I just wasted five minutes reading this piece at Tucker Carlson’s vanity project titled: “White House uses Twitter to bully critics,” and absent from the entire article are… any evidence of bullying. The only thing Jesse Lee is guilty of is engaging critics. One of the other examples of the White House “bullying” critics is none other than Jay Carney complaining about Halpering calling Obama a dick on national tv. Oh, the horror.
Not only are wingnuts shallow and uninformed, they are thin-skinned wussies.
I’m going to approach Robert Bluey on twitter and ask him for an example of, you know, actual bullying by Jesse Lee. He’ll probably just claim I’m bullying him.
Carnacki
My suspicion is that the bow ties of today some how weaken men. I don’t think they used to, but men who wear bow ties today and the men around bow tie wearers are bed wetting cry babies.
Turgidson
I assume you aren’t just noticing this.
eemom
did you see the neocon who posted on your thread from yesterday to link back to his blog where he devoted an entire post to calling you an asshole for calling the republicans assholes?
The world is just one giant sandbox to these maroons.
Martin
They seek something to distinguish themselves from the crowd. Wit, insight, humor – they lack those in sufficient abundance, so they settle for an eclectic tie. “Look at my tie!”, they declare, “My mom says I’m special!”
Chris
“It is one of the biggest dividing lines between liberals and conservatives: sensitivity. Liberals are supposed to be the sensitive ones, but even the liberals who worked themselves into a froth over George W. Bush never really cared very much about what he thought of them. But conservatives care what President Obama thinks. They care to the point of imagining what he thinks.”
cleek
if i walk up to Bob and push him, then when he defends himself, i call him a bully and push him again, what am i ?
a) a professional partisan shill
b) a bully
c) all of the above
West of the Rockies (formerly Frank W.)
Tucker (even that name is irksome) is one of the biggest wimps on television. I know that the bow tie is his special thing; I doubt more than 14 women nation-wide think it makes him especially hot. Isn’t a bow tie sort of like salt peter for most women? Maybe if you look like Rob Lowe and are wearing cool suspenders (braces are they called?) it works. Otherwise, let’s round up some bullies and have a good old-fashioned butt kicking of a spoiled, snotty wimp who has it coming.
wesindc
I feel bullied just reading the post.
Culture of Truth
there’s no more victimized group than white males
you may think I’m snarking (ok I am) but apparently this belief, or the desire to believe it, and sieze the mantle of victim, is quite popular.
JonF
The constant stream of whining about the “attitude” or “tone” from the right is always amusing. I guess if you can’t actually engage on the issue, you just whine about the tone.
Han's Solo
Would someone enlighten me as to how Tucker became famous? Was it that his mommy was part of the Whitewater fiasco or something?
I remember seeing him on Crossfire and wondering how the hell this idjit got a job talking for a living. He isn’t smart, nor is he knowledgeable on any given subject. Maybe that is a feature for wingnut pundits, and not a bug.
Mustang Bobby
Knowing that Tucker Carlson made his way through a New England boarding school (St. George’s, Class of ’87), I’m pretty sure he knows a great deal about bullying. I’m imagining he got his share of atomic wedgies, noogies, and being locked in the biffy of the second floor of Diman Hall.
JGabriel
John Cole:
He’ll shriek, “Aiiieeee! Don’t look at me with those bullying eyes! Aiiieee! Aiiieee!”
.
Han's Solo
@Mustang Bobby: God I hope you are right.
I know karma isn’t supposed to strike first, but maybe it made an exception for Tucker.
Southern Beale
Nobody could have anticipated this!
Union Workers Replaced With Prison Labor Under Scott Walker’s Collective Bargaining Law
And of course, the day will come when even criticizing such a thing will have me hauled off to the gulag to break a sweat for our corporate overlords. America is a fucked up place.
LosGatosCA
It’s easy to know when you are being bullied:
1. The bully asks for facts.
2. The bully asks for facts, again,
3. The bully says you have no facts and embarrasses you in front of other people.
There’s just no let up with a bully. They want facts, they want data, they do math, they just can’t let it go.
– Cut taxes, balance budget, every one has a job. What’s so hard to understand.
