Plame is testifying, but if you were to watch the cable networks, you wouldn’t know it. You have to tune in to it at C-Span.
Go figure.
Henry Waxman looks old, btw.
by John Cole| 93 Comments
This post is in: Politics
Plame is testifying, but if you were to watch the cable networks, you wouldn’t know it. You have to tune in to it at C-Span.
Go figure.
Henry Waxman looks old, btw.
Comments are closed.
dreggas
Kind of like the recent spate of Non-Sequitur cartoons where there is a sudden violent eruption of a volcano located in Iowa and all the news people can focus on is whether any celebrities were hurt, of course now coverage has shifted to one missing a flight…
ThymeZone
Yeah, as I said to the Open Thread, I expect that all the Bushbuttlickers are here waiting their turn to apologize to us for three years of bald faced lies about this case, the “not covert” bullshit and the “Plame suggested Wilson for the trip” bullshit?
Oh, sorry, one would have to have watched the hearing and seen the testimony to understand that.
Well, it’s easy to do: CSPAN and MSNBC online both had it live, you could watch it on your computer.
So you guys all saw it, right?
To say that Ms. Plame was convincing and obviously a worthy public servant would be a gross understatement, right?
I mean, there is SOMETHING more worth saying than “damned media didn’t cover it,” right?
Anyone?
Jill
Another example of Team Bush not realizing that competent, smart people are better than loyal, dumb Republicans.
John Cole
Thymezone, are you off your meds again? Every day you come here, right out of the gate, and start launching salvos at people. It is getting more than a little fucking old.
Am I one of the Bushbuttlickers? I really don’t think so, so tone it down a notch. I will watch the testimony (although I am little perturbed they are limiting it to five minutes of questioning) and then respond.
ThymeZone
What the hell is your problem? I didn’t say anything about you being a Bush bootlicker.
What’s the deal, John, is snark now only okay if you approve of it here?
Or are you smarting from my constant hammering on you for letting that piece of shit Darrell post here and ruin your fucking website?
or are you just in a pissy mood and decided to take it out on me, the commenter you love to hate?
Fuck off.
John Cole
How exactly was I supposed to interpret that any other way than I am a bush bootlicker whose only comment is that the networks are not covering it?
ThymeZone
Okay, for the record, since you apparently are having really thin sckin today:
I do not now, nor have I ever, considered you to be a Bush Bootlicker/Buttkissser. Quite the opposite, as a matter of fact, a thing easily ascertained by reading my posts for the last two years. In fact you have, as I have acknolwedged many times, led the charge AGAINST the bootlicker/buttkissers here.
Okay?
ThymeZone
But my point about the Plame testimony and its relevant content stands. I highly recommend that all endeavor to see the replays and/or read the transcripts. In one sitting, several years of righty lies and bullshit, exposed for what they were, namely, an attempt to discredit a critic of this stupid frigging war using underhanded and dishonest tactics, led directly from the highest places in the White House.
Zifnab
TZ has PTDD – Post Tramatic Darrell Disorder. He tends to lash out at the guy before Darrell even starts posting.
That said, I agree with him on one thing. The 24/7 networks are full of dumb blondes and pretty-boy high school drop-outs paid to cover other dumb blondes and pretty-boy high school drop-outs. They need to change CNN to the Celebrity News Network and be done with it. At least when FOX goes in on a wildly partisan hackfest of perverse sexual innuendo, racism, and religious hate-bating, they have to decency to focus on world events.
ThymeZone
So, the rule is that we can’t mention Darrell on a thread unless he has actually posted to it?
Two years of fucking abuse from the piece of shit, and we dasn’t mention his name?
Fuck that.
Rome Again
Well, I can tell you, John, that when I read that, I wasn’t thinking of YOU at all. Actually, if you did come to mind, this blog would be a LOT less popular, and folks like TZ and I wouldn’t be here. It is to your credit that TZ DIDN’T equate you with Bush bootlickers (nor did I). Did you get an audit notice in the mail or something? It seems something totally unrelated is bothering you today.
