(Jeff Danziger’s website)
From Matt Viser, at the Boston Globe‘s Political Intelligence blog:
MARION, Iowa – Mitt Romney, in his final sprint for votes in Iowa, launched into his harshest criticism yet of President Obama, saying that his policies would “poison the very spirit of America and keep us from being one nation under God.”
__
“I’ve watched a president who’s become the great divider, the great complainer, the great excuse-giver, the great blamer,” Romney said at a garage of an asphalt company in Marion, a suburb of Cedar Rapids. “I want to have an America that comes together. I’m an optimist, I believe in the future of America. I’m not a pessimist.”…
Yeah, give me a quarter-billion dollars in blood money, and I’d be optimistic too, putz. And to think there are courtiers in the Village who’ve wondered how it would be possible for the Democrats to stir up sufficient animous against the Romneybot 2012 model to bring the all-important Spite Voters to the polls in November. I’ve been warning you all: By the time the official coronation takes place in Tampa, every voter in America (and a selection of their smarter household pets) is going to loathe Willard Romney with a bile that could etch the windows of the space station.
Anything more positive and life-enhancing on the agenda tonight?
Raven
Yea, the Fiesta Bowl.
Crusty Dem
Anybody keeping up with the
ABL/cole twitter twaddle?
mclaren
Romney will not be the Republican nominee. A Mormon is totally unacceptable to the extremist evangelical fundamentalist Christians who make up between 50% and 2/3 of the Republican primary voters, depending on the state we’re talking about.
Baud
@Crusty Dem: Some of us are talking about it in the prior thread.
CT Voter
Lovely imagery. I hope that it happens. Well, maybe not completely: the space station inhabitants had nothing to do with the GOP Uncanny Valley candidate.
forked tongue
I guess I’m a ‘Bot, but: What the fuck is that moron talking about?
Corner Stone
Yep.
Corner Stone
@mclaren: Romney will be the nominee. And they will all vote for him. He’ll get 50M+ popular votes.
Villago Delenda Est
/HarryCareyvoice
DUCKS WIN! DUCKS WIN! DUCKS WIN!
Litlebritdifrnt
I thought the exchange with Chris Matthews was most telling “can you say “let them eat cake in french”” asked Chris. “Yes, but I won’t” said Romney. At a coffee shop in Iowa Chris asked A ROMNEY SUPPORTER why he said that and she responded that he did not want to seem elitist to the people of Iowa, in Des Moines, a town named by the French. She actually said that he was pandering to the most incredible degree in not admitting that he could speak French, in a town named by the French. And again this was a Romney supporter. My flabber has never been so bloody ghasted.
jl
@Raven: and yeah Rose Bowl, Pac12 not totally stunk up the place this year. Not that I care much about college bowl games, but my Pacific Left Coast chauvinism runs deep.
Crusty Dem
Baud: ah well, my advice to Cole (certain to be ignored despite being worth every penny):
You know that thing where you ignore any/all critics out of hand and defend people for their actions/speech and later realize how stupid you were and apologize for it? Could you stop and think for awhile this time so it doesn’t happen this time? Thanks!
dww44
@Corner Stone: Yep, I am surrounded by Republicans, friends, family, neighbors. They would literally vote for the dogcatcher as President as long as he or she had an R after their name. It ‘s energized Democrats and thinking independents who will carry the day next November. I hope.
Villago Delenda Est
@forked tongue:
I think Santorum’s idiotic demagoguery has inspired OvenMitt to attempt top him with even more idiotic demagoguery.
Litlebritdifrnt
@Villago Delenda Est: Like I said in the prior thread my DH is going to be celebrating until at least July, and if his Mom doesn’t send him a Duck’s Rose Bowl Champs sweatshirt he will be sulking until December.
jl
@Litlebritdifrnt:
Romney is running around not letting the good people of Iowa eat cake in coffee shops? What a mean man. That will make a great attack ad!
Or, am I missing the point somehow?
Baud
On the Ed Show, Ed was saying that Santorum was at a diner today, and the owner named a dish after him — the Santorum Salad.
Yum.
Raven
@jl: Well, she asked about tonight. The Rose Bowl over.
jl
@Villago Delenda Est: I did not like Confederacy of Dunces that much, as I remember, but I guess I need to look at it again. Might have some clues about how this horrid bad clown show will play out.
AA+ Bonds
Hahaha, wow, Grand Wizard Mitt’s got the white hood on extra-early this year
Crusty Dem
@Corner stone
50 million? Not exactly taking a risk there, only 50 million for Romney would be an epic beating, Reagan-Mondale level.
Cacti
And remember evangelicals, when Mitt says “one nation under God” he means the Mormon God…
The same one who told Joseph Smith that every non-Mormon church is false, and an abomination in his sight.
Not that I’m trying to stir things up between the two groups or anything (whistles and looks up).
hitchhiker
Can we please have an ad that lovingly displays all of Mitt’s family estates, in glowing tones, while his voice says over and over, “I’m not a pessimist. . . “?
And then can a very intelligent woman appear to say “Duh. You’re not a pessimist because you’ve never had to face a hard day in your life, and you never will.”
Sigh. It’s the season of imagining ads. Again. I’m going out to walk in the rain.
Litlebritdifrnt
@jl:
I would say “yes” you are missing the point :)
Hal
@mclaren:
Evangelicals only care about defeating Obama. They will completely ignore the fact that they are voting for someone who is a complete fraud. It just doesn’t matter, as long as it is not Obama in the White House.
Also, I was listening to NPR today and their correspondent said something about a poll showing 91% of evangelicals were willing to vote for Romney.
Though now that I think about it, he hasn’t been able to get more than 25% of the vote.
