Today in our failed mainstream media, an essay dedicated to Ron Fournier’s fee-fees. Apparently, pointing out the positive aspects of the ACA is harder than dealing with right-wing spin and bullshit. Why, Obama, will you not think of poor Ron Fournier?
This jackass has rapidly become my most hated beltway hack. This guy seriously needs to be the focus of Driftglass’s photoshop skills.
Baud
Nice. Haven’t had a good stomping in a while.
burnspbesq
Remind me again why I should care what Ron Fournier thinks, feels, says, or writes.
I have only a limited amount of scorn and anger to dish out, and I want to be sure that it gets deployed for maximum effect.
Cassidy
Now you’re just doing it in purpose.
PsiFighter37
Ron Fournier is just upset he didn’t take the opportunity to join the fail parade of McCain-Starbursts ’08. The chance to be a part of a losing presidential campaign has never sat right with him.
KG
Fournier should probably be deported. I mean his name makes it obvious he’s not from here
‘Merca, fuck yeah!
Comrade Jake
Honestly I think Halperin is worse. A big part of me thinks his Christie-fanboy shtick is because he knows Christie would make for better fodder in Game Change Three.
LittlePig
Fuck Ron Fournier with a rusty AIDS-dripping chainsaw sideways.
raven
Anne come back
any kind of fool could see. . .
LittlePig
Well, well, well. Tom Brokaw has been diagnosed with cancer. That’ll be a fine character-building experience for him.
Cassidy
Someone should write this date down: two posts from Cole, back to back, and not a mention of a cat, dog, or bathrobe.
Suffern ACE
Fine. Send my comment on the election post into lala land. See what I care. I’ve got all night. I know that post is coming back. I can outlast this here post. I know I can.
Comrade Jake
On a lighter front, the GOP managed to pass a clean debt ceiling bill, with 28 Republican votes. And Cruz says he’s going to filibuster it in the Senate, and basically screw over his GOP Senate colleagues in the process. Should be fun to watch!
raven
@Cassidy: Or an injury,
Suffern ACE
@Comrade Jake: Harry should let him speak until he gets the right mix of Senators. McConnell and Graham at the very least need to vote to make Cruz sit down.
Bill E Pilgrim
Ron Fournier has developed a form of concern trolling you could call “the long con”, with the con in this case standing for the word “concern”.
Write mostly typical Villager Republican-slanted common wisdom for years, then spend a year or two trying to sound like you’re actually fighting back sometimes against the insane right-wing spin that you’ve helped enable to infect and smother almost all discussion, then at the right moment throw your hands up and say “Oh! I can’t do this anymore! I admit it, even the liberal me agrees with Sean Hannity deep down inside, Obama is evil!”
It’s sort of the same long-standing syndrome as with entities like The New Republic or Camille Paglia, but those usually required someone else calling them “Even the liberal…” whereas Fournier is managing to play both parts himself.
PurpleGirl
@LittlePig: Did they say what kind? Unfortunately he has the money to afford the best care possible. It might not be as character-building as we would hope.
raven
@PurpleGirl: Multiple Myloma
LittlePig
@PurpleGirl: TPM Link: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/tom-brokaw-cancer-diagnosed.
Multiple myeloma. Too bad it wasn’t pancreatic.
PurpleGirl
@raven: TY. Now to check out multiple myloma.
raven
@LittlePig: Nasty little motherfucker aren’t you?
Bill E Pilgrim
Someone just sent me this.
kindness
How does someone as pathetic as Fournier get to a position he’s in? Seems to me he’s just another jealous asshole. The Republican party is crammed with ’em.
Keith G
Normally I reach for some patience and a bit of understanding when folks dip deep into the swamp of incivility, but its been a long day and I am rattled.
@LittlePig:
@LittlePig:
I don’t have cancer yet, but I do have AIDS. Thank you so very much for jovially making it a curse worthy of those you do not like.
Sigh
Are you always such a fucking piece of scum? Or is this actually one of your better days, you soulless pile of shit?
Gin & Tonic
@LittlePig: I disdain Brokaw as much as any of the cool kids around here, but I wouldn’t wish pancreatic cancer on anyone. I watched someone very close die of it many years ago, and it really sucks. It hasn’t changed.
Comrade Jake
@PurpleGirl: bone marrow cancer – not good. He’s probably got a year, maybe two.
mk3872
Just to demonstrate what a brilliant political mind Fournier is, he actually wrote this in the piece that Cole linked to:
Yup, that’s right. the WHITE HOUSE has politicized OBAMACARE. Fournier is a funny guy …
Gin & Tonic
@raven: Or this.
namekarB
@Cassidy:
Actually three posts on the same day. But then two of them were about West Virginia so there is that.