– Discriminate against gays, the children are safe, animals have less sex at hippie communes.
These are truths, which are greater than facts, and should not be questioned.
Nellcote
Duh. That’s why they call it the Bully Pulpit.
quannlace
Ha. And of course when the Republicans threaten to wreck the American economy for political gain; that’s just serious deficit reduction.
But really, poor,poor Paul Ryan. Somebody needs to change his crying towel.
Southern Beale
Seems to me this Daily Fowler piece was intended to undercut Obama’s Twitter Town Hall…. you know, give the cons some Twitter WH nonsense to chew on so they don’t have to feel like they need to pay attention to the Town Hall event.
It’s just stupid but then Fucker is stupid so it’s really not worth the time to get upset over it.
Felinious Wench
Methinks Tucker no understandeth The Twitter Machine. It’s engagement between one person and another person, and the more engagement, the more conversation, thus increasing the number of tweets. Pretty cool, huh?
It’s not putting out a press release that reporters are then expected to transcribe word for word and publish without asking questions or challenging the content.
That was the last president.
Delia
C’mon John do your worst. Send Tucker a picture of Tunch looking mean. It’ll have him wetting his pants.
harry
“I’ve tried it hundreds of times. There’s no way you can hammer in the last nail.”
Stefan
I’m going to approach Robert Bluey on twitter and ask him for an example of, you know, actual bullying by Jesse Lee.
Johnn Cole: But what did Jesse Lee actually do that was bullying, Robert?
Robert Bluey: Lee used… sarcasm. He knew all the tricks, dramatic irony, metaphor, bathos, puns, parody, litotes and… satire. He was vicious.
Montysano
@Southern Beale: First of all, re: your link. Holy shit.
“Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.” H.L. Mencken
sublime33
I will never understand how this chronic victimization is supposed to convert the undecided over to the conservative side. Jesse Jackson consistantly used victimization in the 80’s and probably created more conservatives than any three conservative pundits combined.
jl
Cole’s misanthropy comes home to roost.
He will need to put up lots of pics of unicorns and happy children and smiling friendly cartoon animals frolicking in rainbow gumdrop land, and links to happy kids’ songs, so no one will believe he would ever bully anyone.
And he should be extra nice to the commenters. For example, after every comment, even one that is mean, Cole needs to write a response. As in “Thank you, noble commenter jl for a wonderful comment, and I hope you have a wonderful happy joyous day.”
Edit: After fwowing up for awhile, Cole will learn to like his new self.
And, as suggested above, no pics of Tunch (or Rosie) glaring at the camera because they remain unsatiated by their stingy man servant.
Probably means we will only see shots of Tunch lying down looking away from the camera, like an unusually large furry white blimp.
TooManyJens
Bluey’s just whining because Democrats are using a public forum to espouse Democratic positions. You know that’s not allowed.
Violet
Since when has a wingnut ever felt constrained by facts? Silly Cole. Facts are for Democrats.
cleek
if it’s so simple, why has it never happened in the history of the world ?
AAA Bonds
Tucker is expertly engaging in the paranoid style of politics. He’s read some books; he knows exactly what he’s doing. Tucker is an idiot and a legacy but he’s not illiterate.
His readers and viewers are authoritarian personalities, always seeking their next Dolchstoßlegende. He just wants to get back in the saddle with them before another cowboy rides into town to replace Beck.
jl
Cole needs to change the collection of subtitles at the top of the blog. Start with these:
I always look on the bright side.
If you can’t say anything nice about some person, don’t say anything at all.
I am grateful for your criticism, for it helps me grow better.
Those who I have meanfully criticized in the past mean well, even if they don’t look it, and I will pray for greater understanding and appreciation of all the wonders of this world.
An added benefit of these happy smiley titles will be the vicious snark they inspire from commenters.
Uncle Clarence Thomas
.
.
Fortunately, President Obama does not use the bully pulpit, whether on twitter, facebook, NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox, or anywhere else. Whew, that was close.
.
.
AAA Bonds
As to Twitter debates, I can’t imagine why the hell anyone would try to have one of those. It would be like debating by driving past each others’ houses at 50 mph and yelling through the window.
jl
And Cole should get a hold of the audio of the Geico commercial with the talking dog saying “I wooowvv wooow” that will play when anyone opens the blog page.