AA+ Bonds
Best possible result tomorrow puts four people in the 15-22% range and it’s looking very likely
realbtl
@jl:
I think I see your problem. The book you want is Dunces of the Confederacy.
jl
@Raven
Yes, go Stanford Tree! (they are still the Tree, right?)
Wait, no, the Tree is the mascot. Go Stanford Cardinal! (is that right?)
Raven: Damn you. See, I knew I would mess it up. Oregon Ducks is simple enough so I could get it right (they are the Ducks, right?)
CT Voter
@Crusty Dem: @Baud: I haven’t followed it in the comments, but have followed it on Twitter.
Twas a nasty indefensible Tweet by DrDawg, and GG stepped in it by responding and cheering on the thought in the tweet. That’s not the sum total of GG, but it was callous and malicious to continue to fight that fight. John Cole’s tweets tonight about the matter are also callous–John Cole? You think that ABL, one of your front pagers, would watch someone raping a nun on live TV and then would argue that the rapist was only trying to illustrate the horrors of rape? GG thinks ABL would do that.
Seems kind of a lonely hill you’ve chosen to defend.
Gin & Tonic
@Crusty Dem: Bush only got 50 mil in 2000, and became Pres.
Ruckus
@Litlebritdifrnt:
By a continental mile.
AA+ Bonds
@Hal:
That sounds like a ridiculous error on the high end, unless you mean “not unwilling to vote for him because of Mormonism”, in which case, still sounds like a ridiculous error on the high end
As far as the right-wing evangelicals go, I can imagine they’d turn to Mitt in Romney vs. Obama because as far as they’re concerned, that would be a race without a Christian candidate
PurpleGirl
I got the new monitor to work with the netbook. I am happy to be using an external monitor again. And my TV began to change the picture along with the banner that said which channel it was changed to. Again I am happy.
Villago Delenda Est
@hitchhiker:
Given that OvenMitt had to get a guarantee that if Bain Capital, the startup he was tasked to found, ran into any problems he would not face any financial or reputation consquences, yeah, this guy can well afford to be optimistic, as he’s a one man too-big-to-fail asshole.
Raven
@jl: Quack attack!
Trentrunner
@Baud: Tossed only, one assumes.
AA+ Bonds
At least we can guarantee Paul won’t get VP, because the backroom Republicans know as well as the rest of us that one of his followers would wait a few months and then make sure he was number one with a bullet
However, expect his fascist constituency to get a lot more respect from the Republicans from tomorrow on, which is JUST GREAT FOR AMERICA
I have a friend who’s spellbound by Paul, he’s an ostensible left-winger, the sort who thinks “what the bleep do we know” is a movie instead of a pile of shit, and he’s a 9/11 truther, and man, I am afraid for America
Villago Delenda Est
@jl:
That’s right, but it’s beyond lame.
They should have gone with the Stanford Robber Barons, but the regents didn’t care too much for that particular nickname…
Raven
@AA+ Bonds: I’d steer away from that line of conversation.
dance around in your bones
Ya know, I just listen to these Replugs….Romney is jest AWFUL….and I cannot believe that there are people who consider them to be realistic candidates..
But then, I thought that about Nixon, and Reagan, and G. W. Bush, and ….oh Gawd, I guess you get the drift.
Crusty Dem
Gin & Tonic: and McCain got 60 millions and lost. Bigger population equals more voters, 50 million in 2012 would be a massive rout (barring a significant third party vote that somehow split the middle).
Davis X. Machina
@Hal:
How often has Romney been on a ballot with Obama?
Raven
I’ve got Rachel on the little screen and the game on the big one and she’s laying it on the Hawkeye state.
dance around in your bones
@Litlebritdifrnt: I know, that was so fucking weird. WTF.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Raven: Ah, the Fiesta Bowl. I remember watching the fateful Fiesta Bowl (sober) in 1977 and I was certain that I’d hallucinated Woody Hayes grabbing a Clemson player by the facemask, from the sidelines, pulling him off the field an punching him. But it was real.
Tonight I’m raising a single glass of wine in honor of TVZ, who died far too young 15 years ago.
Villago Delenda Est
@Litlebritdifrnt:
You know, I wonder if Romney was even aware of what Matthews was implying with that question. Certainly Romney’s response doesn’t seem to reflect an awareness of the meaning of the phrase, in a historical context.
Well, OvenMitt’s head will still look much better rolling around in a wicker basket.
SiubhanDuinne
Hard to improve on near-perfection, but I tried.
amk
@hitchhiker:
yup. m romney anagram is mr money. Even dumb ass rethugs should be able to see that two letter switch.
Raven
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): It’s on the youtube.
Corner Stone
@Crusty Dem: Are you making some kind of point?
Trentrunner
There’s just one message the Obama team needs to make to beat Romney:
From now until November, 24/7.
CT Voter
@Villago Delenda Est: And that bit about Bain reveals the true Mitt: unwilling to commit to anything unless he has an escape clause built into the commitment. Plausible deniability, and all. No convictions in the Uncanny Valley candidate except one: say or do anything to be president.
I think the fact that he sounds so screechingly phony no matter how hard he tries is probably a good thing. Let’s hope it continues.
amk
So this blog owner and its FP’er made fools of themselves over an idjit of a pundtwit ? And we mock wingers ?
jl
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): I eye witnessed the horrid incident when Berkeley boors attacked the Stanford Tree at a football game! At the end of halftime, on the field.
Watching the poor redwood run for its life, its limbs being stripped away, one by one, scarred me for life.
From laughing too hard.
But I done got college at various local joints in the University of California franchise, so I am a depraved socialist, I guess.
jl
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): I eye witnessed the horrid incident when Berkeley boors attacked the Stanford Tree at a football game! At the end of halftime, on the field.
Watching the poor redwood run for its life, its limbs being stripped away, one by one, scarred me for life.
From laughing too hard.