PurpleGirl
@PurpleGirl:
From Wikipedia:
Myeloma is diagnosed with blood tests (serum protein electrophoresis, serum free kappa/lambda light chain assay), bone marrow examination, urine protein electrophoresis, and X-rays of commonly involved bones. Myeloma is generally thought to be incurable but highly treatable. Remissions may be induced with steroids, chemotherapy, proteasome inhibitors, immunomodulatory drugs (IMiDs) such as thalidomide or lenalidomide, and stem cell transplants. Radiation therapy is sometimes used to reduce pain from bone lesions.[1]
Myeloma develops in 1–4 per 100,000 people per year. It is more common in men and, for unknown reasons, is twice as common in Afro-Americans as it is in European-Americans. With conventional treatment, median survival is 3–4 years, which may be extended to 5–7 years or longer with advanced treatments. Multiple myeloma is the second most common hematological malignancy in the U.S. (after non-Hodgkin lymphoma), and constitutes 1% of all cancers.[1]
John from Minneapolis
Bill Clinton is to blame. I’m serious. Fournier was an AP reporter in Arkansas when Clinton was the governor (I was a reporter for one of the Little Rock newspapers at the time). When Clinton became president, all of a sudden reporters who knew about the Clintons were in demand in D.C. Fournier suddenly had the opportunity to take a job in Washington that he would never have gotten otherwise. Clinton was Fournier’s brass ring.
Mike in NC
Can’t the GOP just dispense with the primaries nonsense and crown Rafe Cruz with their 2016 nomination? Even though the Village Idiots would suddenly become irrelevant?
I spent a couple of hours in a church today for a funeral and feel I need some compensation.
Cassidy
Anya
@LittlePig: Why do you have to be such a horrible person. I hope you don’t get AIDS or cancer. They’re not a curse you wish on people you hate, but a serious disease. Just. Stop.
Bill E Pilgrim
@John from Minneapolis:
He came in and trashed the place, and it wasn’t his place.
I’m kidding. Except in Fournier’s case it’s sort of true.
kindness
Karma happens. Whether you believe it, have faith in it or not. So be very careful what you feel out there. Say what ever. That isn’t all that important. But how you feel, what energy you send out into the universe, that matters.
Chill little pig. Your energies should be used more wisely.
Suffern ACE
@mk3872: Oh, I agree. It was only supposed to be an obscure little bill. Like AmeriCorps. Or changing the threadcount on sheets used on Navy destroyers. But he had to open his big mouth about it.
Keith G
@PurpleGirl:
There is no cure. Treatments are a bitch. It will kill him as it killed my mother a few years back.
My, we are a happy crew tonight.
Bill E Pilgrim
@Suffern ACE: I think it was Biden who spilled the beans in his open mic accident.
Suffern ACE
@Bill E Pilgrim: Yeah. I kind of blame Alex Parnee, myself. I was like, all, not paying attention when the process started, because I had no idea that healthcare was a big deal to anyone but myself. I figured no one else would care. Then Alex started saying things like Healthcare as a business is like 20% of the US economy and employs millions of workers. If he hadn’t written stuff like that, no one would have paid attention to the ACA.
eemom
@Keith G:
Well, it’s the first night in weeks I’ve had time to do more than lurk, and y’all ARE in fine form, so there’s that.
PurpleGirl
@Keith G: I’m sorry your mother died from myeloma. I’ve known a few friends’ parents who died from various cancers and one very close friend who fought cancer for nearly a decade before she succumbed. It is not a nice way to go and as others have said, you don’t wish it on other people.
Helen
@LittlePig: Oh how lovely that you know cancer survival rates. And you wish the worst on those with whom you disagree. Good luck to you.
JCJ
@Comrade Jake:
If it is multiple myeloma there have been significant improvements in treatment over the last few years. Geraldine Ferraro lived several years after she was diagnosed. Thalidomide and other drugs can be quite effective. Stem cell transplants can be quite helpful.
Comrade Jake
@JCJ: we’ll see. I hope the best for him.
PurpleGirl
@JCJ: I remember when thalidomide was the nasty drug du jour and it had to be banned. It’s incredible that it’s back in use for conditions far from what it was initially developed for. (Knew a guy in college whose mother had taken it and one of his arms ended with 3 fingers at his elbow.)
jl
Lesson to Cole should be: life is short.
Cole should heed the lesson of trying to shave a cats ass: some things just aren’t worth doing.*
Same for reading some pundits.
*Since there are other ways to achieve cat butt hygiene.
Edit: and sad news about Tom Brokaw. I hope things go as well as they can.
