Earlier this week, Rachel Maddow busted Rand Paul for lifting entire paragraphs of the Wikipedia entry for the 1997 movie “Gattaca” in an anti-abortion speech at Liberty University. This set other journos to digging through Paul’s speeches and Wikipedia movie entries, and Maddow was back last night with additional examples of Rand Paul reading extensive chunks of Wikipedia copy about the film “Stand and Deliver” from a TelePrompter as if it were his own speech:
Maddow notes that Paul has refused to comment on the Wikipedia plagiarism scandal — which was true, until this morning, when Paul’s office released the following statement:
This so-called “plagiarism scandal” requires a speech, and whenever I’m called upon to give a speech, I’m reminded of The King’s Speech, which is a 2010 British historical drama film directed by Tom Hooper and written by David Seidler. Colin Firth plays King George VI who, to cope with a stammer, sees Lionel Logue, an Australian speech therapist played by Geoffrey Rush. The men become friends as they work together, and after his brother abdicates the throne, the new King relies on Logue to help him make his first wartime radio broadcast on Britain’s declaration of war on Germany in 1939.
Anyway, I’d like to announce that the unattributed Wikipedia excerpts that appeared in my speeches were inserted by rogue office worker. It’s sort of like the plot from Working Girl, a 1988 romantic comedy film written by Kevin Wade and directed by Mike Nichols. It tells the inspiring story of a Staten Island-raised secretary, Tess McGill (Melanie Griffith), working in the mergers and acquisitions department of a Wall Street investment bank. When her boss, Katharine Parker (Sigourney Weaver), breaks her leg skiing, Tess uses Parker’s absence and connections, including her errant beau Jack Trainer (Harrison Ford), to put forward her own idea for a merger deal.
Only instead of the merger deal, the Melanie Griffith character in my office planted Wikipedia copy in my speeches to derail my upcoming presidential bid, sort of like what happened to Howard Roark in The Fountainhead, a 1949 American film directed by King Vidor, based on the best-selling book of the same name by Ayn Rand, who wrote the screenplay adaptation about Howard Roark, an individualistic young architect who chooses to struggle in obscurity rather than compromise his artistic and personal vision, following his battle to practice what the public sees as modern architecture, which he believes to be superior, despite an establishment centered on tradition-worship. The complex relationships between Roark and the various kinds of individuals who assist or hinder his progress, or both, allow the film to be at once a romantic drama and a philosophical work. Roark is Rand’s embodiment of the human spirit, and his struggle represents the struggle between individualism and collectivism.
Only instead of architecture, it’s politics, and instead of struggling in obscurity, I’m a nationally prominent politician who represents the struggle between individualism and collectivism. In this case, collectivism is represented by Rachel Anne Maddow, an American television host, political commentator, and author. She hosts a nightly television show, The Rachel Maddow Show, on MSNBC. Her syndicated talk radio program of the same name aired on Air America Radio. Maddow is the first openly gay anchor to host a major prime-time news program in the United States.
In conclusion: speech, working girl, fountainhead, Maddow. You could look it up.
The end.
PS: This isn’t really from Rand Paul’s office.
MattF
Given that ‘speech writer’ is considered an honorable profession, no one is going to get very upset over ‘plagiarist’. But here’s a limerick:
There is a young Senator Rand
Who gives speeches whenever he can.
“I write all my speeches,
At least any pieces
Consisting of ‘if’, ‘or’, and ‘and’”.
Jim, Foolish LIteralist
generally a good idea to try to use humor to deflect ridicule, but
1) Colbert did this last night, specifically with RM’s wiki page
2) this isn’t really self-mocking or self-effacing
3) brevity is the soul of wit (was including The Fountainhead necessary to make Senator Tribble-head approve this release?)
4) Marco Rubio using bottled water to deflect his dry-mouth face-plant was clever, but I don’t think it did much to reverse his not-ready for prime-time image.
I still think Crazy Cousin Liberty is just too goofy to be a serious national candidate, even with the GOP primary base.
Yatsuno
The fact that this was even mentioned in a piece where Aqua Buddha got caught in blatant plagiarism is quite telling. He may be a plagiarist, but she’s a filthy kweer dammit! Look at her, not me!
kc
BWAHAHAHA!
HelloRochester
This is a put-on, right?
Betty Cracker
@HelloRochester: Yes. Posting at Balloon Juice is like facilitating a never-ending Poe’s Law clinic.
c u n d gulag
@HelloRochester:
Yeah.