But I done got college at various local joints in the University of California franchise, so I am a depraved s * s h * l * s t, I guess.
lamh35
I’m too through with the Iowa coverage on tv, so I”m not even watching any of it. I’m watching Equilibrium with Christian Bale again, cause it so awesome.
jl
@amk:
Let’s all ask for our BJ blog membership dues back. We can use the proceeds to send them all smelling salts.
Edit: maybe some of us are mock wingers.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@amk: As I understand from the previous thread, it was kind of like a domestic dispute, although in the middle of the block, as it were.
pseudonymous in nc
Williard is such a fucking management consultant. I know management consultants; some of my friends are management consultants; in no fucking way would I want a fucking management consultant, trained in the art of concocting whatever bullshit is necessary to conclude with “fire a quarter of the staff, pay us their wages as our fee, seeyalater”, in charge of a country.
Of course the GOP party-liners will vote for him. But I’d like to see a combination of a “let Detroit go bankrupt” and “pays less in taxes than you peasants”, except I don’t know whether the latter plays into the mentality of those who accept being the GOP’s serfs on the sub-lottery-hope that they’ll one day themselves be rapacious capitalist fuckers who pay their accountants more than they send to the IRS.
Vote Willard, Vote Robber Baron.
Fuck, ain’t the Fiesta Bowl Old Robber Baron U vs New Robber Baron U? Leland Stanford vs T. Boone Pickens? And is it mandatory for robber barons to have funky names?
gnomedad
FTFY.
ETA: Take Two:
Chris
An exact inversion of what he actually wants. Conservative politics need enemies to demonize like the human body needs oxygen. The far right activists need someone to hate and the economic elites need to keep regular folk at each other’s throats.
Gwangung
Well, as long as you’re not a Cal weenie…
Ian
@AA+ Bonds:
Evangelicals do not go republican by a 9-1 margin, so I find it hard to imagine Willard is winning the category at this level.
cmorenc
@Hal:
The key question is not how many were “willing” to vote for Romney but how many are “willing” to also actually show up to actually vote in November 2012. If there’s even high single-digit percentage falloff in conservative evangelical turnout, it’s going to be extremely difficult for Romney to win several key states, even if 90% of those who actually do turn out vote for him.
khead
1978 Gator Bowl.
And Woody was just mad because Art Schlichter had talked him into betting on the Buckeyes.
Villago Delenda Est
@Ian:
A good many Evangelicals are like Jimmy Carter, who is basically a pariah to the Fundigelicals for a number of reasons. First, he’s a Democrat. Second, he doesn’t consider African Americans to be subhuman (one of Clinton’s glaring faults in their eyes). Third, he’s dared to question the Likudnik regime in Israel, calling their treatment of the Palestinians to be like apartheid.
So, yeah, Evangelicals will not go R by a 9-1 margin. The seriously fucked up ones, though, will.
jl
@cmorenc: I think you nailed the issue. Almost everyone is ‘willing’ to vote for somebody or other. Far fewer are ‘willing’ to get their butts out of the house to go to the polls, or even drop a ballot into a mailbox.
See 2010. The worry will be on the other side in 2012 I think, whoever is the nominee, but especially if it R Money, er, Romney.
Baud
TPM:
Cacti
@cmorenc:
In real world examples, Obama wins North Carolina and Virginia soundly if 9% of evangelical voters don’t show up for Mitt.
Cacti
Also too, considering Mitt is polling 8% lower with Hispanic voters than McCain performed in 2008, losing even 9% of evangelical voters would be a disaster.
hitchhiker
@Villago Delenda Est:
I honestly think that people who grew up with a wall of money-based privilege at their backs cannot ever understand what it means to be out in the raw, unforgiving world.
I put myself through university and then married into modest money . . . like, 5% – er money. I was raised as one of 8 kids in a rented house eating out of unlabeled cans in the 50s, which is what you did before they invented food stamps if your dad was a seasonal construction worker. Tin cans filled with mystery meat, and unlabeled boxes of powdered milk.
When I hear somebody like Mitt suggest that it’s a failing to be a pessimist, I want to grow into a giant hawk and fly circles over his bloody campaign bus until he looks up. He’s an optimist?
Hell, no. He’s just another soft, soft issue of a system that rewards privilege with more of the same.
Trentrunner
Shit just got real on Twitter, y’all.
If I understand it right:
1) Glenn Greenwald raped a nun, posted it on YouTube.
2) ABL saw it, launched nukes on Brazil. Carnivale cancelled.
3) Cole comes in, sees all the broken dishes on the kitchen floor, screams above the din, “Ladies, PLEASE!”
4) ABL leaves the house. And I don’t think she’s coming back.
martha
@Gwangung: You’re just jealous. We are a proud bunch, even if our football team sucks. I, however did actually witness “The Play”…only out of sheer luck.
jon
I bet his
birth certificatetax return says he’s aKenyanFrenchman.Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@jon: Actually, I bet they showed that he paid a state income tax, which would truly be Republican heresy.
John Cole
@CT Voter: Look, my position on this is pretty clear. What Glenn said to ABL was assholish- I don’t think anyone even is debating that. What I was reacting to was the incessant drumbeat on twitter repeatedly using rape as a cudgel against Glenn. Not because they think he is pro-rape, but because they disagree with him on almost everything politically. He was accused of hating rape survivors, minimizing rape, making rape “jokes,” etc. In fact, he was using the ugliness of rape, equating it with child-killing and assassinations in later threads.
Was what he said dickish to ABL? Yes.
Is it fucking absurd for all these people to be making those claims about him minimizing rape when he was doing the exact opposite, using the ugliest thing he could think of to make a point. And it wasn’t even originally his.