Evolved Deep Southerner
Southern Beale @ #15:
What’s the status of Chokegate?
AAA Bonds
“snark” is for people who can’t troll properly
LesGS
Don’t bully us with facts, cleek, you big meanie!
jl
@32 I approve of Obama using the bully pulpit. Unfortunately I disagree with the way he seems to think about economics, and if continues the current policies, he may endanger his re election. Especially if he GOP nominates a non crazy person (which I admit looks more doubtful every day).
Citizen_X
Well yes, Balloon Juice posted an example of just that very sort of thing recently, right here.
(Note: “happy kids” includes ODB, right?)
Xecky Gilchrist
Wit, insight, humor – they lack those in sufficient abundance, so they settle for an eclectic tie.
There’s a related phenom among young prole men (and some women) – the Personality Hat. Various types, but often a Gilligan-style fishing hat for class clown types and a fedora for tech geeks trying to seem stylish.
Lawnguylander
Stop hippie punching Jesse.
srv
Breaking news, TSA now worried about breast bombs.
AAA Bonds
Breaking news, paid libertarians looking to fuck the TSA because it’s an government agency with organized workers.
Here’s how you can tell someone concerned about civil liberties from a “libertarian”: the ACLU works to protect TSA workers from anti-gay discrimination as well as working to protect citizens from government overreach.
jl
@39 Citizen X: sorry I forgot about that. Method Man is a happy kid, right?
Not sure about Leggo Silence of the Lambs, though.
I notice that a poster called Bachmann part of the ‘regressive party’ I like that term.
I wonder if Devo would let Bachmann use their songs for rally theme music.
kindness
John, couldn’t you instead just tweet to Robert Bluey that he is a dick? It isn’t like they don’t revel in being dicks, they do.
Ash Can
Remember, these are the guys who think the epitome of manly courage is to send someone else off to war.
Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen
The fact that Dan Savage has yet to start an “It gets better” campaign for the poor wittle conservatives is proof the liberals are all a bunch of meanies!
licensed to kill time
Wingnuts are such delicate flowers. Anything Obama does bruises their dainty petals.
It’s Obamabuse! o_O
Evolved Deep Southerner
If there’s anything recent history has proven conclusively, it’s that GOPers don’t ask permission to use artists’ music, and they only ask forgiveness when they’re forced to.
Davis X. Machina
@AAA Bonds: The libertarians, however, will settle for half-a-loaf, to wit, a TSA every bit as arbitrary and intrusive as they presently are, but without any protection or organization for its workers, now provided on a cost-plus basis by an unaccountable private corporation
I mean, politics is about compromise. It’s not like they’re revolutionaries or something.
Davis X. Machina
@AAA Bonds:
The first rule of rhetoric is to adapt yourself to the audience. I’m guessing 140 characters is about the upper limit of what the median general-election voter is good for at one go.
Uncle Clarence Thomas
.
.
@42 srv
You can drop a bomb like that on me.
.
.
AAA Bonds
@Davis X. Machina
Yeah, exactly. The libertarian solution to TSA overreach is to . . . go back to the incompetent, corner-cutting, cost-obsessed private security that we had before 9/11.
Fuck them and fuck that. And whenever you read criticism of the TSA nowadays, try and track the source and figure out whether it’s reliable or you’re getting played by libertarians.
The ACLU itself has had some close calls lately; luckily, they’re avid fact-checkers by virtue of the job.
Cain
@srv:
I agree breast bombs are a imminent threat. I have seen many threats while walking the streets and I firmly believe that these threats should be explored with a falafel and soft music.
Cain
On a serious note, you really can’t protect yourself from human bombs. They don’t even need to be near a plane.. the security check point is good enough I would think. I mean there is a lot of people crammed there, waiting in line.
You need good intelligence that’s our only line of defense and a smart foreign policy.
Davis X. Machina
@AAA Bonds: Natürlich. Coincidentally, today is the anniversary of the Pinkerton shootings in the Homestead Steel Strike.
