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You are here: Home / Let a million Katrinas bloom

Let a million Katrinas bloom

by | 190 Comments

This post is in: 

I thought we’d already had three or four Obama Katrinas by now.

While I was in Paris this summer, I visited the Conciergerie, where nobles waited for the guillotine. It would be irresponsible not to speculate about sending most of our Beltway media elites there.

Reader Interactions

190Comments

  1. 1.

    Trollhattan

    Who is Charles (Chuck) Lane?

    Anyway, to Mr. Layne: how many Americans have drowned in Syria this summer?

    Thank you.

  7. 7.

    jl

    ‘Bush’s (1)’ What does the ‘(1)’ mean? Is that Twitterese for something? There is more than one Katrina?

    OK, maybe he means to distinguish between Bush’s ONE Katrina, and ALL of Obama’s Katrinas? Or something. ‘Cause all Obama can do is pump out Katrina sized failures?

    Whatever.

  8. 8.

    Hill Dweller

    The Beltway(not just wingnut mouthpieces) hates Obama with heat of a thousand suns. They’ve been promising his impending doom all year.

  9. 9.

    piratedan

    well come on guys, hurricanes happen in the Mediterranean all the time, and we had all the reports telling us that Assad was going to use chemical weapons, hell it was on for days all over the news and look at all the time it took the military to get assembled to reach the refugee camps. Plus, Syria is totally under our control and their interstate system for moving weapons and supplies is second only to the German Autobahn, the parallels, well they’re pretty hard to dismiss don’t you think?

  11. 11.

    Davis X. Machina

    @jl: The (1) often signifies that a tweet is just the first part of a thought incapable of being compressed into 140 characters.

    Raising the stomach-churning prospect that there’s more out there…..

  12. 12.

    Baud

    Who can forget when Bush went on national television to tell a worried nation that, rather than launching air strikes, he was going to try to negotiate with Russia for a diplomatic solution to the hurricane.

  16. 16.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @jl:

    Or maybe he means “Bush One” even though Katrina happened under “Bush Two.”

    Or maybe he was pointing out that he was referring to a singular Bush, not plural Bushes, and making sure everyone notices that he does, too, know how to use apostrophe’s.

  18. 18.

    Hungry Joe

    Actually, Sunny, the Obamas’ new dog, was his Katrina. Benghazi was his Waterloo. And last night’s Syria talk was his … his … “Checkers” speech. Though anatomically, Sunny is closer to Checkers. Okay, Benghazi was his Katrina, and Checkers was his “Sunny” speech … no, wait …

  21. 21.

    lamh36

    Benghazi is Obama’s Katrina. No Obamacare implementation is Obama’s Katrina. No wait Congress not authorizing closure of Gitmo is Obama’s Katrina. No wait, Snowden/GG/NSA is Obama’s Katrina.

    Oh and just because sometimes I like to imagine certain heads over here at BJ explodin’…I’m posting this without any real comment. Just to see how many people actually read the post.

    Why Is Glenn Greenwald Promoting an Extreme Right Wing Militia?

  25. 25.

    Davis X. Machina

    @jl: My theory is that the natural and logical division between part one of this effusion, and part two, may not have fallen just where mere arithmetic would require.

    I mean, how many deathless symphonies have movements of equal duration? Art cannot be so chained, nor brilliance thus trammeled.

  26. 26.

    Baud

    I think we’re all misreading Charles (Chuck) Lane. He’s saying that he thinks Katrina was a good outcome.

  32. 32.

    TriassicSands

    Proposed analogy: Syria is to Obama’s presidency as Katrina was to Bush’s (1)

    Proposed Analogy 2: Obamacare is to humanity as the Permian Extinction was to life on Earth.

    It’s always good to state things conservatively.

    Proposed Analogy 3 Charles Lane is to assholes as Jupiter is to Sol’s planets. (An understatement to be sure.)

  36. 36.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @jl:

    Or maybe he has trouble with the maths.

    Well, he’s got something in common with Kkkarl Rove, then.

  38. 38.

    PaulW

    They keep waiting for a national tragedy to hang on Obama like an albatross. I don’t know what’s worse: their eagerness for something bad to happen or their blindness to the reality that if something does happen it’s gonna hurt a ton of people.

  43. 43.

    mainmati

    @schrodinger’s cat: He occasionally produces some baby spitup on the Amazon Daily but has been absent lately I think. He’s not like the self-parodying Krauthammer or the broken record, debbie downer Robert Samuelson so much as he is just remarkably trite.

