Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

The Giant Orange Man Baby is having a bad day.

Fear or fury? The choice is ours.

If you thought you’d already seen people saying the stupidest things possible on the internet, prepare yourselves.

The unpunished coup was a training exercise.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

GOP baffled that ‘we don’t care if you die’ is not a winning slogan.

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

People really shouldn’t expect the government to help after they watched the GOP drown it in a bathtub.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

White supremacy is terrorism.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

We can’t confuse what’s necessary to win elections with the policies that we want to implement when we do.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / The Death of Irony

The Death of Irony

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Irony shuffled dispiritedly from his bedroom in worn, smelly pajamas, fetching yesterday’s copy of The Wall Street Journal from the magazine rack, brewing a cup of tea and sitting down with a sigh at the ratty, stained kitchen table.

He wondered for the thousandth time that morning if life was worth living in this new age, an era in which he could not shake the suspicion that he was obsolete. Waving these depressing thoughts away, he opened the paper to the opinion section:

cheney_wrong

And with that, Irony rose determinedly from the table, fashioned a noose from the belt of his bathrobe, secured it around his neck, leapt up onto the table and tied the other end to the chandelier, kicked the table away and ended it all. The end.

Reader Interactions

189Comments

  1. 1.

    dmsilev

    Well, they did say ‘rarely’ rather than ‘never’, so maybe there was a bit of introspection…

    …nah.

    I see that the spirit of Cheney is well along in the process of transferring itself to the next-generation host. I assume this means that the husk of the current generation host will soon be discarded. Yet the spirit endures.

  2. 2.

    Lee Rudolph

    Well, to be far, it does say “rarely”. Perhaps the body of the article explains all about a slightly earlier example that puts Obama’s mooted failures to shame! … Oh, it doesn’t?

    Move over, Irony. Cynicism is prepared to join you.

  3. 3.

    Linda Featheringill

    Poor Irony.

    If Irony had been a socialist, he would know that the WSJ is the voice of the dominating class and it does not reflect the opinion of humans in general. In the Journal’s view, a failed presidency is one that doesn’t sufficiently meet the needs and wants of the upper class.

    And if Irony were a little old lady [like myself], he would have realized that both the writer of that opinion and the editor who decided to print it are merely temporary beings that will sink into oblivion.

    Obama will be remembered for a long, long time.

  5. 5.

    NotMax

    A chandelier in the kitchen?

    How ironic.

    (Funny though, that have always pictured irony as a she.)

  6. 6.

    gene108

    This is a joke headline right? Like from The Onion? A newspaper still takes Cheney seriously on anything…we are doomed…

  8. 8.

    Betty Cracker

    @Baud: Yes, kudos to those cowboy hat-wearing shit-kickers! The doomed campaign was a joy to witness, including the intra-family social media slap fight. Since they are apparently beyond the reach of justice, may the Cheney clan at least experience a continuous stream of similar humiliations!

  9. 9.

    qwerty42

    I know some of you don’t like him, but this from Sullivan:
    …And now the country’s resident and proud war criminal, with his failed politician daughter, are in on the act. As you might expect, theirs is a poisonous little tract, asserting ludicrously that Iraq was a victory, denying any responsibility for introducing extreme Islamism into Iraq, parlaying their own cronies in the Middle East as representative of anything but their own bubble, and blaming everything, as usual, on the man who has steadfastly managed to de-leverage the US from the Bush-Cheney catastrophe….
    http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2014/06/17/the-best-of-the-dish-today-182/

    I saw the WSJ article and had to wonder:
    — why that war-monger/-criminal is still around
    — are he and the WSJ really that delusional, or do they think if they keep repeating this nonsense, they will be believed?

  10. 10.

    WereBear

    @qwerty42: are he and the WSJ really that delusional, or do they think if they keep repeating this nonsense, they will be believed?

    They are always right. Period, end of story. They simply act the way they want to, claim it works great, and look down on anyone who differs with them.

    Of course, this only works if you have buckets of blood money and hang with like-minded, well-heeled, others. In our society, this is not difficult. Given sufficient financial resources and enough denial, you too can make reality anything you want.

    A helluva gig!

  11. 11.

    OzarkHillbilly

    You know what the funny thing is? The “Obama Doctrine” doesn’t even exist as such. It is merely pragmatic. Do what we can, don’t try to do what we can not.

    And for the most part he has held to that.

  12. 12.

    Chris

    Is it a law that every post-1945 president has to have a foreign policy “doctrine?” (And if not, that one will be constructed out of their general tendencies?)

