty International has a petition.

Find out more here.

(crossposted at FDL)

Wingnut fight.

Frum vs. Erick Erickson.

K-Lo Strikes Again.

NYT:

Governor Goodhair's "Culture of Life."

Pure bullshit, like everything else about him.

Mark Hemingway: The Load His Mother Should've Swallowed.

Mark Hemingway indulges in that compassionate conservatism we used to hear so much about:

Perhaps it’s impolitic to speculate what a 19-year-old Ann Dunham would have done if abortion had been a legal option.

Not impolitic particularly, but why a guy who looks like the poster child for Megan's Law wants to go down that road is beyond me.

Clap, Clap.

Kudos to Karen Riley, an FDA spokesbot, for saying this with a straight face:

Both Geron and the FDA said the timing of the decision to approve the [stem cell] study was coincidental. "The FDA looks to the science on these types of issues, and we approve [such applications] based on a showing of safety," said Karen Riley, an FDA spokeswoman. "Political considerations have no role in this process."

Hahahahahaha! Get that lady a slot at Caroline's!

Meanwhile, since we're contractually obligated to check in People Whose Viewpoints No Longer Have Currency Are Blessedly No Longer Read Within the Oval Office, Putz observes that dude, there is a recession.

Just. Stay. Down.

G. hands Megan McArdle her ass.

There are times when the glaring ignorance one encounters from people who are paid to write about political issues is so severe -- so illustrative of how distorted and misleading our political discourse is -- that it's impossible to ignore even though one would really like to.

That's the InstaPutz motto!

[via nonynony]

Hasn't Sunk In.

I didn't think I'd see headlines like this any time soon. After eight years of Bush, I've been conditioned to live with a really shitty status quo. In short, things suck and they will not get better.

But as Dylan observed, things have changed. How oddly unnerving that Obama will do more good in his first month -- simply by virtue of the fact that he is not a horrible, petty person -- than Bush "accomplished" in eight years.

Heaven knows what the rest of the term holds, but what's happening now -- an undoing of a great injustice -- is not small beer and I, for one, am delighted.

...See this, too. It's wonderfully succinct.

Dick Blofeld.

A funny reader saw this and kindly obliged.


Heh.

Be a good boy scout, George.

And STFU.

Own Your Failures, Wingnuts.

K-Lo is unhappy to be reminded of that time when her "Presidential stud" flew over New Orleans and waved to all those non-GOP voters stranded on the rooftops.

Oh. Dear.

NRO spent the better part of the last eight years on its knees -- you'd think they'd have by now developed a gag reflex?

He might also consider listening to Paul Wolfowitz and Richard Perle.

Idiocy.

In Putz's world, the neocons are still Very Serious People, to be consulted on Very Serious Matters. Lucky for the real world, we've thrown those discredited morons out.

Hed of the Week.

Here.

btw, you heard it here first: Drinking establishments located on or near Wall Street shall be hereafter referred to as "TARP bars".

Let it be written...

A New Day.

This warms the heart.

The new [press] offices are designated not by nameplates, but by pieces of paper taped to the outside of the doors. The people who will be speaking for the president, who work in a small office just outside the press briefing room, include: Bill Burton, Josh Earnest, Jen Psaki, Tommy Vietor, Reid Cherlin, Ben LaBolt and Nick Shapiro.

At 9:46 a.m., another reporter walked into the press office.

“Good morning,” Mr. Burton said.

“I came to introduce myself,” the woman said. “I’m Helen Thomas.”

Harlem.

My nemesis.

Lenox was hopping last night as your TS beat his liver into submission, with a good deal of help from his harsh mistress Jameson, as well as her more forgiving cousin (seen above) and some divine catfish stuffed with shrimp.

It was a very kosher evening.

The chatter round the bar was near-consensus jubilation, but there were a few grumbles about John Roberts' flub.

Said the elderly man at the end of the bar: "Thurgood Marshall wouldn't have fucked up."

Dear WSJ, It's Over.

A speech only a Democrat would give.

What surprised me about Obama's inaugural speech was what a stinging rebuke of Republicanism it was, in particular, Bush era Republicanism. For all the talk lately about how Obama is a "post-partisan" Democrat, its partisanship was marked, especially in its stark rejection of the notions that the "free market" cures all and that the rule of law must be subjugated to security.