  44. 44.

    Thoughtcrime

    OT, but the real racists are those Walking While Black: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/09/11/florida-man-accused-of-walking-on-wrong-side-of-the-road/

    Wingate was arrested, charged with resisting arrest without violence and walking down the wrong side of the road and brought to trial. But in court, the officer testified he was not sure what side of the road Wingate was on, prompting the judge to dismiss the case. Wingate has since filed a civil suit against the department.

    “The conduct that is outlined in the transcript and the 911 call is not only breathtaking, it’s outrageous, it’s disgraceful,” Wingate’s attorney, Andrew Bonderud, told FCN.

  45. 45.

    dmsilev

    @Hungry Joe: No, health care was supposed to be Obama’s Waterloo. Then the bill passed, so I guess that means Obama was the Duke of Wellington in a past life. Then I believe the new dog was taken as evidence that Obama hates white people (why else would he get *two* black dogs?), which means that the puppy was Obama’s Dredd Scott moment. Or something.

    We need a field guide to wingnuts to keep this shit straight.

  46. 46.

    D.N. Nation

    These idiots started this Obama’s Katrina nonsense with some winter snow in Kentucky his first month on the job, if memory serves. Once you go all-out desperate like that, you can’t be taken seriously.

    Does this knucklehead sit around legitimately thinking that “Obama’s Katrina” hasn’t long since become a punchline?

  47. 47.

    Seanly

    I’ve heard OF Chuck Lane, but as with others, I have no idea who he is or why the fugg I should care about his stupid thoughts. Does he work for one of those ancient papers quickly going the way of the doo-doo?

    When all the useless journalists are reduced to just tweeting does that mean that the rest of us can ignore them even more than we do?

    Didn’t journalists used to have a more critical role in our system besides just fluffing the Republican party? Maybe their employers wouldn’t be going out of business if the journalist still served a critical need.

    Note: Charles Pierce, family friend Gene Lyons and various staff of the Nation, Mother Jones, etc not included in this rant.

  50. 50.

    jl

    Are all of these analogies that these people make to emphasize the awfulness of Obama Bush II catastrophes?

    It’s a serious question. If true, why? Other presidential catastrophes don’t rate? I guess you could almost make a case for that.

    I will be interested to know when stuff like Lane’s proposal is taken seriously. But it looks like, by their own admission, Bush II set the standard for scandals and deadly goof ups.

  51. 51.

    MikeJ

    Have you read his (2) and (3)?

    Both were spectacular unforced errors in first year of what was supposed to be triumphant second term (2)

    Both left president with a damaged reputation for basic competence (3)

  54. 54.

    Hungry Joe

    @dmsilev: A field guide to wingnuts would have to be updated every couple of weeks. E.g., the IRS scandal was Obama’s Gallipoli (w/Issa’s committee as the Turks) until it wasn’t anymore.

  55. 55.

    lamh36

    Um I’m sorry, but I have it on good authority that Syria is def Obama’s Katrina and his speech last night has “weakened the nation”.

    @JoeKleinTIME
    Obama’s uneven Syria response has weakened the nation. It’s time to pivot | http://ti.me/17XtOj9

  56. 56.

    Central Planning

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    to a singular Bush, not plural Bushes

    However, I think if you are at a nude beach, the plural would be “bush”, as in “Look at all the bush”

    Sorry. Still 13 years old in my mind.

  62. 62.

    Davis X. Machina

    @lamh36: Joke Line is almost right. It’s not time for Obama to pivot, it’s time for Klein to sit on it and rotate.

    It’s easy to see why he became confused….

  64. 64.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    @David in NY: Definitely. Little tiny rooms, see where Marie Antoinette was held, reeking of history and dank creepiness. Then you can walk over to the Cafe Panis (near Shakespeare & Co) and have a cafe while looking out at the cathedral of Notre Dame just across the river.

  65. 65.

    ranchandsyrup

    You know the criticisms of bush the younger got to them when they’ll admit that the criticisms of their hero were valid in order to trash their ideological opponent.

  72. 72.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Baud:

    Well, the thing is, the parallels between Nixon and Obama are so obvious that they can’t be properly articulated. It’s just so REAL, man!

  73. 73.