No, it’s not about YOU John, the folks that come to mind are: Darrell, Jimmy Mack, Defense Guy… you get the idea, don’t you?
Rome Again
Funny, RSA mentioned Stormy on another thread, and she hasn’t been here for a LONG time. Darrell is at least here on a regular basis.
ThymeZone
I think he gets the idea, Rome. I also think that it boils down to one of two things, either
a) Petulance, it’s my blog and I can do what I want, or
b) What the hell, Darrell is good for traffic.
So, fine, it’s his call. But it stinks and I am going to say so at every opportunity. Darrell’s presence here is a fucking insult to the people who support this blog. Period.
Rome Again
Well, I understand all good things come to an end one day, I’m glad you’ve found other activities to replace your time here when it is over. I have a feeling that end may be coming in the not too distant future.
dreggas
Not to defend Darrell and his ilk but there is one reason why I think John doesn’t ban his ass.
He (John) always mentions how fucked up the echo chamber is elsewhere and how the right likes to ban people they disagree with etc. They’ll even ban people that their commenters don’t like.
Rather than being hypocritical and harping on them while doing the same thing they do vis-a-vis Darrell John let’s even the assholes stay and post only because he is the better person for it. Hell there are plenty of leftwing blogs that will ban you for the same thing, that is not toeing some idoelogical line, for example calling Hugo Chavez a thug which he is.
Not that things would be a lot more peaceful around here minus the Darrell’s and others that are, for the most part, disingenuous and even down right rude and insulting but if you want to cast stones be sure you don’t live in a glass house.
Hope my point is taken as it is and not an attack on anyone, because I do see all sides and most of the time I do want to bang my head on my desk reading some of the blatantly idiotic things written by the 28 percenters. But I can admire the fact that John doesn’t ban them because he probably holds himself to a higher standards than the others out there.
That, and, well I think he enjoys watching the blood bath that ensues whenever someone makes an outright false and idiotic statement.
Mr Furious
All I could find online was Plame’s opening statement. Good stuff. Of course it will be dismissed by the aforementioned bootlickers, but the fact remains, she is there testifying under oath and setting the record straight. Somethiing the pussies on the Administration side are unwilling to do…
ThymeZone
We’re gladiators, then.
We die for the empire.
Andrew
I think ppGaz has multiple personality disorder and also writes He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.
dreggas
eh given how things usually work it’s more like the 28 percenters are the ones sacrificed for his entertainment.
CaseyL
The Plame hearings are amazing – and I’m just following them secondhand, via dKos’ live-blogging. Plame stated, under oath and for the record, that she was indeed a covert agent. She stated, under oath and for the record, that she did not get the CIA to send Joe Wilson to Niger. She stated, under oath and for the record, that the CIA did try to keep Novack from publishing her identity.
The wingnuts over at Maguire’s place are going up in little puffs of smoke. Rather than admithtey’ve been played for fools, they’re concocting elaborate fantasies of the Wilsons, CIA, the FBI, the Democratic Party, and quite possibly God Himself being in on an elaborate plot against George Bush.
annie's granny
Oh for… Darrell ruins every thread that he’s and now he’s ruining the ones he’s not in. Can’t we at least make him work to take over the discussion?
As to what Team Bush has to say about the testimony, the Freepers are all excited that she perjured herself, and the commenters at Protein Wisdom are still blaming Joe Wilson.
Rome Again
I can tell you for a fact he doesn’t, unless he has four hands, and two brains.
dreggas
In other words the right is currently behaving (again) like Ash from Alien when he melted down, complete with foaming at the mouth and making weird noises?
Paul L.
Bushbuttlickers?
Question, can I call all of the defenders of Al Gore energy consumption Gorebuttlickers?
dreggas
I am reminded again and again by a saying that I read once (in Stephen King’s It).