But this, to me, is the heart of the speech.

The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works — whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified.

From Reagan's first inaugural:

Government is not the solution to our problem. Government is the problem.

It's truly the end of an era.

(crossposted at FDL)

Anything Going On Today?

Sorry about the dearth of snark. My computer died last week, eaten by an unusually vicious swarm of PUMAs spyware.

Will have a replacement Dell shortly...

Debra Saunders: it's all the Bush haters' fault.

Don't think that's gonna fly, Deb.

This is the party Glenn Reynolds and Dr. Helen vote for.

A leading Tennessee Republican:

"Action will begin immediately to address the actions of Rep. Kent Williams," said Smith. "His commitment today was not to Republican principles, but to the blind and shameless pursuit of personal power. He cast his vote for a pro-tax, pro-gay, pro-abortion, anti-gun liberal Democrat to preside in leadership against all 49 of his Republican colleagues."

The GOP is defined today by fealty to Bush, love of torture and hatred of gays.

Pretty much it.

22%.

He's #1!

This paragraph, though, is misleading.

Views of Mr. Bush's popularity are highly partisan. Only 6 percent of Democrats approve of the job he has done as president, while 57 percent of Republicans approve. Eighteen percent of independents approve.

It's only "partisan" in the sense that only Republicans like Putz think Bush did a good job, which might be technically accurate, but that word implies Dems hate him, and Independents are split down the middle.

And by the way, kudos to Gore Vidal.

Mark my words. He will leave office the most unpopular president in history.

I Shall Lure Woo Her With the Promise of Donuts.

A man with a plan:

I'm going to spend my Jan. 20 impregnating someone just so we can abort the pregnancy.

Me? Change "someone" to K-Lo and baum chicka baum baum...

/ick

...I just made myself vomit. That's a first.

Good evil good evil good evil.

The Bush years, in a nutshell.

Everything's so clear to me now. I'm the King of the Cheese, and you're the Lemon Merchant.

Ren Höek Kevin McCullough got the memo. Like his equally fugly colleagues, it's dawned on him that the new regime will tolerate at most 5-6 wingnut pundits at a time -- the creme de la merde, if you will.

Kev was not on George Will's guest list (duh) and understands the implications, rightly surmising that come Tuesday, Barack's Black Muslim Strike Force will have his bug-eyed Marty Feldman ass up against the wall.

How else to explain this unusually illiterate attempt as jock-sniffing?

I was the first pundit in all of America to predict that Barrack [sic] Obama would be the next President.

President X will be none too pleased about that mangling of His name.

So Busy.

But I'm in a romantic mood (yes, your TS is capable of such feelinks) so for your enjoyment:

Jørgen Mortensen: Giulia, I know you can't understand what I'm saying. But I'll say it anyway.

I'm ten years older than you and I'm not really good at anything. I've no relatives any more. I'm no good at my job. I've no hobbies. Apart from doing Italian. And that's really for Halvfinn's sake, - because I'm no real good at languages. I can't even say anything to you. Actually I think I'm rather dull. I certainly haven't your temperament. And sex isn't something I feel confident about any more.

I know you don't understand what I'm saying. But if I don't say it now I'll never get it said. But I love you, Giulia, and I want to be with you for always. I'd like to have children ... and to watch you get older and grow old.

I'll love you every day from when I wake up till we do to bed at night.

I so much want to marry you, Giulia.

Giulia: I do understand a bit of Danish. I just speak it very badly. Perhaps I would like to marry you.

Hehindeedy!

Roy:

Later Simon and The Plumber made a YouTube for their many followers who can't read.

Rumble on Montague.

See, K.? We've got bangers.

FYI.

For the out-of-towners, this is approximately where the USAirways flight went down.



...Btw, the first motherfucker who says, "Well, at least wasn't terrorism!!111!!!" -- I'm going to slaughter.

5 More Days.

Gateway Pundit, last seen cackling over the body of Barack Obama's dying grandmother, has perverted the famous Niemöller poem, "First they came..."

In his version? Jews=waterboarding.

Dick Cheney, the last best hope.

Bill Bennett is a sick man.