    MikeJ

    @David in NY: I think he’s an idiot all around, I just wanted people to be able to make fun of everything he said, not just part of it.

    Just like they should make fun of John Cole for his idiocy on the topic.

  75. 75.

    John S.

    @lamh36:

    Wow. Greenwald is pimping the fucking OATHKEEPERS?!

    Wrong Way Cole and the GlennBots will somehow find a way to rationalize this.

  76. 76.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    @David in NY: One of my morning cafes (among a range of three or four, depending on what time I get out, what day it is, etc) going on er,15 years.

    Okay I have to stop counting things like that, sheesh that’s traumatizing.

  77. 77.

    Villago Delenda Est

    “Is it possible to be a more worthless sack of cretinous shit than Chuck Lane?”

    (Joe Klein walks into the room)

    “Amazingly enough, yes!”

  81. 81.

    beltane

    Even if the beltway media were all guillotined, their severed heads would continue spouting nonsense so there’s really no hope.

  82. 82.

    jl

    @efgoldman: So, the gas would less likely be transferred if we bomb up the place and damage Syrian forces command and control?

    Maybe Klein means pivot to doing nothing?

    Edit: another element is that I think these people really really hate diplomacy. Too slow, no action. Doesn’t have a good beat and you can’t dance to it. Bombs are way better.

  84. 84.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @jl:

    “Jaw jaw is better than war war”

    The guy who said that was some sort of faggy pacifist, I’m sure.

  86. 86.

    angler

    c’mon, Obama’s Katrina? Why not Obama’s WMD? Oh yeah, the likes of Lane still think it’s hidden away in Syria, which should bring things full circle.

  89. 89.

    MikeJ

    @piratedan: BtVS, “The Body”. Not really great sci-fi/fantasy, just great drama.

    ETA: I have javascript turned off so didn’t even see the comments there until after I posted that. Glad to see it right up front in the comments. Didn’t even require thinking.

  90. 90.

    dmsilev

    By the way, speaking of both wingnuts and epic fails, let’s not forget today’s face-plant by John Boehner and company. His Clever Plan ™ was to let the House maniacs vote on yet another symbolic Defund Obamacare bill and pass a keep-the-government-running bill at the same time. Said maniacs didn’t like that idea; they want to actually defund Obamacare not just cast a symbolic vote. So Boehner pulled the vote, and is currently looking like an even bigger powerless fool than usual.

  91. 91.

    geg6

    How is Cole feeling about his good buddy GG cozying up to a neoconfederate fascist organization? Curious minds want to know!

  94. 94.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    No, everything that has happened since he was elected has been his Katrina. Every single thing. It’s been one huge non-stop Katrina from the beginning.

    /wingnut
    or
    /brogressive

    @Sly:

    I read about that and wasn’t surprised one bit. I’m sure his flying Monkey Brigade has a logical explanation for this.

  95. 95.

    Keith G

    @Baud:

    Who can forget when Bush went on national television to tell a worried nation that, rather than launching air strikes, he was going to try to negotiate with Russia for a diplomatic solution to the hurricane.

    I am glad that President Obama was able to make this address, but remember that this was not his Plan A.

  96. 96.

    mai naem

    People, we are talking all out wingnut teatards here. Katrina is Obama’s. Full stop. Now, I could say that Katrina is Obama’s Watergate but, hell, Watergate is Obama’s too as is Vietnam, the Bay of Pigs and the JFK assassination.

  97. 97.

    jl

    @dmsilev: A fail of symbols is a symbol of fail. I think a ‘fail’ would be a good collective noun for whatever the Congressional GOPers triy to do these days.

    I was going to call them a Boner of Boehners but, that is giving the GOP teabagger brigade too much credit.

  100. 100.

    Hal

    So if this compromise is a bad thing, and military strikes are a bad thing, and doing nothing is a bad thing, then wtf is Obama supposed to do? I think the media is still smarting over getting their whole “We’ll be at war any day now!!” predication wrong, and just can’t let go.

  102. 102.

    MikeJ

    @Keith G:

    I am glad that President Obama was able to make this address, but remember that this was not his Plan A.

    So what? This would not have happened unless a lot of people really truly believed we would do something they wanted to avoid. As a wise man once said:

    We must begin by acknowledging the hard truth that we will not eradicate violent conflict in our lifetimes. There will be times when nations – acting individually or in concert – will find the use of force not only necessary but morally justified.