Now, because of this, I’ve apparently thrown ABL under the bus, I’ve got the entire GGihad yelling at me that I am laughing at rape victims (actually, ABL told me I am laughing at rape victims, when I have found nothing about this whole fucking night funny), that I am a privileged white male who just doesn’t understand, I’m a hick libertarian from WV, etc. This reminds me of the neocons who just scream anti-semitism to smear people. I’ve got the entire ABLC staff (hall monitor Allan leading the charge) telling me I hate ABL and rape victims.
My position is pretty clear- what Glenn said was dickish. The two day attempts to smear him are absurd. And ABL can take care of herself and doesn’t need me “siding” with her. Hell, she has launched plenty of haymakers at GG herself, on this very website and on twitter, and it was never demanded that I jump in and referee or choose sides. But now, because I am pointing out some of the nonsense people were saying about Glenn on twitter is stupid, I apparently have “sided” with him and am unable to agree with or still like ABL. Christ, I wasn’t even talking about her until- I was dealing with the “glenn greenwald hates rape victims” crap. This whole damned thing is juvenile.
I’m not sure why that is so hard to understand.
Anne Laurie
@gnomedad: If Willard’s campaign for governor is any indication, even the most dedicated straight-ticket-Republican voters are going to loathe the man by election day. Since President Obama’s re-election team are many many many leagues in advance of anything available to Shannon O’Brien, by the time the GOP delegates gather in Tampa, it will be a near thing as to whom they hate worse — That Man in the White House, or the soulless sociopath they’re supposed to supporting. There were some ugly stories leaked out from the Kansas City GOP convention in 1976, but if Romney is the tiara-winner in Tampa, I suspect it’s not just DFH protestors who’ll “have to be” dosed with Fox News’ “food product”…
mk3872
Does Romney read the official Joseph Smith version of the Bible where God speaks to him? And does Romney wear magical underwear while praying?
Wordsmith
@mclaren: I agree – unless things have changed AND I’m thinking not. I grew up with Mormons and evangelical Christians. We’re Catholic. I know their theology – both groups and I know my own. Evangelicals, even some I know now are hard-pressed to remind me of the ‘whore of Babylon’ bullshit although ‘too kind’ (Christian showing tolerance) to say it to my face. Their theology doesn’t come close to clicking. Santorum would be more palatable than Mitt.
Maude
@hitchhiker:
I haven’t heard about mystery meat in ages.
Day old bread. There aren’t any more stores that sell that. I mean they sold day old baked goods, not fresh.
Yevgraf
Y’know, John, getting into a twit war was a mistake. There’s a reason to stay away from that 140 character limit.
Chuck Butcher
@John Cole:
When people are busy crashing their cars in the snow/ice, I do my best to stay away from them…
How about you?
David Marotta
Anne,that is brilliantly stated. I think and hope you are right…
amk
@John Cole: You sound
almostlike newtie vs abl’s willard.Cacti
@John Cole:
So which one of those is untrue?
Yevgraf
One other observation-for a highly paid pundit, Glennzo got some thin skin. Professional pundits can’t take criticism, it seems.
Don’t let up.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@John Cole:
Could it be because people don’t want to? Drama is interesting to some folks. Of course I can’t remember which bowl game Woody Hayes punched the Clemson linebacker in 34 years ago, and I watched to fucking game, in real time. So my view is suspect, even to myself.
Corner Stone
Hell, you’ve got half of them FP’ng here.
Little Boots
@Yevgraf:
He’s a true believer, hence, bitter, and occasionally nasty.
Narcissus
Wait we’re allowed to make rape jokes now
Who forgot to send me this memo huh
harokin
@Wordsmith: When I was growing up in Missouri, there was still an executive order in place calling for the “extermination” of Mormons. Evangelicals there HATE Mormons, and there is a lot of bloody history behind that. Many of them will stay home or vote for a third-party candidate. I’m not sure people from outside the region understand the degree of antipathy.
khead
There’s someone out there in BJ commenters land – I swear I can not honestly remember who, and it ain’t me – that gets a gold fucking star for predicting this exact thing would happen.
FlipYrWhig
@Yevgraf: You just say that because you love the president so much you want to marry him and can’t stand the beauteous truthfulness Greenwald spreads everywhere he goes, a rainbow nimbus of Glorious Principle no other is fit to look upon.
Chuck Butcher
If MultipleMitt can keep the field as big as it is now for a few more states then he starts to look good with his 25%.
Little Boots
so is John in a mood, or is he always like this?
J.W. Hamner
@John Cole:
Putting aside trivialization of rape, racial connotations etc… my problem with all this nonsense would be this tweet. Greenwald apparently really does think that ABL… and any “Obot”… would cheerfully defend Obama raping a nun on national television. Doesn’t that basically prove he’s a hack and a troll? If he has a point to make then it’s an incredibly stupid one.
MikeJ
@Villago Delenda Est:
What can you expect from a junior college? Just look at their seal: Leland Stanford Junior University.
FlipYrWhig
@Little Boots: A true believer in small-government conservatism a la Jonah Goldberg, only without the pop culture obsession.
Narcissus
There was an old woman who lived in a shoe
So I raped her*
*i voted for obama
Little Boots
@FlipYrWhig:
oh, come on, you can’t hate greenwald. while hating goldberg is a national requirement.
Joel
@Crusty Dem: I just peeked. John Cole twitters a lot. Too much for me to follow.
Anya
@Trentrunner: I am genuinely interested in what Greenwald has on Cole, that he will lose all credibility defending him on every FREAKING issue. I say that as a conversation starter.
FlipYrWhig
@J.W. Hamner: As I said in the other thread, it’s particularly odd because Greenwald’s whole series of posts about Paul specifically puts to one side all his most offensive political views. So, by that standard, it would seem that Greenwald would react to news that Paul raped a nun by saying, “That nun-raping part is pretty bad, but that’s not the issue, and the fact remains that he defends civil liberties (as I define them), I like that about him, and if you don’t agree with me it’s only because you’re a mindless authoritarian bootlicker.”
some guy
#4 and #3 is turning into a game. 1/2 time.