Bill E Pilgrim
@Suffern ACE: Had Biden not called it a big fucking deal, no one would have thought that it was, nor even noticed that it passed, probably. Damn you Biden, damn you all to heck.
LittlePig
@kindness: Granted. It’s just hard to take it as ‘God’s will’ when all one’s relatives are dead, almost all from cancer, and one is left with two step-siblings to take care of, all while Brokaw says over the weekend it is a character-building experience for me.
I’m just amazed that Cole has found such a fine bunch of Christians that pray for those that oppress them and wish no ill will upon those who would cheerfully destroy you. Particularly in the case of raven and Anya, who have uttered some quite un-unconditional love in some other threads I’ve seen. Guess it’s the particular ox being gored.
And cheer up, Keith G. I’ll be dead long before you will be, so you will have the last laugh. That’s always been my problem with life: I can handle all the despair and hard-knocks, but it is always that LIKING it part that fouls me up. Because I don’t sing hosannas to the Koch Brothers and their enablers, I am less-than. OK.
But ya’ll need to cut out that pitchforks and torches bullshit – if you don’t wish anything bad on anyone, you can’t very well wish gutting and burning on people either.
Cassidy
Shit, if this place gets any more emo….who
Am I kidding, we have an election coming up.
driftglass
I’m open to any reasonable offer
Suffern ACE
@Cassidy: What’s wrong with emos? Haterz.
mainmata
@burnspbesq: Exactly. There are so few conservative opinion spewers that are worth paying any attention to. Occasionally, I read David Brooks because he writes well except, of course, his arguments are lazily constructed and easily batted away. Chunky Bobo, by contrast, is just a tiresome whiner. So, not much to munch on that would be interesting like, e.g. Edmund Burke. Sigh.
Villago Delenda Est
Ron Fournier’s head would look MUCH better on a pike than on his shoulders.
Just sayin’.
kc
Fournier’s been defending Obamacare?
LittlePig
@Villago Delenda Est: Better watch that shit. Somebody’s probably got a relative that ended up on a pike, and then what an insensitive bastard you’ll be.
LittlePig
@Helen: I know about cancer survival rates because my mother, father, step-mother and maternal grandfather all died from cancer of different sorts, although technically my maternal grandfather did not die of his prostate cancer, but rather the MRSA he acquired in the hospital for a (now deemed unnecessary) prostate cancer surgery.
Tom Brokaw mentioned over the weekend that all this good stuff was a character building exercise for people like me. I just wanted to return the favor. I’m sure Tom will be just fine, so his self-righteous ranting will continue unabated for many, many years.
mainmata
@Cassidy: Noted. He may be girding for the coming snowcapolypse.
mclaren
NSA director James Clapper is a beltway hack who has done immeasurably more damage to America than this jerkoff Fournier. Yet no one here is hammering Clapper.
Professional lapdog and shameful fellatiast-of-the-powerful Eric Holder has destroyed the lives of tens of thousands of American by prosecuting pointless and evil anti-drug laws instead of putting them on a low priority. Yet everyone on this forum rages against Fournier, but gives Holder big wet kisses when Holder’s atrocities grow so intolerable that he finds himself compelled to start lying about them.
Barack Obama has murdered thousands of innocent women and children, many in wedding parties, then ordered drones back to murder the Red Cross aid workers who try to rescue the survivors. Yet people on this forum scream red-faced with hysteria about inconsequential nits like Fournier while swooning with delight about Obama.
Folks, you are the poster children for misplaced political anger.
Bill E Pilgrim
@kc: Sort of.
http://www.nationaljournal.com/white-house/truth-and-consequences-of-obamacare-distortion-20140205
He called the Republicans on their “job losses!” lies, but then went into a both-sides-do-it-dosey-doe about what the Republicans should have criticized it for, because the deficit and it is a problem if we discourage working and blah blah blah.
Oh and the best part was that it incited Ross Douthat to write a blog post out of “exasperation” with Fournier for being too liberal. Ron Fournier. Which was the part where I knew we were through the looking glass once and for all, but then I should have known a long time ago.
http://douthat.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/02/06/a-certain-meanness-of-argument-a-certain-superiority-of-fact/
burnspbesq
@mainmata:
Larison, if you keep reminding yourself that his membership in the League of the South is irrelevant when he’s writing about foreign policy.
Ben Wittes and Jack Goldsmith at Lawfare.
Volokh himself occasionally, and Orin Kerr most of the time (the rest of the co-conspirators are vermin, especially Randy Barnett).
burnspbesq
@mclaren:
I will defend to the death your right to be ignorant and delusional.
Helen
@LittlePig: DO NOT challenge me to a race regarding who in your family died of cancer. I WIN, HANDS DOWN.