    We weren’t going to start a war in Syria. It’s already going on. Now there’s a good chance it’s going to stop and the only reason that is true is because of what Obama threatened.

  103. 103.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @geg6:
    Quite an astonishing coincidence that Oathkeepers was founded in March 2009. Why, it’s almost as though something new, something different, might have happened just a few weeks earlier.

    Naaaahh….

  105. 105.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    The Oafkeepers are semi-famous for their stupid attempt to take over a court house in support of one of their members who they believed was being wrongly prosecuted. The guy was pulled over going armed to the courthouse and arrested. Among many other items found in his truck was a pink dildo. I kid you not.

    Anyhoo The Fogbow has been following them since their beginnings.

    http://www.thefogbow.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=1190&hilit=oathkeepers

  107. 107.

    Brandon

    It is more than speculation not to conclude that one of the reasons that the WaPo is failing commercially is because it is paying idiots like this six figure salaries when they are contributing little to any value and if anything, diminishing the brand value of the company. It would be a simple economic decision for Bezos to fire this clown and others like him. Unfortunately I doubt that he’d do it because I think his ownership of the WaPo is probably more in line with Rev. Moon’s ownership of the times. Total loss leader to let the nutters have their fun and buy influence. I have a strong feeling that this paper is going to get progressively worse until it is totally worthless and Bezos finally pulls the plug.

  108. 108.

    Patricia Kayden

    The beauty of President Obama’s presidency is that he has no “Katrinas”. NONE. So far, he’s been scandal-free, much to the angst of his many detractors.

    If Russia is able to get Syria to give up their chemical weapons, this is a win for President Obama and for those of us who were against any US military intervention in Syria.

    And who is Chuck Lane again?

  109. 109.

    jl

    @Keith G: Well, OK then. I can see Lane’s and Klein’s point!

    If you don’t have a Plan A, you don’t risk damaging your reputation for basic competence, or weaken the nation, by having to PIVOT to a Plan B.

    I agree with them now, it makes perfect sense. As long as you don’t have a veep operating on the sly with a Plan Z, but that was out of Bush II’s hands, I guess.

  111. 111.

    Patricia Kayden

    @efgoldman: I had to sound crass, but everyone knows that thousands of people have been killed in Syria. Americans don’t want their government to get involved in a civil war. If Syria gives up its chemical weapons, most Americans will be alright with that outcome.

    Perhaps the irony of Bush’s Iraq misadventures is that it has cured (at least temporarily) Americans lust for foreign wars. At least one good thing came of all that.

  113. 113.

    Hal

    @Patricia Kayden:

    Perhaps the irony of Bush’s Iraq misadventures is that it has cured (at least temporarily) Americans lust for foreign wars. At least one good thing came of all that.

    I have to wonder though, if this were a Republican President saying the same exact thing, I don’t think there would be nearly as much hesitation or lack of support and I’m willing to bet the press would be far more friendly to the idea of strikes. Many on the left have been criticizing these military campaigns for years, so I’m not surprised about the reaction their, but up to this point, have congressional Republicans ever met a military action they did not like?

  114. 114.

    Baud

    @Patricia Kayden:

    Perhaps the irony of Bush’s Iraq misadventures is that it has cured (at least temporarily) Americans lust for foreign wars.

    Unfortunately, a substantial portion of the current opposition is from people who are opposed to Obama rather than intervening in Syria.

    ETA: Hal beat me to it.

  115. 115.

    JPL

    @geg6: How does the Guardian feel about it? For those who are better with their commas, than I, may I suggest a few letters to the editor.

  119. 119.

    Gravenstone

    @jl:

    Klein’s tweet needs a (1). Pivot to what?

    I believe Joe was missing a couple words. I’m convinced he meant “sit and pivot” – something JokeLine is likely quite adept at.

  121. 121.

    Gravenstone

    @efgoldman: I’m rather shocked no one has argued that the chemical weapons aren’t even Assad’s. He’s just holding them for his good (late) friend Saddam, after all.

  122. 122.

    handy

    @BruceFromOhio:

    Strictly speaking, I believe that’s a simile, but it’s been a long time since i took 10th Grade English so don’t quote me on that. Nevertheless,

    tiresome and full of shit.

    works for me.

  123. 123.

    JPL

    @raven: Pat Lang doesn’t write for the Guardian, so there’s that. I could care less who is on the side blogroll. Not that the Guardian misses me, I will no longer link to their news site.
    What’s really odd about Glenn is most of those folks would not welcome an openly gay person.