“He thrusts his fists against the posts and still insists he sees the ghosts”
ThymeZone
That actually makes a lot of sense. Therefore we have to conclude that God also hates America.
If I can do that, then that’s talent, not a disorder.
No, I don’t write Darrell. I am no good at spoof. That makes me an outlier here, of course.
ThymeZone
Sure. Care to name them?
RSA
I couldn’t resist checking out a live blogging exercise at PowerLine. Summary, all quotes:
For what it’s worth (which is not much aside from entertainment value).
dreggas
only when committed by those not in the bush administration per these same jack asses.
ThymeZone
That’s either spoof, or indistinguishable from spoof. In either case, you are watching the rants of the mental ward day room crowd. Completely irrelevant. The 28%ers are going to howl on cue just as we figured they would.
Zifnab
Joe Wilson and Valarie Plame secretly smuggled WMD material out of Iraq! That’s why we didn’t find any!
ThymeZone
Looks like the Plame show is back on.
Replay on MSNBC video.
Rome Again
Pennywise!
dreggas
One of Tim Curry’s best roles really, that book scared me Sh*tless when I read it in 5th grade. I was watching a documentary on a haunted house not long ago and the house was very much like It. It fed off of your fears.
The Other Andrew
I’m all for having diversity of opinion, here, but I’d prefer reality-acknowledging moderates like John, rather than fringe wackos like Darrell. The former can engage in intelligent debate, the latter just derails everything. So, I can kind of see John’s problem, here…if he wants to avoid an echo chamber, he’s stuck with the fringes, as we don’t seem to have any moderates.
Rome Again
I simply LOVED that book dreggas. The movie, not so much.
ThymeZone
True, but irrelevant. It isn’t Darrells views that are the problem. It’s Darrell. It’s the refusal to answer questions, to take positions, to make an argument, to state a case. It’s the anke biting, the relentless “scum” putdowns, the thread hijacks, the attitude, the harassment.
Nothing about righty views requires any of that. And Darrell doesn’t even really represent any particular righty view. Ask him to state his opinion on a major topic, he has never done it in two years that I know of.
Paul L.
Sure
Ezra Klein
and
Keith Olbermann and Crooks and Liars
Paul L.
And of course the favorite of the comments here MediaMatters.
Wash. Post reported “think tank’s” charge against Gore, omitted its anti-environmental background
Reports on criticism of Gore omitted steps he reportedly took to reduce “carbon footprint”
LLeo
TZ, You did come out of the starting gates pretty strong. I think Zifnab’s diagnosis of PTDD may be accurate. I ignore Darell posts because they are content free. I think his arguments are exclusively “But other people did nearly the same bad thing!”.
As you have rightly pointed out his lack of any statement of priciples on any subject is cowardly. But after a while you have to let go.
Other people have argued that ignoring the crazies is part of the reason the crazies are in power today. However, I don’t think that reasoning applies with Darell or Darell-look-a-likes given he never actually asserts any statement of priciples, and only argues over minutiae.
So with all due respect (really), cool your blood and only deal with posters with content and civility.
jg
what’d you think of the pre-teen sex scene?
Grrr
Obviously. Why else would he have created these abominations.
Damn pacifist sex-crazed mokeys.
jg
You mean his ‘responses’ right? Its certainly not argument.
ThymeZone
So, Paul, presenting facts that conflict with your views is considered “buttlicking?”
Here’s a fact for you: According to reports I’ve seen, Gore’s house is about ten times the size of mine, but his utility bill is less than ten times mine, when fees and taxes are taken out of both our bills. Just his power consumption versus mine, and I have a very very typical smallish house.
So, what’s the beef, and who is licking whose butt?
According to you, apparently, any response to a false charge is “buttlicking?”
RSA
If I remember correctly, that part was pretty unpleasant (for readers like me, though King seems not to have intended it to be so). “We’re lost underground, close to giving up. I know, let’s all have sex with the girl in our group!”