Remember, if it’s not state coercion, it’s not actually coercion.
t
The title of this post shortened itself on my iphone to “Don’t Sprain Your Arm Nailing Yourself” which somehow also perfectly fit this story.
Elizabelle
Oooooh.
Is there a link to the Robert Bluey comment? This is too inside baseball for me.
RalfW
Chris at 5. said “But conservatives care what President Obama thinks. They care to the point of imagining what he thinks.” ”
Likewise, I have never, ever, considered what Newtie does with his various wives. But he and about 10,000,000 other conservatives seem to want to imagine about what teh gheys do in bed, and then get the heebe-geebies about it, and try to outlaw it so they won’t imagine it anymore.
Weird, huh?
Martin
Nope, and honestly, we shouldn’t even try very hard to. If surgery + suicide is their strategy, I don’t think it’s one that will carry long-term benefits for their side.
I would also note that diversifying our transportation system would help with these endeavors. Planes are particularly fragile things as compared to trains etc. and high speed rail could help minimize the number of security screenings needed at airports (and therefore allow us to marshall our resources toward a smaller population).
rob!
…even more shameful that Democrats KEEP LOSING TO THEM!
Carol
Martin:
And diversifying our transportation would also make us a smaller target in so many other ways. We’d be spread out, and the fact that no one terrorist act could paralyze us would be pretty discouraging.
wobblybits
@Cain: Wanted to let you know that I received the invite(s) and will be trying to get onto google+ this weekend.
tbogg
Rob Bluey? This Rob Bluey?
Guy looks like he would shit himself if a dog barked at him.
EriktheRed
Please send us a screenshot of his response!
That is if he even responds, of course.
Evinfuilt
@stefan 23
I don’t know what to say. I applaud your most excellent use of python.
OzoneR
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/post/live-blogging-the-presidents-twitter-town-hall-askobama/2011/07/06/gIQAwW7f0H_blog.html?hpid=z2
Obmaa using the bully pulpit = news-less affair.
got it?
JPL
OzoneR.. Once again that darn liberal media.
Elizabelle
Ozone: that’s a Chris Cilizza link. ‘Splains a lot.
Talking Points has a more realistic headline, that Obama admitted he’d misjudged the magnitude of the recession.
Plus Obama noted, a few times (if memory serves), that most economists got it wrong.
Which I take it might be “Larry Summers = most economists”, because Paul Krugman has sure called it correctly on a lot of issues.
I support President Obama, but I wish he’d listen more to Krugman and less to his Wall Street-type advisors.
Amir_Khalid
@OzoneR #67:
Newsless, because Obama wasn’t asked about anything but policy; trivialities like the mere business of running the country are all that the common people care about. As any elite political pundit knows, only politics is news.
Brian R.
I don’t have a Twitter account, so on my behalf, could you ask him how he got to be a journalist despite the apparent fact that he’s a bedwetting six year old? Thanks.
Nellcote
He’s said that before so it’s not exactly a revelation. TPM must be using HuffPoo’s headline writer. Shame on them.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
tbogg@64
Wembley of the Gimlet-Eyed Glare wouldn’t even have to bark.
Though that is a kicky and fetching sailor’s cap. (was that bullying?)
Cliff in NH
here is links (I need brain bleach now)
http://blog.heritage.org/2011/07/06/chicago-style-politics-meets-twitter-how-the-white-house-uses-social-media/
http://dailycaller.com/2011/07/06/white-house-uses-twitter-to-bully-critics/
Bullying = Refuting Lies
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I don’t disagree, but I wish even more that Senators, Congresscritters and Krugman’s own colleagues would listen to Krugman.
One of those losers
83,000 tweets, *that* is what you’d call an “obsession”
MikeJ
Dear Republicans,
Sticks and stones may break your bones,
so shut the fuck up with your whining or we’ll start using sticks and stones on you.
Gin & Tonic
This is true. I fly often, and I have a pretty substantial amount of steel and titanium in my leg — more than enough that the metal detector would scream if it were in my pocket — yet I’ve never set one off.
But removing it in-flight to use as a weapon would be, um, messy. And painful.
OzoneR
Listening to Paul Krugman doesn’t guarantee Paul Krugman policies. Like I said, the media doesn’t listen to him anyway.