Gotta be.
He’s too big a simp to write something clever like this.
ThresherK
The whole “humor gambit” thing works best if one has demonstrated a measurable sense of humor against himself, ever.
PS Senator Aqua Buddha imagines he’s Howard Roark? I’m not the sort to throw a better-matched King Vidor protagonist out there, but Paul reminds me much more of Johnny Sims.
Paul just doesn’t know it.
Gin & Tonic
Comedy is hard. Rand’s staff seems unaware of that.
shortstop
I tried to bet the third baseman five bucks that Paul would blame an underling. Not being a sucker, he wouldn’t take the wager.
And Yatsuno’s right. Unbelievable queer-baiting going on here (under the guise of quoting Maddow’s Wiki entry, which actually says stuff about her accomplishments that have nothing to do with her sexuality). What a fucking asshole this guy is on about 100 different levels.
Kay
@Jim, Foolish LIteralist:
Of course it isn’t. Have you ever watched Rand Paul deliver a lecture to the plebes? He drips sneering superiority. He’s so impressed with himself it borders on insufferable.
Comrade Dread
So “Individualistic” and “Individualism” are synonyms for asshole, right?
c u n d gulag
@Betty Cracker:
Great stuff, Betty!
I’ll have whatever you’re smoking/drinking/ingesting/snorting/shooting!!!!!
piratedan
he’s a true Libertarian Hero, our little Rand… to have suffered so greatly at enemies within and without that are truly jealous of his greatness. Guess all that’s left is for him to forcefully take a staffer against her will and make her his and he can become the Biznatch Sadderact
c u n d gulag
@Kay:
Yes!
But compared to Teddy Cruz-ader, Paul seems a humble man…
gussie
No love for Paul, but where’s the foul in quoting a Wikipedia’s description of a film while discussing the film? Isn’t that a perfectly fair use? It’s some kind of Creative Commons thing, isn’t it?
shortstop
@Gin & Tonic: Of course. They all think they’re hilarious, and they don’t hang with anyone who would know any better.
Gin & Tonic
@shortstop: Looks like Betty put one over on most of us.
Thoughtcrime
Paul’s plagiarism smacks of libertarian self-reliance.
“We cribbed that!”
Kay
@c u n d gulag:
He really doesn’t. The Kentucky Senate race was Rand Paul, pained that he had to actually appear and debate his opponent, lower himself.
It was comical to watch. His facial expressions resemble a pissed-off 5 year old. Rand Paul is not accustomed to doing anything he doesn’t want to do, nor does he believe he should be dragged into petty political battles. He transcends partisan definitions!
catclub
@Yatsuno: What about Anderson Cooper?
I would have guessed that his program was first, but he admitted that he was gay much later.
(Looking it up would require wikipedia, too much work.)
catclub
@Gin & Tonic: Yes, many snark detectors may need servicing.
c u n d gulag
@Kay:
They both are fine examples of the unblinking arrogance of the truly psychotic.
Kay
@c u n d gulag:
I think it’s great he and his staff pull off Wikipedia. They’re not only anti-government government employees, they’re lazy.
shelly
Charlie Pierce’s ‘five minute rule’ whenever you’re listening to
Rand Paul and company still holds.
Roger Moore
@c u n d gulag:
Compared to the Saturday Night Massacre, the Bush Administration’s US Attorney Scandal seems like small time malfeasance.
maya
Rand Paul’s mind is an open rerun Multiplex.
HelloRochester
Sen Thanks Dad sometimes surprises.
shortstop
@Gin & Tonic: Jesus, I’m a rube! Betty, you will pay for this; oh, yes, you will pay. I haven’t actually come up with a workable recourse yet, but I will.
cmorenc
Says Rand Paul’s alleged press release:
Surely this is satire written by someone other than Paul or his minions. Neither Paul nor his staffers are clever or self-aware enough to write any excuse this humorously lame and rich. BTW: I notice Betty Cracker that you posted no link to the actual original of this press release, and it sounds suspiciously like your writing. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t underestimate one bit the capacity of Paul and his staff to say and write outrageously silly things without a trace of self-awareness or irony.