  124. 124.

    Roxy

    @MikeJ:

    @piratedan: BtVS, “The Body”. Not really great sci-fi/fantasy, just great drama.

    Two gut wretching dramatic scenes from this episode I consider to be the best are:

    The scene from the perspective of Dawn’s classmates watching Buffy telling Dawn, mom was dead was classic. You couldn’t hear but you knew by watching Buffy and watching Dawn.

    Also from this episode was Buffy, saying Mom, mom, mommy

    Those two scenes to me were powerful and gut wretching.

  127. 127.

    Anoniminous

    @Suffern ACE:

    Well, Syria did march into the Rhineland, rebuild the Luftwaffe, enlarge the Wehrmacht past 100,000 men, create a large Panzer Corp, annex Austria, intervene in the Spanish War, and take over the Sudetenland.

    I mean … the parallels are obvious.

  129. 129.

    geg6

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    I really want Cole’s take on this latest development. I’m not being snarky in the least. He keeps telling us he’s a good and honorable guy, our Glenn. I need to try to understand how that can be. Especially since GG demonstrates that he knows how heinous this group is by trying to hide exactly who they are.

    @Odie Hugh Manatee:

    Yeah, seems all the flying monkeys and Cole are busy tonight and can’t comment. With the exception of a sole brave one who has shoen up in the thread who hasn’t really addressed the issue. Crickets indeed.

  130. 130.

    Jamey

    I would think an opinion journalist of Chuck Lane’s stature would have more Twitter followers. Sure, he sucks, but he’s a brand-name…

  132. 132.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Keith G: What was his plan A? I have a good idea what the goal was, but the specifics of the plan escape me – perhaps because I wasn’t briefed on it.

  133. 133.

    Felonius Monk

    @ChuckLane1 Fuck you, Idiot. Pull your head out of your ass and do something useful for mankind.

  134. 134.

    scav

    @Keith G: Because Plan A on the international diplomatic front was, is and will always and necessarily be the first thing out of a single branch of government’s leader’s mouth in front of the media. Or is it your infallible telepathy talking?

  135. 135.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    @Keith G:

    I seem to remember a leader of a country our last president wanted to attack trying to prevent it from happening by cooperating to make a war unnecessary. That last president decided to go to on an unnecessary war anyway. This president may have had a Plan A but there’s no denying that his plan has led to a new dynamic and that he is willing to go that route if possible. This president adapts as new information comes in, the last did not if the information would prevent them from doing what they really wanted to do.

    This president is not a war monger.

  136. 136.

    Suffern ACE

    @Gravenstone: joe Klein has no idea. Seriously, read the piece. My god, the president should have just gone ahead and bombed and then denied it, like Israel did a few years back. It’s like I am living in a different country than he is.

  137. 137.

    schrodinger's cat

    @geg6: He knows Greenwald personally, they have exchanged emails about dogs, I recall reading in one of Cole’s posts. Village syndrome, I guess is prevalent even among bloggers, he is nice to me so he can’t be all that bad.

  139. 139.

    geg6

    @Suffern ACE:

    WHAT? Who the fuck is Obama appeasing? Assad, who has finally admitted to having CWs and is agreeing to give them up? Their hero, Putin? Their own selves, who were screaming “impeachment!11!” all last week? WHO THE FUCK IS OBAMA SUPPOSED TO BE APPEASING?

    Sorry to yell, but the complete and utter lack of logic of these people makes me nuts sometimes.

  140. 140.

    JPL

    @schrodinger’s cat: Actually I think John wants to think that everyone has redeeming qualities. The sad thing about Glenn is his new group doesn’t accept his lifestyle. Maybe sad isn’t the correct word, since Glenn thinks there are the others beneath him.

  141. 141.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @efgoldman: But they are just using words from history books without any context, meaning, or relationship with the actual existing physical world.

    Minutemen big stick lend lease!

  143. 143.

    Brandon

    How often is it that someone buys a company that loses money and then does not proceed to restructure it and implement reforms? If there was a single economic reason why Bezos bought the WaPo, there would have been massive management upheaval, coercive buyout packages offered to the overpaid “old guard” and major layoffs of underperforming staff. At the very least, word would leak about a “strategic review” of the operations to develop a strategy to right the ship. I am convinced that any such, even minimal, effort of the sort would see the paper shot of Chuck Lane and his ilk. If Bezos was looking to buy influence, it would probably have been cheaper to hire an army of lobbyists (spouses, friends and neighbors of the very same Villagers) and sponsor a table/party at the White House Correspondents Dinner.