ThymeZone
Jesus, the crap you read around here. I write what I think. If you don’t like it, you can argue against it, you can challenge it, you can ignore it, you can rant that it sucks. But don’t tell me what to write or how to write it, it’s none of your damned business.
Grrr
*monkeys
Rusty Shackleford
Valerie Plame gives me action in the pants (as FES would say).
LLeo
TZ, I did challenge the part of your post I disagree with. I disagree with the tone “bushbuttlickers”, “bullshit”, etc.
I agree that this “she was not NOC” meme is false. You are NOC by definition. If the CIA says you are NOC, then you are NOC. The CIA repeatedly claimed she was NOC. They referred the Novack collumn leak to the DOJ because Valerie Wilson was NOC and had utilized her cover oversees within the 5 years prior to the leak.
I was under the impression that she did bring up her husbands name during discussions about the “Yellow Cake from Niger” issue because he has significant experience and contacts in West Africa. I don’t know if “recommended” or “sent” apply to her suggestion.
Please remember vitriol really turns off people who would otherwise share your views.
LLeo
Yes. That is a better way to characterize Darrell’s posts.
Grrr
Darrell is a victim, a symbol of a lost cause. He is to be pitied, not engaged.
Can we please fucking forget and ignore people like Darrell and move on?
AkaDad
I don’t think anyone could have anticipated that outing a covert CIA agent would embolden our enemies and hurt the War On Terror™.
LLeo
I strongly agree. Ignore the trolls.
The important point to to recognize people who you may disagree with yet are engaged in an honest argument. You never know Bush/GOP might one day have a good position; even broken clocks are right twice a day. Further, I am certain that Dems/Librals/Progressives are not correct 100% of the time.
ThymeZone
Please remember that I don’t care. If “vitriol” is enough to get people to change their views, then to hell with them.
Putting up with two years of Darrell’s shit and fighting back isn’t “vitriol,” it’s reasonable self defense, and if it’s too painful for someone to watch, then they should avert their delicate little eyes for crissakes.
This isn’t a nursery school here. We aren’t putting on a puppet show for the tildren, are we?
Fuck.
ThymeZone
Yeah? Well, watch and learn how that strategy works around here. Maybe two years from now when you have had enough, you’ll lower yourself to saying the F word too.
Six years of watching the country fucked over and two years of putting up with fucking Darrell, and I am supposed to write like Mister Rogers? Uh, no.
ThymeZone
Yeah, but if you want to know the time, you really need a clock that isn’t broken. And if the broken one is a cuckoo clock that pops out and yells “scum” at you fifty times a day, prety soon you are going to take a hammer to the fucking broken clock and smash it into smithereens. Right?
Pb
I’m 100% with TZ here because I know exactly who and what he was talking about:
Indeed, an apology or at least an admission that they (those who spouted such claims) were wrong on this one would be nice–it’d be the right and honest thing to do. Therefore, of course this won’t be forthcoming.
That’s because are the very model of the partisan liars they claim to decry–so much so that they can’t even admit it to themselves, they are incapable of doing so lest their fantasy-based world of talking points and spin collapse around them. And it couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch.
Pb
Some of them just aren’t, though. Some of them are outright liars, and others are wilfully ignorant, and many of them simply aren’t interested in the facts, period. And I suppose I might as well include the Stormy link I managed to leave out from the last post.
Paul L.
So you think it is OK for the Goracle to live in a house 10 times bigger than yours because he cares about the environment.
Afterall he is the Goracle and you are one of the masses who should sacrifice.
Gore isn’t quite as green as he’s led the world to believe
Pb
Paul L.,
I haven’t seen your apology yet. Or is Gore testifying to Congress?
Grrr
That wasn’t my point at all. The fact that you hitched Bush to the GOP wagon proves how clueless you are.
Sometimes broken clocks are always broken because they always say its 13 O’Clock.
My point was that honest arguments from the Right in this sort of venue are no longer common. They are tainted, stepped-on and suspect by the time they reach street level.
And I have neither the time nor inclination to debate why this true. Because you know damn well why.