FlipYrWhig
@Little Boots: Actually Goldberg was a bad choice because he likes himself a good war. Bad call on my part.
But as far as I can tell everything Greenwald writes about, during the Bush era and during the Obama era, meshes very well with John Birch and “patriot movement”/militia stuff of the kind David Niewert has been tracing and blogging about for years. How much ideological space is there between Greenwald and Dale Gribble of _King of the Hill_?
Little Boots
so why again is John Cole in a bitchfight with Glenn Greenwold?
and who wins Iowas because of this?
Wordsmith
@harokin: I’m in Idaho and although they are a good part of the religious populace, evangelicals hold them in a different light than other more mainstream religions. My sister married into the LDS church and I’ve had this conversation with 20-something nephews about Mitt. They believe me because – get this – I have a degree in religious studies. As their mother & I tell them…man, it was the Assembly of God, Open-Door, Bible Missionary, Nazarene, Church of Christ, and some other weird types who listened to Billy James Hargis and anything that came out of Anderson, Indiana who were our neighbors. I don’t give a shit about Mitt’s religion. At the same time, I’ll never vote for him, but as I tell my nephews – trust me, they are your religious brethren & sisters who very much do.
some guy
raping nuns (in El Salvador) is what we, as a people, do. or allow. like eating cake and denying you know how to say “let them eat cake” in French in Des Moines. or killing civilians in Pakistan to “get the bad guys.” it is what we do. period. or at least those of us here paying tax dollars to Uncle Sam.
it’s what we do / allow. can we get back to mocking the Clown Car in Des Moines?
doofus
@J.W. Hamner:
It’s things like this that remind me that Greenwald ain’t no liberal. The most charitable interpretation is that GG is a single-issue gadfly who will attack every president on the same grounds.
Villago Delenda Est
@FlipYrWhig:
Yup, that pretty much lays out Greenwald’s position on this. Despite Paul’s glaring flaws, he talks about some shit I want to talk about, so I’ll ignore that and accuse anyone who disagrees with me of being happy to kill Muslim children.
Little Boots
@FlipYrWhig:
come on. seriously? perspective?
Joel
@Joel: I did notice, however, that ABL adopted “Imani” as a prefix in her twitter handle. A fan of the Pharcyde, I see. Good taste.
The prophet Nostradumbass
@Joel: Imani is her real first name.
SiubhanDuinne
@Baud:
Okay, I gotta, I just gotta:
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Villago Delenda Est
@hitchhiker:
It’s like OvenMitt thinks working with a net is just fine if you’re a trust fund baby, but you serfs can do without one. Why, look at me! Oh, wait…pay no attention to the silk net underneath me and the golden parachute on my back…
Little Boots
john, we need you. please show up again.
jaywillie
f@John Cole: So, you put yourself in the middle of a juvenile Twitter shitstorm and you whine about it because it’s–gasp–juvenile? You brought it upon yourself. I feel sorry that you think ANYTHING that is posted on Twitter has that much significance, or is significant enough that you felt the need to involve yourself in it. I mean, if ABL can take care of herself, I’m sure a professional blogger like Glenn Greenwald can, too.
Honestly–what a shock that people are treating Greenwald like a dick after saying someone who is one of your own FPers would proudly defend Pres. Obama raping a nun (not as a joke or a metaphor, but as in, Greenwald really thinks she’d do that). Seriously–you don’t get to be all, “They’re being mean to Glenn and saying he hates rape victims,” after the guy says Obama supporters would defend the President literally raping a nun.
And there’s the root of the juvenile behavior you can’t stomach–the original person who made that comment and the hardly laudable Greenwald attaching himself to it and taking it one step further. You want to call out the juvenile actors in this? Start there. You want to feel sorry for people laying into Greenwald? The dude got in return what he dished out.
Wordsmith
@some guy: Those nuns raped & murdered in El Salvador, one was associated with the Ursuline Sisters of Cleveland, the other was a lay missioner. I’m sure you know this. Graduated from college there. Since then some of them, most – are heavily into social justice with some attending the protest at the ‘School of the Americas.’
As for Greenwald, he’s a fucking hack…not to mention a libertarian; no liberal or progressive by any standard. I pay little attention to him. I found the entire raping the nun characterization directed towards the president despicable and way over the fucking line.
And another thing, those Ursuline nuns – they know how to use the word ‘fuck.’
freelancer
@Joel:
I think that’s ABL’s name, for realsies.
John Cole
@Anya: He doesn’t have anything on me. I just hate pile-ons, and especially absurd ones. As I’ve said, what he said was dickish, but no more dickish than anything people say about him. What bothered me was the attempts to smear him as making rape jokes and hating on rape victims. On later tweets, he equated the rape to child-killing and assassination. Why didn’t anyone spend two days accusing him of making light of child-murder and assassination.
Because rape is emotionally charged and it could be used as a cudgel to smear him. Not to mention, we’ve already seen children being blown to bits by drones and people assassinated in the last few years, so that’s a touchy area in and of itself.
Ian
@Anya:
GG is secretly Tunch.
MikeJ
@FlipYrWhig:
He’s sort of changed his tune since the Bush era. Back then he liked bombing brown people. It’s ponly when a Dem is in office that he can bring himself to dislike it.
rikyrah
SMEAR HIM?
you gotta be fucking kidding me.
GIGI is the one who brought up RAPE to smear someone else.
and now, as usual, with this punk mofo, when people call his ass out, he whines and never apologizes.
that YOU, COLE, would step into it on the side of Gigi was just ridiculous.
Joel
@The prophet Nostradumbass: Well then. Aren’t I a dumbass.