  144. 144.

    JPL

    @geg6: A few minutes ago, I was chatting with a son about the same thing. He pointed out that, the younger (thirty something) generation votes and it will be a long time before the assholes win a Presidential election. The quiet majority.

  145. 145.

    Crusty Dem

    Mental health warning: This is a 3 part tweet, if you read tweet 2, there’s a response from Jennifer Rubin claiming that this is far worse because “but Katrina wasn’t really Obama’s fault.. He didn’t know the hurricane was coming 2 years earlier and avert his eyes”

    She really is a flaming bag of idiotic hate.

  146. 146.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @lamh36:

    “blowback for decades of US intervention in the Middle East.”

    That part has some factual basis. Within five minutes though, he was probably suggesting abolishing the Fed, repealing Civil Rights laws, and returning to the gold standard as a way of fixing everything.

  148. 148.

    geg6

    @JPL:

    Glenn has another think coming then. His new buddies hate the queers just as much as they hate the Joos and the nigras and the wimmens. They weren’t thanking ol’ Glennie in their ad. They were thanking the straight Aryan guy.

  150. 150.

    MomSense

    While I was in Paris this summer, I visited the Conciergerie, where nobles waited for the guillotine. It would be irresponsible not to speculate about sending most of our Beltway media elites there.

    My knitting needles are sharp and ready to go.

    /T. Defarge

  152. 152.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    @geg6:

    Anyone who still thinks that the GG is a libertarian is in denial. His touring in a Freedom panel moderated by the Southern Avenger, support of LuapNor, defense of a murdering racist and now praising the Oathkeepers. I can see where some people would be attracted to defending the GG though.

    Racists, glibertarians and the mentally blind are a few that come to mind.

  154. 154.

    Roger Moore

    @Hal:

    So if this compromise is a bad thing, and military strikes are a bad thing, and doing nothing is a bad thing, then wtf is Obama supposed to do?

    The wrong thing. They want him to do the wrong thing so they can complain, and they’ll define whatever he’s done as wrong to be able to do it. Given that, he might as well do what he wants, since he’s going to be accused of being wrong whichever choice he makes.

  155. 155.

    Suffern ACE

    @Crusty Dem: yep. They don’t seem to get that 10 years later, running around and calling for regime change isn’t selling. They assume that if Obama had just beat the war drum constantly for two years, the public would be all for fighting evil once again.

  159. 159.

    Kay

    This is my favorite Obama’s Katrina:

    This is somewhere in between Baghdad and fixing the flood in Louisiana,” Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, said, comparing the GM decision to major stumbles by former President George W. Bush. Obama “has decided to take this over. He now owns it.”

    $1.03B Payback
    Jun. 12, 2013 Partial Repayment

    On 6/12/2013, Treasury sold 30,000,000 shares of GM common stock in a registered public offering at $34.41 per share for net proceeds to Treasury of $ 1,031,700,000.
    The sale further reduced Treasury’s equity stake in GM to 13.8 percent.

  161. 161.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    @geg6: “Which is why I think Cole needs to address this.”

    Agreed. If he defended the GG in the past then I think he needs to address this too. Meanwhile, over at Daily How Obama Has Failed Us Today, the GG’s fans are blowing the Oathkeepers stuff off with the usual NSA IZ EBIL!! so this newest revelation about the GG doesn’t matter a bit.

    IOW, they’re not addressing it at all because it’s a loser for them.

  162. 162.

    Meanie-meanie, tickle a person

    Charles Who? Wait…

    Charles “Chuck” Lane is an American journalist and editor who is an editorial writer for The Washington Post and a regular guest on Fox News Channel.

    Well, okeydokey then…

    I think what Our Mr Lane would have typed, had his fingers not inadvertently hit all the wrong keys, was:
    “Syria is to Katrina as a fish is to a bicycle”
    which, while doing diddly j squat for his Foxy Twitcred, would at least have made sense…

  163. 163.

    Belafon

    @Patricia Kayden: It’s a win for everyone really. For those of us who would have accepted a strike on Syria to destroy what it could and deter Assad from using them again, this works just fine. I don’t need bombs to drop if there is no need to.

