I know, blah, blah, Halperincakes.
However, while acknowledging that the relevant points being made are much the same all over our side of the internets – Halperin is a douchenozzle, but perhaps we might want to concentrate more on him being a useless hack than his (not very) naughty words, and by the way has anyone in the media noticed that Republicans are holding the entire world economy to ransom? – I think some people deserve a front page mention for the sheer number of style points earned.
Steve Benen wins for plain speaking …
Let me say this as plainly as I know how: Republicans are threatening to deliberately cause a global recession. The president is willing to strike a deal that leans heavily in the GOP’s direction, and Republicans are refusing. Who, in this scenario, is being dickish?
Halperin’s choice of words pales in comparison to the fact that he’s offended by the president’s mild rebuke of political recklessness the likes of which American hasn’t seen in generations.
… while Alex Pareene at Salon just wins my undying devotion forever:
I don’t care what Halperin calls Barack Obama. But for the record, President Obama did not really act like a dick yesterday, which is unsurprising, because Mark Halperin is a horrible political analyst who is wrong about everything. (Also for the record, it takes one to know one.)
…
Being a professional observer of the “horse race” is bad enough, but Halperin doesn’t even understand the horse-race element of politics. He fails at being a hack. He’s too dumb to correctly parrot conventional wisdom. He is pretty sure Sarah Palin and Donald Trump are 2012 front-runners. He thought “suspending his campaign” to fix the economy and not knowing how many houses he has were both huge messaging victories for John McCain. He wrote a book about how to win in 2008 that predicted everything Hillary did, but in his world it all worked. He thought Bush’s political comeback would come any day now throughout the entirety of the years 2006-2008. He can’t interpret polls or see through the spin of GOP consultants who are much smarter than he. If I were revising the Hack list I’d put him above No. 1.
H/ts: Valvida and MattR
ETA: Just sticking a gratuitous “David Brooks is a dickhead” tag in there because DougJ left it off his post for some unconscionable reason.
EATA: Commenter ThatLeftTurnInABQ quoted for truthfulness:
From 2000-2004 we tried sticking forks, knives and spoons in whatever 110 volt outlets we could find around the house. That didn’t work so well, so from 2006-2008 we tried washing our hair. Then in 2010 the teabaggers decided that the problem with 2000-2004 was that it wasn’t enough, so now we are unplugging all the major appliances in the house so we can really get our freak on, starting with having sex with the 220 volt outlet behind the fridge.
Meanwhile, the backyard is on fire and robbers are hotwiring the SUV in the driveway, into which they’ve already loaded all of our clothes and money.
beltane
Mark Halperin is just another bit of smegma lodged under the foreskin of our national discourse.
Han's Solo
I can’t believe I’m going to do this twice in one lifetime, but Andrew Sullivan’s entry, headlined “Mark Halperin is a Dick” was pretty darn good as well.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Wow, I think I agree with everything Sullivan said. I’m sure the preceding and following posts were in some way head-up-the-ass.
I was just gonna say, Jay Rosen wins on this issue for me
j
I like this idea. Let him go on TRMS and explain to the unfailingly polite Rachel Maddow why Obama is a dick.
Valdivia
yay I am no longer a hat-tip virgin!
For me this is exactly the issue–while I care about the disrespect to Obama which the comment embodied what matters is that the substance, used euphemistically, of Halperin’s ‘analysis’ is outrageous. Obama can’t be just a tad angry that the Republicans are trying an unprecedented hostage taking tactic with our’s and the world’s economy?
Cermet
Lets not forget that the world’s economy (and esp. the US) is the way it is for two reasons – record high fuel costs (see oildrum and that the critical members of OPEC have had nearly flat production even through they have been drilling new wells like no tomorrow – peak oil, baby) and banking systems as directed by wallstreet that takes profits off all peoples labor and produces zero in return: just $$$ for the elite in crowd – count them – zero production(one time the idea of wallstreet was to provide money for more production and small profits were the reward – boy, has that been turned into a racket.) Hence the housing crises here, many other places. Yet dicks that lick the thug ass can only talk about not raising taxes to avoid debt? People, if you haven’t figured out how we all are being fucked by the tiny elite and 99% was directed/controlled by our banks/wallstreet – boy, do you have your head in the sand.