FlipYrWhig
@Little Boots: I don’t see why anyone would place Greenwald on any sort of liberal/left. Even if you judge him to be a consistent civil libertarian, there are consistent civil libertarians on the right, too. Like the crew from Reason magazine. He basically finds both Bush and Obama to be what libertarian conservatives would call “statists.” He’d be perfectly well at home there. He either doesn’t realize it yet, or does but is eager to troll the leading lights of the liberal blogosphere.
Chuck Butcher
RICO Act – 1970,
How’d you like to make the case that Civil Liberties are somehow congruent with Liberal?
The Fat Kate Middleton
Hm. So he was in Marion, huh? I really hate the idea of him stinking up the place where I raised my kids. It was a nice little town … and I have pretty good idea of what company it was where he spoke. Owner’s a nasty little Repub who’s a former state legislator and mayor.
some guy
@Wordsmith:
word
John Cole
@rikyrah: I’M NOT ON GLENN’S “SIDE” WHEN IT COMES TO WHAT HE SAID TO ABL. IT WAS DICKISH. Is anyone even arguing that? I never even mentioned ABL tonight until the juvenile team-picking started.
I’m on Glenn’s side in regards to the hundreds of tweets attempting to claim he just gets off making rape jokes and hates rap victims and the rest of the bullshit.
ALL CAPS BECAUSE OF THE READING COMPREHENSION FAIL.
252man
@Chris: Actually, Mitt wants to come first. Then, he will roll over and go to sleep.
Calouste
@Joel:
Imani is ABL’s real name.
Crusty Dem
@John Cole:
What your saying is that rape jokes are really offensive and that Glenn’s choice of words (something a lawyer should be pretty familiar with) was really stupid. But that those attacking Greenwald are acting in bad faith because they shouldn’t be that offended by a rape joke?
Wow, very coherent point.
The prophet Nostradumbass
@John Cole: Indeed, Greenwald wasn’t making rape “jokes”, he meant what he said quite literally, which is far more disgusting and “dickish”.
Villago Delenda Est
OK, everyone calm the fuck down.
Please look at Cole’s 130. His concern is that the vast hordes of the ABL legion were dogpiling on the dumbass libertarian.
You know, those 10,953 point overkills don’t do you any real good, except to just show how totally overpowered you are with your adversary.
So it is the case here.
Gwangung
Cole, I’d drop the shovel if I were you…
FlipYrWhig
@John Cole: You might say that apart from the rape remarks and general douchebaggery, which you’re not condoning, you see Glenn Greenwald as advancing an important political discussion, and find any rush to dismiss him to be an attempt at silencing his valuable voice. Cole : Greenwald :: Greenwald : Paul. QED! :P
FlipYrWhig
@Villago Delenda Est: LEAVE GLENNGREENIE ALOOOONE!!!!!
Villago Delenda Est
@Crusty Dem:
They can be offended all they want.
All they are doing is feeding an energy creature, in digestible 140 character portions.
Villago Delenda Est
@FlipYrWhig:
Stop trying to bounce the damn rubble!
some guy
@Villago Delenda Est:
in super mario Coconut Court really cool things happen when you hit a cube, in that level.
too busy watching Team X beat Team Y’s ass to care. go OS/Stanford
Greenwald is a Rapper
SEND GLENN TO GITMO.
Villago Delenda Est
@Gwangung:
That really is good advice in this case. Just walk away and give the delightful Lily your full attention during the rest of the Fiesta Bowl.
Crusty Dem
@Villago Delenda Est:
I’m not talking to or about them, just trying to sum up Cole’s point, and how ludicrous it sounds.
geg6
Cole, your attempts to justify your puzzling and bizarre defense to the death of that lying, disingenuous piece of garbage, Greenwald, is diminishing much of the credibility I’d formerly attributed to you. I haven’t and will never follow anyone on Twitter, bur I have spent the last several weeks reading every defense of Ron Paul (and the constant iteration that Obama is the worst monster in the world that have gone along with those defenses) that asshole has put up on Salon and my question to you is why you would spend a second defending that man. If anyone in the world should not be making those sorts of tweets, it’s GG, a man who would have us overlook Paul’s willingness to make African Americans and women into second class citizens, not to mention the poor or sick who he’d leave to die without a thought about them or their loved ones. Seems to me that GG would be happy to let the Holocaust unfold and facism take over the entire continent of Europe in front of his eyes as long as Ron Paul will promise to let him smoke pot. After all, Paul has admitted that that he’d have been happy to let that happen. I have yet to see any instance where Obama has stated how he’d take pleasure in raping nuns.
You should not defend that idiot Greenwald. Unless, of course, you really prefer sociopaths to actual people with human feeling.
CT Voter
@John Cole: I don’t think you are throwing ABL under the bus.
Greenwald wasn’t making a joke about rape–he just joined in and validated an exceptionally offensive comment by someone else. To make a point: defenders of Obama would be willing to defend Obama even after watching Obama rape someone on live TV. I’m not going to even try to argue that Greenwald is “pro-rape” on the basis of that. It’d be ludicrous.
But it’s also pretty ludicrous that Greenwald is being defended for encouraging someone who claims that supporters of Obama would defend him raping someone on live TV.
People who support Obama even in the face of constant Glenn Greenwald vitriol would also defend someone they saw rape another person? Because the rapist was just illustrating the injustice and horror of rape?
Yes. It’s pretty demeaning, callous, and just plain nuts.
FlipYrWhig
@Villago Delenda Est: It seems like from time to time we hear about how there are all these Angry Black Lady fans who swarm, overrun the blogosphere and leave behind only the bleached bones of their foes. Isn’t that, like, six people? Compared to dozens and dozens of Greenwaltarians?
amk
@John Cole: ‘smear him’? WTF ? The fucker was doing the smearing and he is getting all the pushback he deserves. You’re defending the indefensible.
freelancer
@John Cole:
I for one am glad that you’ve taken the time to address it here. As you can see, it’s gotten far less juvenile.