    And yes, we could argue about how much it would have actually accomplished, but as of right now, we don’t need to.

  165. 165.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @geg6:

    I really want Cole’s take on this latest development. I’m not being snarky in the least. He keeps telling us he’s a good and honorable guy, our Glenn. I need to try to understand how that can be. Especially since GG demonstrates that he knows how heinous this group is by trying to hide exactly who they are.

    No argument from me. I love Cole, and I totally get that he’s had his stresses lately, but I sure miss the thoughtful, opinionated, yet willing-to-have-his-mind-changed John Cole we knew in days of yore.

    In the meantime, up until fairly recently, I was a total Guardbot. My grandmother used to subscribe to it, for FSM’s sake, back when it was the Manchester Guardian Weekly. I remember reading it in the early 1950s. I will probably never be able to wean myself from the Grauniad’s quizzes and crosswords, but damn, I hate to see them lying down with flea-infested dogs.

  166. 166.

    MomSense

    @lamh36:

    I am not surprised by this. It seems to fit his pattern. For the life of me I don’t know why some people keep giving him a pass.

  170. 170.

    PopeRatzo

    @Patricia Kayden:

    The beauty of President Obama’s presidency is that he has no “Katrinas”. NONE. So far, he’s been scandal-free

    and,

    Because Glenn Greenwald is an idiot.

    and,

    If Syria gives up its chemical weapons, most Americans will be alright with that outcome.

    Ain’t love grand?

  172. 172.

    PopeRatzo

    Let’s look at this “Glenn Greenwald is promoting the Oathkeepers!!” story.

    Here was the tweet from Greenwald today:

    A coalition of current and former military, police, and other public officials place huge pro-Snowden ad in Metro http://reason.com/blog/2013/07/24/oath-keepers-place-massive-pro-snowden-a …

    Now let’s look at some of Greenwald’s other tweets from today, and see if the above tweet is indicative of “promoting” the Oathkeepers:

    Bart Gellman on NPR about claim that Russia/China got Snowden’s docs: “strong evidence this is *not the case” http://www.npr.org/2013/09/11/221

    Would you say he’s “promoting” Bart Gellman, or just aggregating stories about Greenwald’s most prominent project?

    Noam Chomsky on @DemocracyNow, discussing Obama’s speech on Syria: worth reading http://www.democracynow.org/2013/9/11/chomsky_instead_of_illegal_threat_to …

    Oh noes! He’s promoting that libertarian Paultard Noam Chomsky!@

    Good LA Times article on the implications of our NSA/Israel report today http://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-israel-nsa-20130912,0,3708841.story …

    Bastard is promoting the LA Times now, too. Fucking traitor, I tell ya.

    Leahy: newly disclosed documents show that bulk phone records collection program should be stopped. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/11/us/court-upbraided-nsa-on-its-use-of-call-log-data.html?_r=0 … #sunlight

    “Leahy”? Is Leahy now affiliated with the Oathkeepers?

    That some of you would turn to Charles Johnson to provide you with ammunition is a little bit pitiful. Greenwald “isn’t a journalist” but Charles Johnson, now there’s an unimpeachable source.

  176. 176.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    @PopeRatzo:

    And you emoprogressive dudebros are some stupid motherfuckers who are willing to overlook anything that doesn’t fit your narrative.

  178. 178.

    Liquid

    Dear John,

    Do not water the plants after having read (for the umpteenth time) about Stalingrad. First point would be that at this very moment, in Seattle, it looks like Kingdom of the Spiders.

  181. 181.

    PopeRatzo

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Does “pointing to with approval” meet your exacting standards?

    You can see the entirety of the tweet. Where is the “approval”?

    You loyalists are a trip.

  183. 183.

    majii

    I’m a retired high school U.S. history teacher, and the fact that RW pundits, journalists, politicians, bloggers and radio entertainers, and the Fox News talking heads don’t know their own country’s history or that of any other country on the planet, doesn’t surprise me. What does surprise me is that anyone listens to them. My dearly departed parents used to say that “An opinion is like an asshole, everyone has one.” Most of our “journalists” spend an inordinate amount of time blowing sh*t out of their asses for the consumption of those who refuse to think for themselves. It’s puzzling to me why anyone would give Charles Lane a job. It’s obvious that the guy has to be instructed every morning on how to wipe his own ass.