Zifnab
Every time I see Mark Halperin, I picture the two downsizing guys from Office Space staring at him from across a desk and asking “So what do you… do here?”
Mike Kay (The Base)
Uh-Oh. Sully has done it now.
Sully won’t get invited to any more beltway cocktail parties.
Mark S.
I thought this was just hyperbole, but the dipshit really did argue that:
Yeah, there’s a reason it’s never happened before, because it actually takes a lot of fucking work to run for president. You would think if you covered politics for a living you might have learned that, even by accident.
Mike Kay (The Base)
Video — Gays Glitter bomb Obama!
http://miamiherald.typepad.com…..video.html
Zifnab
I don’t think the debate is over whether we’re being fucked. I think the overriding question is how we unfuck ourselves.
We elected Big Business CEO in ’00 and got reamed. Then we had a revolution in ’06 and ’08. But our leaders decided to play really nice with the ass-reamers and we just got reamed again. Then the Tea Party stepped in and decided to put a bunch of corporate tools and flailing idiots in office on the notion that people who wear funny hats can’t possibly be corrupt.
So we’ve got to the left, then we’ve gone to the right. And now the nation is very confused and somewhat out of options.
Nutella
While the Republican terrorists are threatening to blow up the economy and the Democrats are negotiating about the exact choice and number of bombing targets, we’re all having the tone argument.
Whether Obama’s tone in calling the terrorists wrong was too uppity or Halperin’s tone in calling Obama a dick was too rude are TRIVIAL when we have terrorists running amok.
SteveinSC
But, wait, wait just a moment. I thought Halperin was the house liberal at Time. By the way where is the ActBlue thermometer? Kos is pushing everyone to donate for Wisconsin. If I don’t do it here, I’ll have to sign up at Kos.
Han's Solo
Mark S Says:
“You would think if you covered politics for a living you might have learned that, even by accident.”
Being a right wing pundit means you never have to, and should avoid at all costs, learning stuff. If you don’t learn stuff then you aren’t lying, you are just explaining how you see things. Critical thought is also strongly discouraged.
And above all, always remember that nuance is your kryptonite. Any thought that doesn’t fit on a bumper sticker is a thought not worth having.
Stooleo
More Sully. (I know, I know, its like he had a brain transplant recently)
GregB
What about moral hazard? The Republicans are arguing for a total torpedoing of the bedrock of capitalism. Simply put a debt is supposed to be honored.
kdaug
Ding. Back it up, cowboy. Let’s have the debate, not this “oooh, bad word, timeout for you” bullshit.
It’s a cute trick, swapping substance for manners, but if Obama’s a dick, tell us why.
Oh, and by the way, aren’t paid cable stations exempt from FCC rules? Don’t they say “fuck” on HBO all the time? Isn’t MSNBC a paid cable station?
The pearl-clutchers are putting on a show. They neither care, nor do they believe. Circuses.
Bender
Thank Allah that we have an “adult” in the White House who realizes that the way through this economic morass is to have corporate jets written off over 7 years like commercial aircraft years instead of 5 years (while keeping the Obama’s own Stimulus Corporate Jet Tax “Bonus Depreciation” Break, because that’s an economic boon, because shut up that’s why!). That change in depreciation rules alone could rake in thousands of dollars! That’s why “tax breaks” for “corporate jets” were so important that they had to be mentioned 6 times in his presser. It had nothing to do with class-war focus-group testing!
Because Obama hates depreciation breaks for those lousy fatcat corporate jet owners… except when he’s giving depreciation breaks to those lousy fatcat corporate jet owners!
And another thing: Corporate Jets!