Nocera Deserves an Apology. (Update)

With yesterday's news that he's taken a leave of absence from Apple, no doubt Steve Jobs has more important things to do than to apologize to a reporter. In the grand scheme of things, such a transgression is small beer. Still, this doesn't diminish how badly Jobs treated Joe Nocera, who had the misfortune to ask him for comment about Apple's "culture of secrecy" back in July.

"In June, rumors began swirling that Steve Jobs was sick again," wrote Nocera. "They had started during the company’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference, where Mr. Jobs looked unusually thin and haggard."

Nocera attempted to get Jobs on the phone and was initially blown off. Then:

On Thursday afternoon, several hours after I’d gotten my final “Steve’s health is a private matter” — and much to my amazement — Mr. Jobs called me. “This is Steve Jobs,” he began. “You think I’m an arrogant [expletive] who thinks he’s above the law, and I think you’re a slime bucket who gets most of his facts wrong.” After that rather arresting opening, he went on to say that he would give me some details about his recent health problems, but only if I would agree to keep them off the record. I tried to argue him out of it, but he said he wouldn’t talk if I insisted on an on-the-record conversation. So I agreed.

Nocera wrote that nothing Jobs told him "contradicted" his own reporting.

The bottom line? "Apple," wrote Nocera, "simply can’t be trusted to tell truth about its chief executive."

All indications -- including the conspicuous lack of a succession plan -- suggest that this is still the case.

...Nocera writes more about Jobs today: "The most indispensable chief executive in the United States, beloved by customers and investors for his magnificent turnaround of the company he founded — and for the amazing gadgets his company produces — can no longer be trusted on the subject of whether he is healthy enough to continue running the company."

Flashback to FAIL.

Ho ho ho. Connecticut Yankee Confederate Wankee Bob Owens is a funny man.

John McCain will not be a great President, but he will be our next President. -- October 20, 2008

Savor.

Loser.

Andrew Sullivan is undoubtedly correct that Paul Mirengoff, seeing his better-thought-of colleagues snag an invite to Wankfest '09, feels left out.

Too bad, loser. We all remember what happened the last time a Powerline douchebag got within spitting distance of a politician.

75%.

Stunning.

Savor.

Yeah, I'm actually looking forward to 4-8 years of sour grapes and Putz whining that Republicans have been "snookered" and "betrayed." I'm gonna drink that shit in like it's a new bottle of 18-year Jameson.

How much does it suck to be a Republican? Your boy has a 34% approval rating -- i.e. he's slightly less popular than Darragh Murphy's genital warts -- and this is the best you can do:



That's more funny than pathetic.

Right Wing News -- RedState for stupid people.

John Hawkins sees right through Obama's dinner with George Will!

...he's making a P.R. move by making meaningless nods to the right so that when he supports policies that Lenin would blanch at, he can come back and say, "Sure, I ran a trillion dollar deficit, got rid of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell,' and stopped the building of the border fence -- but I ate dinner with George Will! See? It all balances out! I'm a moderate!

Apparently, according to Hawkins, being Leninite means running massive deficits (that would include, of course, Reagan, Bush I, and obviously Chimpy), opposing a Clinton-era policy, and keeping the Mex'cans out.

Keep it up, John! You make Erick Erickson look smarter every day.

The tears of Instapundit.

Atrios still has a flair for hilarious titles.

The braindead right.

Dr. Mrs. Putz:

I'm just glad that Joe the Plumber is on the job giving the MSM hell over in Israel about their bias. Lord knows, somebody needs to.

Yeah, it was so awesome when he called out that anti-Israeli Israeli Reuters reporter!

Idiot.

Will Palin ever stop whining?

For a pitbull/hunter/Putin taunter, she sure is a WATB.

Indeed:

People weren't turned off by Palin because of the questions about her wardrobe or baby Trig. They were turned off because -- fairly or not -- they couldn't become comfortable with the idea of her sitting in the White House. Giving interviews to the likes of John Ziegler or exchanging nastygrams with the Anchorage Daily News isn't going to get her to be taken more seriously.

She's done.

Is Bush Olmert's bitch?

Sounds like.

Disclosure.