Villago Delenda Est
@Crusty Dem:
Ah, point taken.
I think Cole is viewing the entire reaction to Greenwald’s unquestionably dickish comments as massive overkill, and the lavish waste of viritol on a target that’s already been obliterated.
Villago Delenda Est
@Crusty Dem:
Ah, point taken.
I think Cole is viewing the entire reaction to Greenwald’s unquestionably dickish comments as massive overkill, and the lavish waste of viritol on a target that’s already been obliterated.
FlipYrWhig
@CT Voter: Well, don’t forget, Greenwald thinks that a blog that features flattering pictures of Obama is equivalent to the work of Leni Riefenstahl. So he’s not too great when it comes to what you’d call “perspective.”
Villago Delenda Est
@FlipYrWhig:
Your point is ALSO well taken. I’m grateful that there are no legions of Paultards swarming the site.
/knocks on wood
Chuck Butcher
I’m not sure exactly what line crossed would get the more protective Obama partisans to allow that criticism was something other than helping the other side…
That is a pretty small cadre, but vocal.
Anya
@jaywillie: THIS
@rikyrah: Why are you calling him Gigi? Is that not very unacceptable? Feminizing a gay man’s name as a put down? Not very social justicy, no?
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Villago Delenda Est: Well, if Glenn doesn’t want a reaction for his comment, he didn’t have to post it. When he says something stupid, he deserves 10k plus reactions. Everyone gets to practice their first amendment rights, even those out of the country.
lamh35
@John Cole:
JC, dude you have a blog that u run called Balloon Juice. You do not run da twitter. Just cause you hate the pile on doesn’t mean the pile on stops. u put ur self in the middle of a “twit-war” that had absolutely nothing to do with you.
I’ve been following the whole thing since yesterday. I have yet to join in the twit-war as it was. I have no love for GG, but I do follow and like ABL. If like you, I considered both (GG and ABL) mutual acquantainces, the one thing you learn is NOT to get in the middle of it. Cause no matter what it will seem like you are choosing sides.
You chose to jump in a I guess like you do on your own blog and tell one party that they were being stupid and guess what there a reason for the phrase “don’t shoot the messenger” the messenger does tend to get shot.
If I joined every twit-war started by people I follow, I’d never do anything else.
It’s like knowing your walking into a valley of landmindes lays ahead and rather than saying “oh know I’m staying away from that place” you jump in feet first and got ur legs blown off.
Villago Delenda Est
@Villago Delenda Est:
Upon reflection, the Paultards remind me very much of the “bugs” in Starship Troopers.
Sweet, sweet irony. The hive mind in modern GOP politics best illustrated by the fans of the “libertarian” candidate.
Corner Stone
THIS…is CNN.
/James Earl Jones
hitchhiker
@Maude:
Yes, day old bread . . . except my mum was old-line Irish & would rather have died than see her kids eating bread she hadn’t made with her own two hands. Six loaves, twice a week, staple of our diet.
Weird to be in this twitter-fixated, stupid-politics-obsessed thread remembering the moment when the contents of the mystery meat can dropped into a frying pan . . . my dad looking determined while all of us stood around the stove making our stoically uniform wtf face.
Romney’s optimism does not reassure me.
Rhoda
@John Cole: Apparently, you have no problem with the fact GG thinks “Obots” will watch the President rape a woman on live television and defend him to the death.
That is not a problem.
The problem is the many people who support the President and are understandably offended over what you consider a “dickish” comment. The problem is that these people have gone over the line and are ganging up on GG over a simple “dickish” comment; that is so unfair, apparently.
Now, step back and look at what you’re defending. And then, consider the history of rape and African Americans. Hell, just think back to the campaign in ’08 and that girl Ashley of the backwards B. And then ask yourself why so many are oh so sensitive.
Because frankly, I’m fucking done over you and all of those that can’t comprehend the lines that shouldn’t be crossed. And fuck the idea that GG is some victim.
Xecky Gilchrist
I want to have an America that comes together.
Uniter, not a divider – where have we heard that before?
amk
@Chuck Butcher: Stupid strawman. Address the issue on hand, if you have the smarts.
Yevgraf
@Villago Delenda Est:
In a proper world, highly paid professional pundits would be dogged by legions of scathing critics, would lapse into depression and suffer a much higher statistical suicide rate.
The world would be a far better, more well-organized and personally satisfying place, particularly without the Glenn Greenwalds in it.
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason
Well, last night I went through my late father-in-law’s tools and toolboxes and matched them up with my late father’s and built two very nice sets for my two sons, with Craftsman boxes, wrenches, pliers, and screwdrivers, and assorted other hammers, clamps, and other stuff. Between the two grandfathers, I was able to put together a better collection of hand tools for both of them than I’ve been managing with for the last 40 years.
Neither kid appears to have the DIY gene, but if hard times hit, at least I know they’ll have the gear they might need.
gwangubg
Meh. Greenwald is an adult. He makes a good comment, praise him. He makes a stupid comment, criticize him. He’s a big boy.
amk
@Yevgraf: Bingo. “critics” cannot be critiqued meme is so idiotic.
Anya
The most pathetic part of all of this was Joan Walsh, in essence saying: that bitch ABL goaded Glen Greenwald into making an ass of himself. My god, what is it about President Obama that make his critics lose all perspective?
moe99
animus not animous
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason
@Litlebritdifrnt:
Duh. Everyone knows that in coffee shops you need pie. (sorry, can’t find Men In Black video clip)
Corner Stone
@gwangubg: I agree gwangubg.