Mudge
How spectacular. The un-named speechwriter, probably Rand’s Harvey the Rabbit (Harvey, 1950), get’s thrown under the bus and Rand compares himself to George VI, Sigourney Weaver (this comparison makes no sense) and Howard Roark (whose struggles were against his profession, not a speechwriter). I suggest he was lax in instilling ethical standards in his staff. No surprise there, since his are somewhat enigmatic.
jeffreyw
Just another example of “modular construction”. He’s taking paragraphs “off the shelf” and assembling them for a particular purpose. The modules can be mixed and matched as needed. Everyone knows this.
Elizabelle
“rogue office worker”?
Nope.
More like rogue Senator.
Yatsuno
@Betty Cracker: You made me get huffy over a satire. No link should have been my first clue. Oh there will be retribution, oh yes, there WILL be.
Any guilt I might have had over the Seahacks beating the Bucs to a bloody pulp? GONE!
LanceThruster
Paul retreats into a cathedral filled with homeless people. In the ensuing fight, he kills Irony but is seriously injured. When the police arrive, Paul urges Maddow to spread the word that “Soylent Green is people!”
Miki
Oh shit – I’m in trouble again for LOLing in my cubicle.
Knock it off, Betty.
Origuy
Since the only place that Google can find any of the text in that “press release” is Balloon Juice, I’d say the initials of the speechwriter are BC.
Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader
Is it possible that Rand Paul himself was responsible for the original Wikipedia paragraphs in question, written using the pseudonym “AtlasRugged”?
Howlin Wolfe
@Betty Cracker: I enjoyed it, though, Betty. I caught on to the parody when it started sounding like a J. Peterman shtick. Rand Paul isn’t that clever, not even by half.
kindness
‘This isn’t really from Rand Paul’s office.’
Is it too early to snark that we have another case (to the date in fact) of The War of the Worlds radio broadcast from Orson Wells back in what 1938?
cmorenc
OK, now I see the disclaimer at the bottom.
ranchandsyrup
@Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader: Saw that observation on Colbert last night.
Belafon
Make sure you all catch Betty’s last sentence.
Chyron HR
STAND WITH RAND
(He’s with us on everything except the basic concept of how American society should function.)
Adam C
@gussie:
Plagiarism is more than just the theft of intellectual property. It’s passing off someone else’s words or ideas as your own. Paul is pretending that he, himself, came up with these plot summaries. As mediocre an accomplishment as that may seem, evidently it is still somewhat beyond his capabilities.
Pink Snapdragon
You guys are asleep at the wheel today. Betty Cracker, you are a genius!
shortstop
@kindness: That reminds me. Last night’s American Experience was about that broadcast. Forgot to DVR it, but it’s available online.
Comrade Mary
(Is this where I sneak in and say that I knew it was satire before I finished the first paragraph, and then the rest of you can come in and beat me to death with your shoes? Because I did grok it right away, and death by dirty soles is SO worth it.)
/bows to Betty
raven
@Pink Snapdragon: Don’t Roll Those Bloodshot Eyes at Me.
Belafon
@Comrade Mary: Same here. When I got through the part about the King’s Speech, I went to look for the link to see the source. Not being able to find one allowed me to laugh at the post rather than rage at Paul.
muddy
I don’t know anything about her, so this is probably unfair – I always have the picture in my mind of Rand’s mommy all his life patting him and exclaiming over his blond curls and general perfection. Thus the hairstyle and the attitude.
Mnemosyne
So is everyone who gets all wound up about Joe Biden’s “plagiarism” for not correcting attributing a quote in one speech that he had correctly attributed before in prior speeches going to turn on Rand Paul for actual blatant plagiarism?
I crack myself up sometimes.
TooManyJens
::applause::
shortstop
@muddy: Aren’t there five or ten other siblings? I admit I’m curious about what went on in that house. The Pauls are so unbelievably insular.
Lex
What TooManyJens said.
Jay C
Maybe Betty should have added at the bottom:
PLEASE READ THROUGH. I AM NOT A NUT.
Omnes Omnibus
And that’s how you troll a website.
kindness
@Jay C: We are all Bozos on this bus.
Don’tcha know?
(I’d like to attribute this to Firesign Theater)
Yatsuno
Speaking of despicable Senators:
Iz our Huckleberry Closetcase in deep doodoo?
hoodie
Plagiarism is one thing, but is this not the dumbest premise for a speech to begin with? It’s reminiscent of the “argument by cinema” Reagan used to habitually engage in, except Reagan at least seemed confused about whether the anecdotes he related were real or the product of Hollywood. I don’t recall anything in Gattaca about abortion, and I believe the larger point of that story was that people were relegated to rigid social classes based on factors entirely out of their control, you know, like whether or not your parents had a trust fund set up for you when you passed out of the birth canal. Last time I checked, this asshole is fine with that. He’s an idiot, a perfect example of the effects of an economic caste system that elevates mediocrity.