In the spirit of MAD's "Scenes We'd Like to See," here's some disclosure language I wish Putz would run:

"Hey! I have a financial stake in Pajamas Media. Each time I direct traffic to Pajamas Media, I make money! Heh!"

Otherwise, this...

JOE THE PLUMBER meets Chairman Mao in Gaza.

Posted at by Glenn Reynolds on Jan 13, 2009 at 2:22 pm Link

VIDEO: Joe the Plumber the Reporter in Israel.

Posted at by Glenn Reynolds on Jan 13, 2009 at 7:56 am Link

VIDEO: Joe the Plumber comes under Rocket Attack in Sderot.

Plus, questioning the press.

Posted at by Glenn Reynolds on Jan 12, 2009 at 9:47 am Link

JOE THE PLUMBER IN ISRAEL: Views both pro and con. I’d just say that the professionals who have been covering the mideast have set the bar for journalism pretty low . . . .

Posted at by Glenn Reynolds on Jan 12, 2009 at 9:35 am Link

JOE THE PLUMBER TO FOREIGN REPORTERS: “You should be ashamed of yourselves.”

UPDATE: Video.

Posted at by Glenn Reynolds on Jan 11, 2009 at 9:54 pm Link

WHO’S AFRAID OF JOE THE JOURNALIST? “If a community organizer can be president and a Saturday Night Live comedian can be a U.S. senator, why can’t a plumber be a reporter?”

Posted at by Glenn Reynolds on Jan 09, 2009 at 10:42 am Link

ON THE ONE HAND, JOE THE PLUMBER. On the other, Joe The Veep.

Posted at by Glenn Reynolds on Jan 09, 2009 at 2:45 am Link

KARMA: CNN DISSES JOE THE PLUMBER — then has to yank fake video from Gaza. What’s their experience, again? What are their credentials? Oh, yeah. Right. Those. Nice work, guys.

Posted at by Glenn Reynolds on Jan 08, 2009 at 7:41 pm Link

JOE THE PLUMBER IN ISRAEL: Joe the Plumber: Mr. Smith Goes to Jerusalem for Pajamas TV.

UPDATE: CNN’s Kyra Phillips unloads on Joe the Plumber. “I wouldn’t think Phillips, who gained considerable notoriety in a restroom, would think ‘flush’ jokes are all that humorous.” Ouch. Reader C.J. Burch emails: “As long as he doesn’t lie through his teeth he’ll be way ahead of CNN…and most other journalists.” Ouch again.

Posted at by Glenn Reynolds on Jan 07, 2009 at 8:23 pm Link

JOE THE PLUMBER will be reporting from Israel.

UPDATE: D’oh! Should’ve mentioned it’s for PJTV. Apparently the news is causing a bit of a stir.

Posted at by Glenn Reynolds on Jan 07, 2009 at 12:54 pm Link

...is just weird. The thing is, if Putz want to hump this stuff for financial reasons, I, a proud capitalist, would totally understand. However, if he thinks Asscrack Joe is doing good work -- he was last seen insinuating that an Israeli reporter wasn't sufficiently pro-Israel -- well, that's mucho embarrassing!

Proud of the Hood.

22,000-odd residents and we've got two Golden Globe winners!

Suck it, Carroll Gardens!

Newest Member of the IP Blogroll: Lars Eighner.

Lars Eighner, author of the great Travels With Lizbeth, has a blog! Mr. Eighner doesn't update it much, but it's a real comfort to know he's around. (Some years back, via e-mail, Mr. Eighner told me he was physically incapable of writing anything of real length. So the new format makes sense.)

Anyway, if you're not familiar with Mr. Eighner, this is as good a place as any to begin. This, too.

Perhaps our massive meager traffic will induce further posting...

...RELATED:




Bad Journal! Bad Journal!

Michael Yon, Hack.

Mike's really working his sources:

I also had a long and important meeting with General (ret.) Barry McCaffrey. His trip reports from Iraq and Afghanistan have been brutally honest. I have great respect for this American warrior. I had other important meetings in Washington with thought leaders such as David Kilcullen, Ph.D., and I met with Fred Kagan, Ph.D., in Bahrain. I saw Fred Kagan on an elevator and immediately asked for a meeting, which proved valuable to me.