General Stuck
Halperin is a circus ringleader, with the job of keeping facts and shit fuzzy with math and saying stupid things that don’t make sense to anyone who closely follows politics. All of it to maintain the pervading and leveling out the playing field with the both sides do it rule.
But he, and his counterparts are not concerned with those people, that follow politics and know they are all full of shit, They are concerned with mush melon audience of indie swing voters, the ones who stand in line at Wendy’s and must have the entire menu read to them before ordering a cheeseburger. The folks that actually decide our elections these days. Lucky us. I think we would have a different national pol atmosphere if the country weren’t glued on a fifty fifty split, with maybe 10 to 15 percent of the electorate whose votes can actually swayed dem or repub.
The part about the “dick” in isolation doesn’t amount to much imo, but it fits into a circulating matrix of hype and dismissal, and a sense of ownership, yes I will use that word, of Obama for likely several reasons, but mostly a pervading sense in the media that they made Obama what he is, and they can spout about any bullshit they want with him, now that he is president. They did with Clinton too, but Clinton handed them all the ammo to tear him down with. Obama is squeaky clean in comparison, so the job is harder to get the goods and present them in a non contrived manner.
And the MSM bullshit will have teeth if he doesn’t act in certain ways that fit their playing field scenarios for the eternal GOP/Dem grudge match. They almost certainly believe, imo, that the first black president was in their making, not unlike some progs of the left, and by gawd he better do what we want, or else.
I actually prefer the wingnuts and their oppo to Obama. They don’t use belittling terms or terms of dismissal toward hem. They believe, NOW. That they have a formidable democrat in the WH, and won’t be calling him a sissy much after his beating them at every turn, despite their announced lack of any semblance to cooperation. They call him a dictator, or tyrant, shit like that. No puzzy.
MSNBC, and the rest of the clown MSM is responsible for foisting the Halperins on us, but this time one of them went to far on air. And in that sense I agree with the expanded culpability that Cole and Sargent make. But it is a meaningless point in an applied way. Halperin and his ilk walk the tightrope between feigned sincerity and recognizable mendacity in their dishonest roles of ring leaders. But really it’s the overall fucked up state our country and of no small consequence, or 4 th estate as well.
Dick? really? the new “uppity” coded? you decide.
kdaug
Bender – fuck you.
And apparently the underground Soma market is thriving.
Not kidding.
They didn’t even bother to change the fucking name.
Jim C.
I wish it wouldn’t take Halperin creating an opening like calling the president a dick for the national media to point out that Halperin is one.
In other words, I really wish that, tomorrow morning, someone like Anderson Cooper would go on his show and say, “You know, Sean Hannity is a complete hack and a tool.”
In other words, I wish the media would do more policing of it’s own.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@Zifnab #10:
Except that we didn’t really go to the left so much as wander around in the center while the room spun around us.
A better analogy: From 2000-2004 we tried sticking forks, knives and spoons in whatever 110 volt outlets we could find around the house. That didn’t work so well, so from 2006-2008 we tried washing our hair. Then in 2010 the teabaggers decided that the problem with 2000-2004 was that it wasn’t enough, so now we are unplugging all the major appliances in the house so we can really get our freak on, starting with having sex with the 220 volt outlet behind the fridge.
Meanwhile, the backyard is on fire and robbers are hotwiring the SUV in the driveway, into which they’ve already loaded all of our clothes and money.
jo6pac
leans heavily in the GOP’s direction
0 ran as demo in 08 may be he’ll change partys in 12 just freak out repugs.
dmsilev
Bender: Looks like Obama struck a nerve. The way you’re squealing like a stuck pig is most amusing.
NR
We never went to the left. Going to the left would have been a massive, New Deal-style public works program to create jobs and renew the nation’s infrastructure, paid for by the return of a sensible tax rate on the rich and Wall Street investment banks. We didn’t see anything of the sort even get proposed, let alone implemented.
There is no “left” in DC anymore. There is only “right” and “further right.”
Keith G
Never understood the whole “dick” as an insult thing.
I happen to like dicks.
Villago Delenda Est
Sullivan’s blinking 12:00 again, obviously.