Cervantes
@LittlePig: I see you’re quoting George Bernard Shaw again.
Maybe try something else?
Helen
@driftglass: Hi DG. What brings you to Balloon Juice? Um, that you called bullshit on Ron Fourneir years ago? STFU – Really?
Cervantes
At the beginning:
Towards the end:
Cervantes
@kindness:
He covered Bill Clinton as governor in Arkansas; and after the ’92 election, he was moved to DC.
So it’s Bill Clinton’s fault.
Which means it’s Hillary’s, too, now that I come to think of it.
driftglass
@Helen: John put up the bat-signal
different-church-lady
Fournier:
I know. And such small portions.
Cervantes
@Keith G: Sorry to hear about your mother.
And your diagnosis.
Hope the prognosis is OK.
Thanks for your comments.
Fuzzy
@LittlePig: My family has been building this same type character for generations too. Right now my son is fighting for his fucking character with more aplomb than Brokaw can imagine. I agree, this crew is fine with death and injury metaphors but not the actual thing just like the comic books.
Helen
@driftglass: Ah I read you every day. Saw it earlier. Perhaps I blanked it out of my mind. Really, Dude? On the toilet once again? How much do you think we can take?
hells littlest angel
In his defense, Fournier has been pushing back against the “OMG 2.3 million jobs lost” bullshit.
I think he’s a jerk, nonetheless, so please don’t hate me.
eemom
@mclaren:
Yay! mcpsycho’s here!
Now I win the bet, and Mnem, Omnes and Yutz have to buy my drinks for the rest of the evening here in the Enlisted Men’s Paid Obot Troll NSA Phonebank for the rest of the evening.
Jebediah, RBG
OT:
Through circumstances that I am going to claim are and have been out of my control, I seem to have a large dog that will only eat her kibble out of my hand. Also, she seems genuinely wary of the kibble bowl. My dog might be a weirdo.
ETA: a beautiful and loving weirdo, of course. But still weird.
Mnemosyne
@Jebediah, RBG:
I have a cat who fetches. Well, all of them will when the mood strikes them, but this morning Charlotte did not want to let me leave because I had to throw her new toy for her to fetch over and over again.
Ruckus
@Mnemosyne:
I do understand she is a pet but you do understand that you are bigger than her and you control the food?
Mnemosyne
@Ruckus:
Yes, but she has claws. And she bites. Especially when she’s sleeping on my legs and I move around too much for Her Majesty’s liking.
Besides, what would you rather do first thing in the morning, go to work or play with your pets? (No double entendre intended, but I’m sure somebody will make one.)
Jebediah, RBG
@Mnemosyne:
We had a cat some time ago that liked to play fetch…but I don’t think he was quite as insistent about it as that.
But Juno is often very insistent about curling up on my arm, which is why i am typing this only with my left hand
Mnemosyne
@Jebediah, RBG:
It really is only when the mood strikes her, which is another reason I’m willing to indulge her — the mood will only last a day or two (if that), so I want to enjoy it while I can.
Jebediah, RBG
@Mnemosyne:
Yup – I always thought it was a hoot to be playing fetch with my cat!
Keith G
@Cervantes: Thanks for your thoughts. I am so lucky, My diagnosis was made in ’92. While I have had a few scary episodes, I have gotten excellent care and the Pig is probably right…I may just be hanging around for a long(ish) time. That’s the plan, anyway.
Keith G
@Cervantes: Thanks for your thoughts. I am so lucky, My diagnosis was made in ’92. While I have had a few scary episodes, I have gotten excellent care and the Pig is probably right…I may just be hanging around for a long(ish) time. That’s the plan, anyway.
Keith P
Next article will be Ron telling us how tired he is of defending Obama’s willingness to lead.
Howlin Wolfe
@Bill E Pilgrim: Douchehat has that face that that long Deutsche word describes; his writing reflects that smug idiot’s visage. The commenters there mostly stomped him.
Howlin Wolfe
@burnspbesq: Counsel, you have an incomplete sentences in your brief. Please amend.
Howlin Wolfe
@mclaren: So, Mclaren, have you always been so self-righteoulsy tiresome? Do you think we’re not angry at the right things? Do we not hate Obama and Eric Holder and James Clapper enough? Are these new developments? Can you read about these things that make you angry somewhere else? Are you engaging in political activism regarding these matters? If so, how do you have time to come to BJ, read the posts, then comment? You should be WORKING FULL TIME TO STOP THE EVIL OBAMINATOR AND HIS MINIONS!!
Leave us alone. Who knows? Maybe we also share your concerns. Maybe we don’t like being lectured by a smug more-progressive-than-thou asshat.