I wonder what Kagan's boots taste like. Yum? Anyway, Kilcullen seems like an alright guy, but McCaffrey? Did St. Yon pay him in cash, check, or stock options?

Bill Roggio has JTPDS.

Even the liberal Israel-hating Weekly Standard thinks JTP is a joke.

Nice going, PJs! And you keep on linking to those JTP stories, Putz.

The Tab.

A question I have seen neither asked nor answered:

Who is funding Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher's trip to Israel?

This isn't something I'd ordinarily ask, but given that PJTV is a startup (i.e. no profits, no real inflows), has only been in existence since the GOP convention, and the cost of the trip presumably considerable -- well, I do wonder!

The answer would quite possibly color one's assessment of his reporting.

That's Gotta Hurt.

Pajamas Media, which curiously gets attention only when they embarrass themselves, is getting thrashed by craven wanker Uncle Jimbo of Blackfive, who (it tickles me to note) is a Pajamas Media Network blogger -- a designation that sounds really prestigious and, one assumes, pays for the first year at Dalton.

Yesiree, it's bad enough that Uncle Jimbo has shown himself to be an appeaser (like Chamberlain!), but he's also in Benedict Arnold territory: witness his decision to slag his esteemed employers not from his own site (as would befit a real man) but from enemy territory, the dreaded, dreadful Casa De Althouse!

I worked for Pajamas Media and have great respect and admiration for Roger Simon. He is a brilliant and insightful writer. That is what makes this stunt such a shameful descent from seriousness into National Enquirer level garbage. Joe the Plumber is certainly moderatley entertaining, but the only reason PJTV sent him to Israel was to capitalize on the dumbass response from Old School media. He knew he would get a Drudge link and that was all he was aiming for.

Joe has no knowledge or experience that makes his "war reporting" valuable or informed. They would have been better served sending Triumph the Insult Comic Dog.

Shark jumped.

Cordially,

Uncle J

And again.

The question is not so much is Joe qualified to be an unqualified commenter on events, of course he is. The question is should he be the flag carrier for new media, which consists of many who have put forth quality work, commentary, punditry and, dare I say, journalism. Sending out someone, who as it was noted simply called "Naked" as if that is the only prerequisite to be taken seriously damages the idea that an outfit like PJTV ought to be considered as an alternative to the fading media giants.

Send Joe to cover the red carpet at the Golden Globes. Send Bill Roggio, or Michael Totten if you want new media coverage of a shooting war.

Joe is a circus side show.

Cordially,

Uncle J

The kicker? Uncle Jimbo, last seen bathing the taint of Jonah Goldberg, knows from stupid.

Ouch.

...links fixed with the kind assistance of Althouse.

Sullivan smacks Glenn Reynolds around, Chapter 953

A doozie of a title, too: "Glenn Reynolds goes to war."

And this guy hasn't been paying much attention:

Just as I like to engage liberal media outlets rather than denouncing them, taking their basic goodwill as a given and their improvement as a benefit for us all, I intend here to engage the folks at Pajamas Media, in hopes that they’ll see the error of their ways.

Yeah, and monkeys will fly out of my butt.

Meanwhile, check out some of Joe's "reporting" from Israel.

Republicans Are Weird.

Exhibit A:

I'd wager that nearly every conservative in America has fantasized about testifying to senators the way Jack [Bauer] did in the opening sequence of last night's episode.

I guess once you take sex out of the equation, there's very little left to entertain the Id.

Well Done, Pajamas Media.

First, they get Rain Man to cover the most complex geopolitical situation imaginable, and now they've got proud racist, Robert Stacy McCain, to ponder the question: "Is Prince Harry a Bigot?"

Let me know what side the Kleagle McCain comes down on, would you?

Still Sick.

Snark will have to wait til tomorrow.

In the meantime...

Besides Glenn Reynolds...

...there's at least one other person who thinks Chimpy was awesome.

Bad.

The only thing that keeps this book from being worse than Liberal Fascism is Roger L. Simon's blessed lack of ambition.

That Sound You Hear Is Jeff Jarvis Getting a Boner.

J-Ro:

"P-I employees were silent. Some of them shed tears."
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Others held up cell phones or voice recorders in press-conference fashion as they heard that their paper was up for sale. "This is awful, awful, awful," editorial cartoonist David Horsey said after the newsroom meeting. "I was just standing there looking around at all these people I love to work with. I don't want this to happen to me or them."