Halperin is human sewage, as are his corporate masters.
General Stuck
LOL, nerve indeed. I don’t know if it was Obama or someone on his staff than came up with “corporate jet owners” getting a break over “kids”. But it was brilliant, and too bad the dem/liberal independent thinker types will not deliver it in staccato across the transom, like the wingers do when one of their own comes up with a zinger on the dems.
JWL
I’ll go much further than citing the mere degradation of our political discourse as the lesson to be drawn with this prick’s rude remark.
Of course, that truth bears saying. But it’s so obvious, to the point of being rendered innocuous.
I contend the 2003 Iraq War was a War Of Treason. Engineered by, and acquiesced in, essentially the same crowd who today maintain power through corporate control of political perception. There is no crime, against either country or humanity, they are incapable of inflicting upon the world. Some by sinister design, others by reckless, foolish collaboration.
Decent Americans should disabuse themselves of the conceit that the term “internal enemies” is a pejorative. The stakes are too damn high for them to continue to abide in that fantasy world.
Shade Tail
Bender:
You are *such* an idiot. If you’d bothered to actually listen to Obama’s speech, or read the transcript, you might have noticed that corporate jets were Obama’s example, not his entire plan. Unless, of course, you really don’t have a reading/listening comprehension level of at least the average high schooler.
Obama was taunting the republicans by saying that they wanted to protect corporate jets over children and medicare patients. That clearly meant as a sound-bite, and not the end-all-be-all of his bargaining position.
Catsy
@kdaug: Wow, I just read that article about prescription drug abuse, and this line jumped out at me:
You know what? Entirely aside from the rest of the article (which is good), somehow I don’t feel particularly inclined to take anything this cop says about drugs at face value.
LittlePig
Like Warren Buffet said in 2005: “It’s class warfare, my class is winning, but they shouldn’t be.”
It’s been class warfare for years. Is it is such a surprise that eventually the other side will fight back?
harlana
As to the importance you might assign to Halperin’s hackdom versus the actual word used, his comment and behavior is symbolic and symptomatic of how our traditional media has deteriorated to what it is today, in order to appear “fair and balanced” in the most insane times we have faced since at least WWII. If Halperin is a hack, his behavior represents the lack of respect for the president that permeates the media, the points are related, this is not some political blog or radio show, it’s national teevee, it’s seen all over the world, and it should be unacceptable.
Timothy Trollenschlongen (formerly Tim, Interrupted)
Bender:
You are awesome and spot on. Which is why your comments generate cogent, well-constructed replies such as:
haha…Obots are such clever thinkers.
Martin
$3 billion, actually. That’s only 38 times what Congress saved by defunding ACORN and NPR, combined.
Shit, I know one guy that will probably see north of $5 million in extra taxes just due to the depreciation rule change.
Tsulagi
ThatLeftTurnInABQ:
Panty waist. Head straight for the house circuit breaker panel. 400 amps. Then a President Bachmann will look good to you.
Calouste
@Stooleo:
I see Sully is on the No True Scotsman argument again.
Let him explain how his heroine Maggie’s reaction to the Miner’s Strike was ‘conservative’ rather than ‘ideologically driven’. Or how increasing unemployment from 5% into double figures just to stop inflation was ‘conservative’.
Well, unless of course you define ‘conservative’ as “Fuck the poor’, then suddenly things start to make sense.
AnotherBruce
I prefer acid, but LSD will do in a pinch.
harlana
Bender: i thought the corporate jets thing was just the typical pandering but it still hurts republicans’ tender fee fees, see Halperin so he gets to appear tough, i guess
Obama: I’m sorry I hurted your fee fees but we have to do this one little thing
republicans: Stop attacking me!
Chyron HR
@Tim, Interrupted:
So you’re not even pretending to be a progressive at this point? Thanks for the unintentional honesty.
Villago Delenda Est
Only Republicans, who are divinely appointed to the Presidency, after a non-binding vote of the masses, are worthy of any respect.