I don’t necessarily think Krugman is right about everything either, but that’s irrelevant. The guy is ostracized and not taken seriously, the President regurgitating his talking points isn’t going to make people take it more seriously, it’s going to make the President even more irrelevant.
Wall Street-types are the only ones whose policies are going to be given any type of consideration by the media, and thus the only ones whose voices will be heard by the general public.
BO_Bill
I like bullies. They serve a very important purpose in society by establishing and enforcing standards. Without bullies, we would soon sink into a moral abyss and that would be the end of it.
OzoneR
I’m still gonna trot this out the next time somebody in the professional left tells me that all Obama needs to do is “use the bully pulpit” and the media will hang on his every word and everyone will see it.
dogwood
Why would you bother? These people don’t feel bullied; they just say shit to get a reaction. That’s how they control the discourse. They keep throwing crap at the wall until they get enough traction that cable picks it up, and then the networks finally ask the serious question – Is Obama a bully? or whatever the hell they are claiming at any given moment. If Democrats want to win this political war, they need to go on the offense. Put those cretins on defensive once in awhile.
/dev/null
@harry (post 22). Nicely done.
Mnemosyne
As GOP shows flexibility, Obama adopts hard tone
Shorter AP: Leave the Republicans aloooooonnnne!
Just Some Fuckhead
@tbogg:
He makes our own Allan look positively butch.
FlipYrWhig
@ Nellcote/72: TPM has been sliding down that slippery slope for a long time. I haven’t been feeling the need to check TPM lately; that crew just doesn’t have anything interesting to add, alas. Luckily for the world, Steve Benen keeps on keepin’ on.
Just Some Fuckhead
Oh God, the kiss of death from FlipYrNick. First it was Atrios, then DK, now TPM. The world is failing our Obots.
Jules
The Doctor wears a bow tie.
Bow ties are cool.
Unless worn by conservatives and/or glibitarians.
Corner Stone
@OzoneR:
Of course you are dog, of course you are.
Now go away, adults are talking here.
Corner Stone
@FlipYrNick:
Anybody set up a Steve Benen FlipYrWatch countdown?
FlipYrWhig
I just can’t quit you, Corner Some Fuckhead.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Corner Stone:
It’s practically blackmail. Losing FlipYrNick would be like 25% of Benen’s readership.
Davis X. Machina
@Jules: Professor Kingsfield in The Paper Chase wore a bow tie, and he was as scary as fsck.
pete
@MikeJ (77) — I totally intend to recycle that.
Me ignorant lazybones when it cometh to making linkies with all that funny in-and-out aitch-tee-em-ell, me want button that works with Safari.
FlipYrWhig
@ DXM: A former boss told me that in his experience the best way to get excused from jury duty was to show up wearing a bow tie.
Bokonon
Tucker Carlson is exactly the sort of aggressive, shallow, self-satisfied, smirky, privileged little sh!t that I detested back when I attended a rival boarding school to his back during the 1980’s.
Carlson wants to be William F. Buckley – or at least cop a pose of being like him for the TV cameras. But there is more to it than wearing the right clothes, affecting a breezy and dismissive attitude, serving as an apologist for whatever garbage the GOP is peddling that day, and ruthlessly promoting yourself.
And ultimately? The problem is that Carlson is an excellent example of exactly what he is. He is a symptom. He mirrors the viewpoints (and weaknesses, and pathologies) a large class of people occupying important positions in American business and culture that are a lot like him. They should be better, and they are not.
Weak.
dogwood
Exactly. A lot of Buckley’s power and longevity in politics came from the fact that both his political allies and enemies seemed to genuinely like him and he them. Do you think anyone can actually stand Tucker Carlson?
Cain
@wobblybits
Glad you were able to join the fun already in progress!
TooFunnyToBePresident
I went to college with Rob Bluey, wrote for the same college newspaper. Hadn’t kept up with him, but the whiny pretty bullshit he’s pitching now doesn’t really surprise me.
Carnacki
A) A Time Lord is not human. B) Buckaroo Banzai and Professor Kingsfield pulled off bow ties, but that was a different era.