(TS out.)

Um...

Backstory, plz?

IN THE MAIL: Alex's The Great Cock Hunt. Looks interesting! Insta-Wife says it's pretty good.

Just like the glibertarians will rediscover limits on executive powers...

...Noonan has discovered that presidents are just ordinary guys.

I Assume the End is Nigh? (Also?)

Larry Johnson, or who may or may not have participated in a sex tape, looks at the latest wingnuttia du jour -- a "CNN cover-up"!!!1111!! -- and pronounces it... bullshit.

Hmmmm. How deliciously unexpected!

Someone needs to break the crazy tie: Truthteller Kenneth Brummel, fucking hypocrite, and Susan Hudgens -- what say y'all?

Apparently We Didn't Hit You Hard Enough The First Time.

Because bashing community organizers worked out so well at the GOP convention, Putz takes another shot here:

WHO’S AFRAID OF JOE THE JOURNALIST? “If a community organizer can be president and a Saturday Night Live comedian can be a U.S. senator, why can’t a plumber be a reporter?”

Malkin and Putz's decision to ignore the glaring commonality between Obama and Franken -- intelligence -- pretty much ensures that the GOP (of which they are quite representative) will suffer 4-8 years of epic, flaming fails.

I, for one, cannot wait.

G. Died for Your Sins.

Glenn Greenwald's got balls of steel. Not just anyone would pretend to take Hugh Hewitt seriously without a book to sell.

And yet!

The whole interview is chock full of awesome, but this part is my favorite, in which Hugh professes to forget Fat Man and Little Boy.

HH: Did America fight World War II proportionately?

GG: No.

HH: It didn’t?

GG: Not in the sense that I just described. Now again, I don’t think that America fought it disproportionately, violated the laws of war that govern proportionality, but there were certainly morally questionable acts that were undertaken…

HH: Such as?

GG: …at the end of the day, well, such as the use of two nuclear weapons to incinerate and vaporize hundreds of thousands of Japanese at once, and have radiation lingering for generations in their country. [...]

Oh. Snap.

Poseur Alert.

Ironically enough, Andrew Sullivan:

So I ordered the fancy-ass Tazo London Fog Tea Latte at Starbucks - because a man has to have something to help the petite vanilla bean scones go down. It cost over $3. And when I started to drink it, I got this Proustian feeling.

And the sun will come up tomorrow.

On October 1st, I wrote:

It's pretty clear that Putz and the drooling Malkinites in wingnutland are getting ready to blame the corporate media when Obama wins.

Q.E.D.

With Apologies to Atrios. (Update with More Misc.)

Wankers of the Day... PBS! Apparently the once-august institution is now being run (into the ground) by Kathryn Jean Motherfucking Mother Superior Lopez.

(Kudos to The Times for the headline. Very funny, you perverts.)


...Grace reminds me of my favorite article. Thank you, Grace. Oh, and so long as I'm tying up some loose ends -- ha ha ha -- methinks SisB is too kind to this prick.

GOP to repeal Fairness Doctrine.

22 years after it's been repealed.

Luckily, there's not much going on these days.

...TS ADDS: Also, heh.

Oy.

Sully: I can't believe it's gonna take you that long to get me out of jail.
Wirf: Don't blame me, I'm a Jew. They're not my holidays.
Sully: A Jew? Really? I didn't know that. How come you ain't smart?

NoWanker:

Is puma the new jew - a people persecuted for their beliefs, and eventually for their failure to fall in line, and follow the chosen one?

I'm gonna go with no -- also?

[via]

Crap.

Well. This is not a good way to kick off a Thursday.

I interned at Arcade Publishing a while back -- lobbied quite hard to get this book published; it probably sold, like, 3 copies -- and fondly recall Dick's gregariousness and Jeanette's fruit smoothies.

Dick Seaver was a good man and, oh yeah, in the grand scheme of things I probably owe a bit of my filthy mind to him.

This really sucks.

Appeasers!

The "Hamas is the Nazis!" hysteria, debunked by Israel.

It Burns.

AP:

TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) — Joe The Plumber is putting down his wrenches and picking up a reporter's notebook.