Jim, Foolish LIteralist
@Yatsuno: @Yatsuno: I’ll bet you he saw that or a similar poll before he vowed to bring the Senate to a halt until the “BENGHAZI SURVIVORS!” testified.
Ten thousand dollars? Ten thousand dollars?
Pink Snapdragon
@raven: Well, my eyes are blue, but not bloodshot. I’m also in awe of your prodigious knowledge of music.
shortstop
@hoodie: I’m guessing he thinks it’s an “everyman” way to make a connection with his audience of intellectual peasants. Like many people who aren’t nearly as smart as they think they are, he’s unable to speak effectively to people who aren’t as dumb as he thinks they are.
shortstop
@Yatsuno: @Jim, Foolish LIteralist: Should be an interesting whatever number of months until SC’s primary. He’ll be throwing himself into sodden tea leaves and rolling around without an ounce of dignity.
Jim, Foolish LIteralist
@shortstop: ike many people who aren’t nearly as smart as they think they are, he’s unable to speak effectively to people who aren’t as dumb as he thinks they are.
I know a lot of people don’t like (to say the least) Ezra Klein, but I’ll always be grateful for his calling Newt Gingrich a stupid person’s idea of a smart person, and even moreso for this
Even if he runs away from it, it may have been his best bit of commentary ever.
LAC
Very funny, Betty!
I am amazed that Senator Fountainhead was using a teleprompter. I thought only Kenyan Usurpers used them.
muddy
@shortstop: I have no idea. I didn’t want to know and didn’t look them up. I was reminded of the Romneys. The dad is out making his noise, and baby boy sits home with mommy, being told how beautiful and smart and perfect he is.
It occurred to me suddenly that I had never heard one word about the mother. Odd when the father has had presidential aspirations. In the press it’s like Rand sprang from Ron’s head like Athena. To be a fair person I should be looking them up instead of making these suppositions. But fuck them.
muddy
Just wondering now if Wikipedia would be a good place to look them up.
Another Holocene Human
I’m going to repeat myself from dead thread because I’m interested in what others think.
RE: Ray Kelly getting booed
The students are in an authoritarian institution. That’s what school is. Rightists use their power to impose these people on them. They try to turn the students into both captive audience and platform for this fascist crap that the students are not only against but palpably harmed by–whether it’s warpigs, sex criminalizing crusades, or stop’n’frisk.
But guess what? The kids are growing up. They’re losing their fear of authority. They’re angry. And they don’t have any other way to fight back than to express their disapproval in the most vocal way possible.
So this is what they do.
And they’re WRONG for doing this?! No. Civility is for EQUALS. The students are not equals to Ray Kelly and the old, rich, powerful deciders who put him in front of them to rub their dependency and helplessness in their faces.
PS: if you’re an asshole at a baseball game you get booed long and hard. Ray Kelly is an asshole for pay and he can’t take a little negative feedback? He’s a delicate hothouse flower? Gettouttaheyah.
bjacques
Well played, ma’am.
Actually I kind of liked Gattaca. The ending, anyway.
Another Holocene Human
@Jim, Foolish LIteralist: yeah, I almost tl;dr’d it too, but it was worth it
and bringing in the Fountainhead? mais oui. Nothing could be more appropriate to the subject.
The last paragraph is what makes it, though.
Kay
Read his lips, libtards, no new taxes, and breathe a huge sigh of relief.
Conservatives and media want SS and Medicare cuts with no increase in taxes. That’s their final offer, which means no deal.
hoodie
@Jim, Foolish LIteralist: I think it was Dick Armey (what a name), not Gingrich, but it doesn’t matter. Seems to me like there’s some sort of intellectual inferiority complex at work in the GOP, exhibited as either rabid anti-intellectualism (e.g., Sarah Palin) or pseudo-intellectualism (Armey, Gingrich, Ryan, Paul). Some of those guys, you know it’s an act, a vessel for their ambition and/or greed, but Paul strikes me as a gibbering idiot who actually believes the nonsense he spouts.
Another Holocene Human
@Yatsuno: If only.