Cargo
Romney will be the nominee and it will be apparent before Super Tuesday, and locked up thereafter. We all know it. And all the bullshit about “he’s a mormon”, “romneycare”, etc will be completely and entirely forgotten.
He will get 45-48% of the vote without even trying, as will Obama. The 3-5% of voters who rule us, well, depends on the price of gas and the unemployment rate in October.
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason
@Villago Delenda Est: Wha? Who in the feck doesn’t know the origin of “Let them eat cake?”
Yevgraf
@amk:
Last I noticed, ABL wasn’t living phat down in Brazil while making big coin on a pundit gig. She’s just a minor Blogger, trashed by the big-money guy because her critiques stung.
I still haven’t gotten an answer to my oft-posed query about what, if anything, Greenwald has accomplished in life in the world outside punditry.
Villago Delenda Est
@Anya:
1. Democrat
2. Near
amk
@Yevgraf:
egg.sack.lee. cole getting his panties in a mighty twist is a pretty pathetic sight.
Anya
@Villago Delenda Est: How about critics on the left?
Darkrose
@Villago Delenda Est:
I’m still bummed about that, because the Stanford Robber Barons would have been the best team name ever. I’ll just have to be content knowing that Leland “Chinese Exclusion Act” Stanford is probably rolling in his grave enough to power the entire campus if the folks at SLAC could harness him properly.
Chuck Butcher
@amk:
What? You felt addressed did you? I hadn’t noticed someone’s name attached to that…
Villago Delenda Est
@Anya:
Disappointment that he’s not the second coming of FDR. Ignores minor details like not having Congress under his firm control.
Also, Obama frankly hasn’t been as aggressive in rolling back the idiot assmalistration’s executive overreach, particularly in regards to civil liberties, at least from my perspective.
The stimulus was also not aggressive enough…but he shares that fault with FDR himself.
Gwangung
Well I voted for Robber Barons….
Darkrose
@lamh35:
In an “I can’t believe someone actually got money to make this movie” kind of way. Equilibrium is one of my favorite bad movies, especially because it’s got so many really good actors trying to deliver the gods-awful dialogue and not hurt themselves laughing.
It’s also one of the best movies ever for playing the pants game:
“And along with them, you’ve given me yourself… calmly… coolly… entirely without pants.”
“No. Not without pants.”
not a church lady
How I wish I could be in Iowa or NH, dressed like a proper church lady, meet Romney and the other candidates, and tell them God has a special message for them and their party, in James 5:1. Here’s James 5:1 to 6 from the NIV:
Chuck Butcher
@Villago Delenda Est:
1 Democrat
2 Near
Corner Stone
Wonder if Zander has something else to say here. I mean beyond pissing his pants about the DRONES!!
Chuck Butcher
Lemme see if I’ve got this thread straight,
There’s the late breaking news that ABL is in a pissing match with GG and JC blundered into it.
Then there is Willard Mittens who started off at the top of the page. A funny thing that seems to be missed is that the campaign seems to be headed into the direction of the Pres being in favor of what Mittens was in favor of before he wasn’t. Soooo… the old Mittens defines the current D politics?
Who is that harder on – Mittens or Obama?
dance around in your bones
Twitter Wars r Stupid.
Darkrose
@John Cole:
I hate to say it, John, but in this case, your male privilege is kinda showing. GG’s analogy was crass and tacky, but more than that, for a guy to use rape as a rhetorical tactic in an argument with a woman goes beyond just tacky, given that there’s a 33% chance that you’re sneering at someone who is an actual rape survivor. It comes across to me as an attempt to silence a woman by invoking the thing that most women live in fear of at some level. I don’t think it was intentional, because that would require Greenwald to be aware that people who aren’t white men may have different experiences than he does, but regardless, it’s an especially dickish move.
mittensisawhacko
Willard is frequently disconnected from normal people. The dog ride from hell story is one example of this, but Mitt’s ‘How I met my wife story’ is even worse. This story was told by Willard as if he thinks everyone will relate to it. With his background and money he has probably been sheltered from negative feedback his entire life. Just like the resourceful dog lover with a hose.
Throwing rocks at a horse and rider. What could go wrong?
For the horse and rider a lot. For young and filthy rich Willard Mitt Romney? Probably not much because daddy was the Governor of Michigan.
Chuck Butcher
I coulda sworn there was a cartoon of a SOB corporate raider up top…
But then rape is tacky and crass, probably right up there with dead chillen… or maybe pick a couple other atrocities the US gets up to like say executions or … oh hell.
Kindergarten is in session.
LesGS
@Darkrose: So succinctly explained, Darkrose. I hope John reads this.
Villago Delenda Est
@Chuck Butcher:
The Twitter Wars have hijacked the current thread and taken it off into other realms of teeth gnashing and recriminations.
I think Darkrose at 189 has a pretty good point there, though…using that particular analogy is bound to cause people to move immediately to a higher DEFCON. Like say 2 or perhaps, heaven forefend, 1. Up from the previously simmering at 3.5 in the entire PaulWars scenario.
Anya
@Darkrose: Thank you! That’s exactly what bothered me about the whole thing. Not only is there a good chance that the woman might be a survivor, but there’s also a greater chance that she might know someone who’s a survivor. To taunt a woman with the accusation that she’ll condone rape it disgusting in so many levels.
Crusty Dem
@Darkrose:
Nailed it. Thanks!
Mnemosyne
@Darkrose:
QFT.
ETA: Guys who “joke” about rape to women are like guys who “joke” about nooses to black folks. There are subjects that some people will never, ever be able to find funny, no matter how many times you try to say, “But it was just a joke? Don’t you have a sense of humor?“
ksmiami
Who is this Glenn Greenwald character and how many regiments does he have anyway???
I am so done with irrelevant libertarians…
peace