The Ohio man who became a household name during the presidential campaign says he is heading to Israel as a war correspondent for the conservative Web site pjtv.com.

Samuel J. Wurzelbacher (WUR'-zuhl-bah-kur) says he'll spend 10 days covering the fighting.

He tells WNWO-TV in Toledo that he wants to let Israel's "'Average Joes' share their story."

Wurzelbacher gained attention during the final weeks of the campaign when he asked Barack Obama about his tax plan.

He later joined Republican John McCain on the campaign trail. At one stop, he agreed with a McCain supporter who asked if he believed a vote for Obama was a vote for the death of Israel.

Nice to see these alleged defenders of the Jewish state are taking the conflict so seriously.

[via]

10:39

Sarah Palin 2012!

Beautiful.

I'd still love her to run and win just to see her fail to get out of the primary in 2012.

Revenge is Best Served Tepid.

Hmmmm. Looks like K-Lo is still pissed that Edsall exposed her boy Thomas "Militiamen" Smith as a filthy, fabricating liar.

FYI.

It took a while, but there might just be a review of Fellating Myself: I Used To Consider Myself A Democrat, But Thanks To 9/11, I’m Outraged By Chappaquiddick by your TS next week.

QOTD.

Barney Frank:

“There are three lies politicians tell,” he told the real-estate group. “The first is ‘We ran against each other but are still good friends.’ That’s never true. The second is ‘I like campaigning.’ Anyone who tells you they like campaigning is either a liar or a sociopath. Then, there’s ‘I hate to say I told you so.’ ” He went on, “Everybody likes to say ‘I told you so.’ I have found personally that it is one of the few pleasures that improves with age. I can say ‘I told you so’ without taking a pill before, during, or after I do it.”

ReaganReaganReaganReaganReaganReagan

This ain't gonna work.

Human LOLCats.

Via BT, this is too awesome for words. Here's the GOP's plan to appeal to the under-60 demographic:

"We have to do it in the Facebook, with the Twittering, the different technology that young people are using today," Duncan ventured.

In a related note, meet my new buddy:



Please contain your jealousy.

Lewis and Einhorn. [bumped]

There's been a lot written about Michael Lewis and David Einhorn's pair of pieces in The New York Times. The praise is deserved; their work is excellent.

My problem is on a more meta, ethical level, deriving entirely from this note:

Michael Lewis, a contributing editor at Vanity Fair and the author of “Liar’s Poker,” is writing a book about the collapse of Wall Street. David Einhorn is the president of Greenlight Capital, a hedge fund, and the author of “Fooling Some of the People All of the Time.” Investment accounts managed by Greenlight may have a position (long or short) in the securities discussed in this article.

To be blunt, the split byline makes me queasy. Reasons are two:

1) What exactly did Einhorn bring to the project? This is important because, to my knowledge, Lewis -- arguably the most beloved financial journalist in America -- doesn't often collaborate and, frankly, it's difficult to see why he did so here. It's not as if Einhorn is explicitly offering thoughts on short-selling.

2) More bothersome is how this makes Lewis look. 20 years' worth of writing on the financial services industry reveals Lewis to be nothing less than scrupulously honest. When he reaches prescriptive conclusions, we assume it's done after much thought, research and a weighing of all sides of the given issue -- and that, ultimately, Lewis's views are his own. (He's earned this assumption largely because we know he's knowledgeable.)

This is different. He has now publicly attached himself to a major player in an industry he covers -- a pretty significant line to cross. Can we expect a similar collaboration with, say, John Meriwether?

...CJR's Ryan Chittum responds here.

It's Good To Be Alive.

...On a related note, please vote for dumbtoast Rumproast. kthxbai!

Paul Mulshine tears Glenn Reynolds' face off.

I know TS has already written about this, but Mulshine's post is just so delicious, it deserves even more promotion.

Now, normally, I'd be insulted by a passage like this:

The more I look at what passes punditry on the Internet, the more I realize that a great number of the self-appointed pundits are mere parasites. Their relationship to real journalists is that of a tick to a dog.

The fattest, most engorged tick of them all is Glenn Reynolds, the self-proclaimed "Instapundit."

But because it's about Putz, all is forgiven.