Krista
Gore would have to live in a mud hut and do everything by candlelight in order for his opponents to not shriek about hypocrisy. And even then, they’d find something…
Not surprised that Henry Waxman looks old, by the way. You put anybody in politics and after three years they look like they’ve aged 10 years, from what I’ve seen. I can’t figure out if it’s due to stress, or due to bullshit poisoning from being around all of those other politicians.
LLeo
TZ and Pb,
I am a strange cookie. I express myself more civilly online than I do in person. I think it is because of the trauma of participating online in the Usenet days.
I share your utter frustration with the outright lies from the Bushites. BTW, they are more 35%-ers. I pitty the Republican Party. The GOP is a plummetting fiery aeroplane and all they can do is beat each over the head with the fire extinguisher.
However, it is that same self-destructive behavior that make me want to think about what we do after the crash the plane.
Our Military is going to be severly broken.
Our Diplomatic influence in the world is close to NIL.
Our Economy is slouching towards recession.
Economic disparity is increasing. When does that become to much for our democracy to sustain.
Our Homeland Security is in disarray. First responders still don’t have standardize communication equipment.
There is more than the Bushites to consider. The post-Bush world scares me. I am more concerned about that, than a few Darrells.
dreggas
Honestly I don’t remember it but then again it was the horror that I remember and thinking how my town was a lot like the town of Derry.
AkaDad
Why haven’t the liberal media reported that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed had confessed that Valerie Plame was actually an undercover mole for Al Qaeda?!?
jg
IF I have a problem with that does that mean global warming isn’t real?
jg
KSM also confessed to advising Grady Little to leave Pedro in in game 7.
Krista
Ah yes, poor Georgie Denborough. I find King is actually at his best when talking about the horrors that don’t necessarly involve anything supernatural, like what happened to poor little Gage Creed in Pet Semetary, or Larry Underwood’s trip through the Lincoln Tunnel in The Stand.
LLeo
I must be clueless, because I missed your point. I thought you were suggesting we ignore the reality-free Bushites, and I agree with that. Care to educate me?
I would suggest that the “Right” isn’t monolithic. Something like 30-40% of the self-described conservatives (eg John Cole) don’t agree with Bush. That is why Bush is in the low 30% range. Those are the Conservative I wish to engage.
I am at a loss as to why my post antagonized you. My appologies.
Pb
LLeo,
We’ll do what we can (to fix their mess), as usual (see: 1993-2000). They’ll blame it on the Democrats and play ‘follow the [authoritarian] leader’, as usual. But hopefully the crash itself will strip away more of their followers–we’ll see.
The Darrells (and what they represent) are a big part of the problem, though. Much can be accomplished by changing people’s minds and attitudes, but this generally does require some level of understanding first. [Insert plug for The Authoritarians here, especially the last chapter]
Slide
Well…. I haven’t posted here in a month of sunday’s. Its just not as much fun as when Cole was a Bush toadie. Now that he has seen the light I have no one to torment that quite gives me the same pleasure as the ole’ professor. So thin skinned he was. Didn’t take much for him to ban me or dismiss my arguments by calling me a “bush hater”.
Well…. to all those right wing asswipes that continually downplayed Ms. Plame’s CIA status hope you were watching today. No.. she wasn’t a glorifed clerk as you all suggested. She was COVERT. She was UNDERCOVER. She went overseas in the last five years on SECRET MISSIONS. She was a brave warrier in the war on terror, unlike all of the chickenhawks that “outed” her. I have nothing but utter contempt for the slimeballs that is the Bush administration. Now that we have some TRUE congressional oversight we are going to see exactly what they have been up to for the last six years and it ain’t going to be pretty. They are crooks. Liars. Incompetents. Traitors and venal power hungry scumbags that could give a shit less about what makes this country great. They have defiled us all.