Democrats, who are placed into the office via voter fraud (as in allowing anyone with brown skin to vote) are unworthy of any respect, as they are usurpers.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@Tsulagi #4:
Oh you’re no fun! Gotta have a little foreplay before the main event. First tease, then please.
srv
Hey, we need that Act Blue thing up again, everybody is spamming my email asking for money again, time for the crowd to cough up.
Dennis SGMM
There may just be one troll.
harlana
Have you seen the ad for the Ryan plan?? It offers seniors health care choices, just like members of Congress! (yes, it really says that)
Dennis SGMM
@Dennis SGMM
Your are awesome and spot on.
NeenerNeener
Sarah, did you ever spend time writing for MightyBigTv or its next incarnation, TelevisionWithoutPity?
iriedc
@Tim, Interrupted
I thought that “Bender – fuck you” was cogent.
Felonious Wench
I see what you did there.
harlana
Villago Delenda Est: precisely
Felonious Wench
If I were digging through horse shit looking for a pony in any of Bender’s posts, I would find absolutely nothing but additional horse shit. And then, he insists on spreading his horse shit everywhere. He leaves a trail of horse shit anywhere he goes.
So, “Fuck You” seems the most appropriate response under those conditions.
Sarah Proud and Tall
@ Neener Neener:
No, dear. However, I used to love TWOP, particularly the snark summaries of American Idol and Alias, but recently it seems to be just plot summaries without the bitching, and where’s the fun in that?
NeenerNeener
Yeah, TWOP hasn’t been as much fun since Sars, Wang Chung & Glark sold it to NBC and the most of the original writing staff bailed. They seem to have been replaced by corporate shills from other entertainment web sites, and of course they don’t dare bite the hand that feeds them. Kind of like political reporters and pundits, I guess.
Arundel
..and by the way has anyone in the media noticed that Republicans are holding the entire world economy to ransom?
This is perfectly apt to read today, because last night in my drive-by teevee clicking about, Anderson Cooper must’ve spent half an hour discusing this Casey Anthony trial, as well as spending time slut-shaming a Real Housewife for her tacky music video. Oh, then it was time for Piers Morgan and that Charlize Theron interview the world was waiting for. Seriously, it was a reminder and illustration of how CNN just tries to be this distraction-machine from the very fucking real issues of what’s happening right in the here and now.
No, I’m not surprised, it’s not new. But there’s Rachel doing her homework, nailing the salient points of the day in a gracious, intelligent and incisive manner. And then there’s AC devoting his show to some murder trial I could not give less of a fuck about, honestly, just filling airtime. Nothing to see here folks, this is “the news” as presented by CNN. And it could not be more dumbed-down.
John Puma
Given Obama’s political trajectory, I’d suggest that it’s a bit too hopeful to characterize his press conference performance as “taking on” the economic terrorists, as it has been bandied about in the swirling dick-gate discussion.
Until proven otherwise, existing data says it’s rather a political head fake to his supporters prior to giving the terrorists all they want, then asking, as my (Dem) representative so accurately mimicked: “is there ANY thing else I can do for you”?
As evidence I offer these previous head fakes 1) “I’m VERY carefully pondering troop numbers” 2) public option 3) “the Bush tax cuts will be renewed ONLY for the middle class” 4) “I’ll just play Republican until I need glasses”
Of course, the actual #3 outcome simply injected a wad of valium into a weakly reviving economy thus doubly “emboldening” the terrorists to outright take it hostage.
Ash Can
I see I’m not the only one who suspects Tim and Bender are the same person.
Timothy Trollenschlongen (formerly Tim, Interrupted)
@ chyron #39
What the hell are you babbling about? Perhaps you are projecting on behalf of your president, who often pretends to be a progressive.
Why do you feel that Republicans are awesome and spot on?
Timothy Trollenschlongen (formerly Tim, Interrupted)
Hmmm…and here I thought I had the meds balanced just right this time…it’s ok to self-prescribe for schizophrenia, yes?