The other day Reynolds had a post in which he blasted media outlets for cutting back coverage of the Iraq War. I first learned of it on Instaputz, a site devoted to documenting the idiocies of Instapundit.

And that's exactly why Instaputz exists -- to ensure that MSM types like Mulshine (some of whom still call him a "libertarian" or "non-partisan") know what a right-wing GOP hack he is.

Get off your fat ass, Glenn, and go cover the war. If you think you can make a better war correspondent than, say, Tom Ricks of the Washington Post, well just hop on a plane and prove it.

Well, we know that's not gonna happen.

Instapundit's comments amount to little more than a lawyer's brief against real journalists for failing to act as cheerleaders for the liberal internationalists who conducted this exercise in nation-building. The funny thing is that Reynolds, like other lawyer-bloggers, can do excellent work when he sticks to what he knows, which is the law. But he is totally naive when blogging about war.

And everything else, including the law. Otherwise he wouldn't be teaching at a 3rd-tier law school.

Pajamas Putziness.

Ron Rosenbaum says if you don't think Israel's invasion of Gaza is a good idea, you're a Nazi.

Or something like that.

Big Media Spanking.

I do not endorse Paul Mulshine's central contention -- that Putz ought to get off his ass, head to Iraq and "go cover the war" -- because I don't want the bowl-headed douchebag to be martyred. However, this observation is spot-fucking-on:

The more I look at what passes punditry on the Internet, the more I realize that a great number of the self-appointed pundits are mere parasites. Their relationship to real journalists is that of a tick to a dog.

The fattest, most engorged tick of them all is Glenn Reynolds, the self-proclaimed "Instapundit."

As the name implies, Reynolds endorses the theory that in the era of the Internet anyone can provide political commentary instantly, i.e. without benefit of reflection, experience or knowledge.

There's no doubt this can be done. But why do it?

Hehindeedreadthewholethinginterestingiftrue!

Great Moments In Punditry.

Hehindeedy!

[via]

Cheney, like Glenn Reynolds, thinks Iraq has been awesome.

We won and it was awesome!

Other than blaming it all on the Iraqis, what was striking about Cheney's appearance this morning on "Face the Nation" was that he said that Obama is going to have to deal with the financial crisis, much like BushCo had to deal with "the aftermath of 9/11" -- failing to note that BushCo has presided over both.

Awful.

I can't believe it's been only a year.

Thanks for the comments, both from Hilzoy and all the others who have done so during the past year. Nancy and I have gotten some solace from the idea that so many people admired and respected Andy. I know how much he enjoyed blogging, and how much he enjoyed getting comments. The comments seem like a fitting tribute to my son.

Wes Olmsted

Dr. Helen: the historically-bad economy is just a figment of your imagination.

Dr. Mrs. Putz thinks the longest recession since WWII and the Dow losing 30% of its value in a year is all just in your mind.

And it's the media's fault, too.

Once again, wingnuts defy parody.

Ten-Foot Pole.

I know TP is excited that Erin Brockovich is involved in the Putzville toxic sludge nightmare, but maybe they should give more consideration to the fact [pdf], and a bit less to the fiction.

Liberal orgs do themselves no favors when they hitch a wagon to a disreputable individual whilst in the service of a just cause. [see: Wilson, Joe]

Make It Stop.

Putz links to some wanker named The Futurist, who has written what Putz calls an "I-told-you-so":

So now, in 2008, I am happy to declare that the United States has WON in Iraq, and has made Iraq a reasonably peaceful, functioning democracy with a strongly growing economy.

Huzzah! This glorious victory, says TF, "sends anti-American fifth-columnists (8-10% of the US population) and Euro-leftists into apoplectic, writhing agony" and

Just as a strong offense towards Al-Qaeda hastened their collapse in Iraq, a strong offense against the fifth column will send them to the same fate as their Al-Qaeda allies. We owe it to our troops to expose and shame those who hoped for their failure and even their deaths...

Christ on a cauliflower. Surely Putz doesn't think there's a groundswell of nostalgia for warmed-over Andrew Sullivan, circa, like, 2001?

It happens to all the greats, even Philip Roth; Putz has run out of material.

What this means for us: four years of Putz bitching about idiotarians.