Graham, I’ll say this for him, seems to keep it in his pants. I say this because a young, attractive male in-law of mine interned for him (his family was part of the Charleston beautiful people set, you know, completely different world from how the
other half99% in SC live) and there wasn’t a lick of weirdness AFAIK. No Eric Massa tickle parties. Actually, the kid thinks Graham is awesome. I guess he’s the closest you get to a liberal in statewide office in SC. Geez.catclub
@Kay: “Taking more from hardworking families just isn’t the answer” which translates to: “Making the Walton Heirs pay ANY inheritance taxes, is just not fair.”
Cervantes
@Another Holocene Human: I find what you say generally reasonable but I’d note that not all protestors at campus events are students. At most events at most urban universities (e.g., Brown), members of the local community are present.
shortstop
@Another Holocene Human: Similarly, there were attractive women working for Clarence Thomas and Bob Filner who didn’t get sexually harassed by them.
People aren’t interchangeable like that. The fact that Graham didn’t make a pass at a particular attractive young male is hardly evidence that “he keeps it in his pants.”
Having said that, there really isn’t any evidence from anybody that Graham has sex. I know everybody’s waiting for the rent boy to tell all, but it’s possible Huckleberry is wholly chaste. Doesn’t happen very often, but there are people like that.
boatboy_srq
@Betty Cracker: Actually, it was obvious. For a Teahadist “statement” there was way too much meat and way too little (word) salad.
I’ll admit it had me going for a paragraph or so. The biggest clue was the number of real women mentioned (credits for the actresses? Especially Weaver? Really?). Paul doesn’t have that much to say about any woman whose last name isn’t Rand.
Pink Snapdragon
@catclub: Ain’t that the truth!
ruemara
SInce it’s an open thread: Fionna & Cakes. I didn’t retouch it yet and I haven’t fixed the ears to the bonnet, but it’s the last picture of all three of us together. Obligatory unnecessary smooching shot. I was ok until I heard his distress & confusion mew on the walk to the cab. Now I have to walk to the DMV because I accidentally forgot to renew my license when the post office declared me not at my address and started returning my mail. Plus the extra drama in my life.
boatboy_srq
@shortstop: Every time I hear “Lindsay Graham” and “sex” in the same sentence I flash back to Boy George’s “I prefer a hot cup of tea, actually.” And I’ll freely admit Graham’s statements (or lack thereof) sound about as believable now as O’Dowd did then.
Jim, Foolish LIteralist
@shortstop: I suspect Lindsey has “chosen to be straight”
shortstop
@boatboy_srq: Or whose last name is Rand.
shortstop
@Jim, Foolish LIteralist: Probably so. And it’s just a coincidence that he hasn’t found the right girl yet.
Ash Can
@Belafon: The lack of link was the real tip-off to me too. Although I’d be lying if I said Betty didn’t have me going there for a minute, well into the second paragraph. I guess after the Aqua Buddha stuff of the last general election, I’ll believe just about anything about this guy. Kudos to Betty.
And @Yatsuno: Many happy returns!
shortstop
Yeah, live it up, Yatsy!
Mnemosyne
@ruemara:
Ugh — it sucks for all of you, but unfortunately it’s probably also for the best for all of you until you can get things straightened out.
The good thing about cats is, they have long memories but no sense of time, so when they see you again, it’ll be like they only saw you a couple of days ago. They’ll miss you not being there, but they won’t have a sense of how long you weren’t there, if that makes sense.
Betty Cracker
@ruemara: I am so sorry. I’ve been in a similar boat a time or two, and it’s just heartbreaking. :(
ruemara
@Mnemosyne: That’s my hope. Both that things improve for me so I can actually take them back and that the coming back won’t involve throwing up in every shoe I own and pissing all near furniture in punishment. I am not looking forward to sending Kage on Monday. If Takkun is the baby doll, Kage is my wierdo purrball. No one has that strange kitty stalk like him.
grape_crush
I find it odd that Paul is referencing Gattaca at all.
The movie wasn’t about abortion or even segregation based on genetic profiling. It was that, even if we are flawed, we are still capable of great achievements…that what others may consider to be imperfect about us could also be the driving force behind what we accomplish in our lives. And, conversely, what is deemed to be superior; things like a privileged upbringing, physical beauty, or absence of genetic flaw, is no guarantee of personal success.
The movie’s point is that the inherent worth of a person is something you can’t measure by material things – physicality, wealth, etc – which kind of runs counter to the conservative strain of thought Paul represents.