Ok, that felt good. Cole.. any chance you’ll become a born again Bushie? I miss making you froth at the mouth in sputtering anger.
dreggas
King is also a pretty good fantasy writer, I actually enjoyed Dragon Tears and was really digging the Dark Tower series, especially how it all tied into the Stand, Dragon Tears, and other King books.
dreggas
Correction I think it was Koontz who did “Dragon Tears”, king did one called “The Eyes Of The Dragon” so many involving dragons and eyeballs LOL.
Grrr
LLeo:
Trust me on this. Not.going.to.happen. OK?
And gosh, you do have a point. It just that the Darrell’s of this age have been, you know…counter-productive.
And I don’t give a rat’s ass who you are trying to engage.
Tulkinghorn
Henry Waxman look old because we have not seen him for six years. He has been shut out of the public view by a Congress that refused to conduct any hearings.
Nice to have him back, but he might as well have caught up on his sleep and good diet during his forced vacation.
Rome Again
Oh, come on now, we’re riding the Rapture Train, isn’t this fun? Wheeeee!
dreggas
Blane the mono….
Of course this will cause a new song to be written called “The Rapture-motion” which will somehow not be able to be used at roller rinks because of all the flailing of limbs.
ThymeZone
Well, maybe that’s the way they do it at the institution where you are kept.
Save us from another round of “let’s be civil” trolling.
There’s nothing civil about the state of the world, the nation, or our government. The name of the blog is widely accepted to mean “hot air” and to me hot means hot.
What is the deal, around the 15th of every month we have to do this pony-baloney “civility” thing? Are you guys getting paid for this crap, or what?
ThymeZone
Sorry, “phony” baloney.
Pony Baloney is a dance we did in high school, I think. Or something.
Rome Again
Some like it hot, I’m one of them :)
Grrr
LLeo completes the the exhibit. File under Concern Troll.
dreggas
Was that your dyslexia kicking in when you were really thinking “Baloney Poney”?
RSA
In prison, face down on an iron bed with no mattress? Sorry, that was uncivil.
Rome Again
Uncivil? I thought it was POIFECT!
Jon H
“I am reminded again and again by a saying that I read once (in Stephen King’s It).
“He thrusts his fists against the posts and still insists he sees the ghosts””
If you’re talking about wingnuts, it’s more like
“He rubs his fist against his post and still insists he sees the ghosts”
Tax Analyst
Been busy in the Tax Biz, but I stop by the read now and then. TZ is right about Darrell. He rarely has anything useful to add. If you call him on anything – even politely, you are likely to be called a “scumbag” or something similar…you can even paste his BS back in his face – and still get called a liar and then a few more names. On top of that he hi-jacks once interesting threads and turns them into…ah…well, think of “interesting comments” as Easter Eggs. Sounds like fun…and then Darrell comes along…and now you are having your Easter Egg Hunt in manure piles…Do I really wants the eggs bad enough to sift through Darrell’s manure?
Richard 23
Damn, that was funny! Well done, TZ.
For an unhinged incivil vitriolic wackjob, that is.
Paul L.
Gore Petitions Congress To Take Action On Global Warming
demimondian
Actually, Paul’s line is a total jackalope. Gore never claimed to be an ascetic; he finds way to compensate for the carbon his actions emit.
LLeo
All right I leave off the concern for civility.
In my last defence, I was going with “tone it down a little”, not “act like a eunuch”.
Darrell
18 of the above posts are discussing me, whining about me, and fretting over me, on a thread where I never even posted.
Don’t let it ever be said so many of you aren’t obsessed freaks who can’t get me out of your head, no matter how much you tighten those tinfoil hats. One lib poster said the other day here on BJ that for 2 solid weeks the liberal email list here did nothing but obsess over me nonstop. I think most psychiatrists would refer to this extreme obsessed behavior as mental illness, but here it’s known as “reality based” commentariot
Scruffy McSnufflepuss
Brave words, from a man whose entire existence consists of John Cole students working in shifts.
Richard 23
Bwahahaha-ing doesn’t suit you Darrell.