  184. 184.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    @PopeRatzo:

    Would you say he’s “promoting” Bart Gellman, or just aggregating stories about Greenwald’s most prominent project?

    He’s promoting a piece written by Bart Gellman and recommending that people read it.

    Oh noes! He’s promoting that libertarian Paultard Noam Chomsky!@

    He’s promoting a radio interview with Noam Chomsky and recommending that people listen to it.

    Bastard is promoting the LA Times now, too. Fucking traitor, I tell ya.

    He’s promoting an LA Times story and recommending that people read it.

    “Leahy”? Is Leahy now affiliated with the Oathkeepers?

    He’s promoting a NY Times story about Leahy and recommending that people read it.

    You seem more than a little confused about what the word “promoting” means, since every single one of your examples involves Greenwald promoting a story he wanted people to read or listen to.  Perhaps you should invest in a dictionary.

  185. 185.

    daverave

    “The conduct that is outlined in the transcript and the 911 call is not only breathtaking, it’s outrageous, it’s disgraceful,” Wingate’s attorney, Jackie Chiles, told FCN.

    For you Seinfeld fans…

  186. 186.

    Rafer Janders

    @Mnemosyne (iPhone):

    You seem more than a little confused about what the word “promoting” means, since every single one of your examples involves Greenwald promoting a story he wanted people to read or listen to.

    Yes, to use your own words he’s promoting A STORY that those people wrote, participated in, etc. That’s a far cry from promoting THOSE PEOPLE.

    Similarly, I can say hey, Nick Kristof had a good column today, and I’m not promoting Nick Kristof as a person, I’m not allying myself with Kristof, or claiming that he’s right on all counts. I’m recommending one particular thing he wrote. Similarly here.

  189. 189.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    @Rafer Janders:

    As the GG said: “A coalition of current and former military, police, and other public officials place huge pro-Snowden ad in Metro http://t.co/zcqTb0IBJ3“

    He isn’t promoting ‘those people’, in fact he is deliberately not stating their name in an attempt to legitimize what they are saying and doing. If he was promoting what they said then he wouldn’t be hiding their identity. I know you GG fans will excuse anything he says or does, as the responses to the GG’s latest bullshit makes clear. This hair splitting by you Flying Monkeys is just as bad as the shit Saint GG does in his ‘reporting’. Shit, he was using Twitter to say this. He preferred to waste a bunch of characters hiding who they were from the less curious rather than simply saying ‘The Oath Keepers place huge pro-Snowden ad in Metro’. The way he words it, it sounds like some respectable organization is behind the ads.

    The only thing the GG is promoting is himself. He doesn’t give a shit about anything else.

  190. 190.

    Rafer Janders

    @Odie Hugh Manatee:

    He isn’t promoting ‘those people’, in fact he is deliberately not stating their name in an attempt to legitimize what they are saying and doing.

    Right, he’s not promoting those people. He’s promoting their pro-Snowden message in this particular instance. And yes, he’s probably not mentioning their name because he knows the Oathkeepers are not very popular with many of his allies, and so people wouldn’t click on the link if their name was upfront. But given the fact that the link he directs his readers to goes right to a page that identifies the Oathkeepers, this is not really the most nefarious instance of him hiding who they are.

    If he was promoting what they said then he wouldn’t be hiding their identity.

    Well, no, this doesn’t make any sense. He’s “hiding” their identity precisely so he can promote what they said, not who they are.

    I know you GG fans will excuse anything he says or does, as the responses to the GG’s latest bullshit makes clear. This hair splitting by you Flying Monkeys is just as bad as the shit Saint GG does in his ‘reporting’.

    I’m neither a fan nor a non-fan of Glenn Greenwald, I don’t follow his work or what he does unless it makes major news, and I have no personal opinion of him whatsoever, pro or con. I don’t get involved in these junior high clique fights about who’s popular and who’s not. I do, however, sometimes comment to correct what I see as an inaccuracy, which in this case is blurring the line between “he’s promoting X” versus “he’s promoting what X said”.

    He preferred to waste a bunch of characters hiding who they were from the less curious rather than simply saying ‘The Oath Keepers place huge pro-Snowden ad in Metro’. The way he words it, it sounds like some respectable organization is behind the ads.

    Yes, exactly. Because he was more concerned with the pro-Snowden message than with who the Oathkeepers are. That means he’s using them to promote a message he and they both have in common, not that he’s promoting the Oathkeepers themselves.

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