Another Holocene Human
@grape_crush: Somehow I don’t think Paul actually, technically saw the movie.
This is why teachers hate Cliff Notes.
eyelessgame
@gussie: Fair use doesn’t mean you don’t credit the source. If he’d said “As Wikipedia describes it, in Gattaca …” there’d be no foul.
Fair use just means you can make certain limited use of others’ work. It doesn’t let you misrepresent someone else’s work as your own.
Kay
@catclub:
I don’t care how he phrases it as long as he isn’t allowed anywhere near SS and Medicare. Might as well just give it to the Koch bros and skip the middleman.
I read the Ryan Plan that the punditry were falling all over themselves to endorse. It’s hilarious. It’s a campaign document. It’s completely crafted around wingnut talking points. I don’t believe ANY of the people in media and punditry who endorsed it read it. It is the polar opposite of what a “numbers person” would write. It’s bare bones ideology with some random numbers stuck in.
mawado
Isn’t the true scandal that he lifted content from the evil, liberal WikiPedia and not the authentic Republican Conservapedia?
Dude’s a total RINO.
boatboy_srq
@grape_crush: Paul strikes me as the sort who saw Starship Troopers and got caught up in the bug-killing.
jon
Poor Rand Paul will forever be plagued by this. He’s copying better politicians who had better plagiarism scandals.
And whoops! There goes the “Man of Genius” bullshit. I now and forever get to point and laugh when he’s labeled as a man of principles and intelligence. Instead, he’s like his father: a sideshow barker with his hand rifling through every rubes’ pockets while he tells them how smart and free they can be if they just go behind the curtain.
Omnes Omnibus
@mawado: Gattaca isn’t in Conservapedia; they just have Ronald Reagan movies and Red Dawn.
kindness
@mawado: Well yea because not even conservatives believe Conservapedia. Myself I think it’s a web site for the blind.
Bobby Thomson
This seems apropos.
Omnes Omnibus
@kindness:
The people best placed to appreciate it seem to prefer pinball.
Waynski
@Another Holocene Human: I used to live in the same building as Ray Kelly. He’s a fancy dresser, but not much of a commish.
Mnemosyne
@ruemara:
Oh, they’ll still be mad at you. Definitely hide your shoes. But they’ll also get over it pretty quickly, because the time they were away won’t seem like it was very long to them.
Anna in PDX
@Comrade Mary: (me too – I love the feeling of superiority in the a.m.)
Scott P.
Plagiarism is pretty rife in political speeches — I recall Biden being slammed for it in one of his presidential runs — so I am inclined to regard it as a venial sin. What is more noteworthy is that Paul wasn’t cribbing from some famed politician of yore, but rather Wikipedia. Wikipedia!
Xecky Gilchrist
Time for a new tag – unless there’s already one for “read the whole thing.”
joshua schwartz
It is precisely this kind of malarkey which shows how racist the GOP “criticism” of President Obama’s reliance on a teleprompter has been. Nothing shows more intellectual weakness than the capitulation to plagiarize evidenced by Sen. Paul (leaving aside his own use of the teleprompter), and yet the “story” has no pull, since he’s not black.
LT
THAT is fucking funny.
Dream On
The new internet: everybody has an indignant response to all issues – but most don’t read to the final paragraph, if they read a piece at all.
Hey, I do it all the time…
feebog
@Kay:
I completely agree with Paul Ryan on this point. So let’s raise the marginal tax rate on Millionaires, get rid of the Hedge Fund Manger Loop Hole and raise the Capital Gains tax back up to 25%. None of that will hurt “hard working families” in any way. As for growing the economy, , there are any number of bill awaiting a vote in the House that would put people to work and “grow the economy”. Maybe you could talk to you pal the Boner and get that done.
David Koch
b..bu…but….but drooooonzes!
mclaren
“These kinds of scurrilous lies about politicial leaders plagiarizing speeches have always been with us. But the reality is that American politicians simply don’t use Wikipedia in this way.” — Thomas Jefferson, letter to John Adams, 1799.
johnny aquitard
All this tells me is he can write original material and use attributions when he wants to, but he’s too lazy to do that else he’d have done it in the first place, and he’s arrogant enough to think no one’s gonna find out.
Meg
He just pulled a Palin, right?
Like writing things on her hand to show off in every public event, right after she got caught the first time.
debbie
Brilliant. Your posts have become a real highlight here. I’m still laughing at those NSA graphics.