  13. 13.

    Citizen Scientist

    …And The Onion shutdown its website for the rest of time, as reality had finally caught up with it.

    What a joke. Sociopaths and narcissists, all of them.

  14. 14.

    Baud

    @Betty Cracker:

    As awful and wrong and evil as Dick Cheney has been, he at least has held some jobs that he could point to to establish his credibility. I still have no idea what Liz brings to this or any other table.

  15. 15.

    Chris

    @WereBear:

    They are always right. Period, end of story. They simply act the way they want to, claim it works great, and look down on anyone who differs with them.

    Yeah. “We create our own reality,” also too. It doesn’t matter what the pointy-headed “experts” “know” about the world – Cheney and the others will just make the world into something they understand. If only you limp-wristed namby-pamby surrender-monkey dirty fucking hippies will let them!

  16. 16.

    NotMax

    Cheney, Bush, and the whole sick, sorry lot of ’em – more projection than at the most gargantuan cineplex.

  17. 17.

    barry

    And we must not forget in the 1995, when not suggesting that Hillary Clinton murdered Vincent Foster, this same editorial page cheered the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.

  18. 18.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Linda Featheringill: Amen to the last sentence.

    President Obama has accomplished much despite the do nothing Congress and an openly hostile opposition party bent on obstruction. Plus, he’s had to clean up Bush’s mess! We’ve had job growth for months on end, a successful healthcare law, the saving of our auto industry, support for gender and sexual orientation equality and a winding down of two wars on President Obama’s watch.

    Not bad for a Socialist, Muslim Kenyan Usurper.

  21. 21.

    Baud

    @MattF:

    These days I have to reach for theological arguments to explain Cheney’s continued existence

    God is dead?

  24. 24.

    Lurking Canadian

    I find myself hoping I live long enough to see the Chinese establish cultural hegemony over the planet, so I’ll be able to see history book in which Dick Cheney is properly assessed by posterity.

  25. 25.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Jim Wright had an open letter to Mitt Romney at Stonekettle Station:

    Somebody stepped into my office yesterday and asked how I felt about it. He wanted to know how I felt about “losing” Iraq.

    How do I feel about losing all we fought for?

    I don’t know.

    First, I’m going to need somebody to explain to me exactly what it was that we were fighting for.

    What was it? What is it that we gained, according to Mitt Romney? And what is on the cusp of vanishing? What is that? No, really, somebody please explain it to me.

    Because I’d love to know.

    The Open Letter to Mitt has been taken down because as Mr. Wright says,

    “It has removed because a number of commercial news sites and radio shows stole my intellectual property without bothering to ask for permission or offering compensation. These thieving sons of bitches took my material and used it to attract readers and viewers which in turn makes them money, none of which was offered to me.”

    I found it elsewhere, but I won’t link to it there. He’s pissed and I don’t blame him.

  29. 29.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Good for him. I don’t blame him either. Steeplejack wrote at some length yesterday about his suspicions that (I think it was) Juan Cole’s site printed Wright’s entire open letter to Mitt and acknowledged authorship only at the bottom.

    I’ve seen that several different FB pages have printed, or linked to, Jim Wright’s piece. I didn’t try to follow any of them as I read the entire thing at Stonekettle. A damned shame, though. These are supposedly people on our side. It pisses me off that the “good guys” are so cavalier about intellectual property.

  30. 30.

    SFAW

    @MattF:

    Original Sin, I’d like you to meet Theodicy.

    Perhaps. But I prefer to think of it as: if Dick and his devil-spawn are still breathing as I write this, I believe that alone is the single greatest refutation of the idea that there is a just God.

    Because if there were a just God, the area(s) around those embodiments of evil would look like this.

  31. 31.

    ohsuzanna

    Yours was the first story I read this early morning. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

  32. 32.

    Elizabelle

    Since we’re already discussing chickens: Betty Cracker bait:

    Chickens for hire, in the DC area (and elsewhere). Real ones, with feathers, this time. Coops included, and even a 24-hour chicken hotline from RentaCoop.

    Their success is a new twist on the backyard chicken boom, which has been gaining momentum in cities and suburbs for much of the past decade. Once the domain of die-hard foodies, the coops are now being embraced by more casual poultry fans, who like the idea of having a couple of hens around without a long-term commitment.

    Many get into it for the fresh eggs, but they stay for the fulfilling relationship.

    “What they don’t realize in the beginning is that the hens have a lot of personality,” said Phillips, a [chicken entrepreneur with his RentaCoop business] …

    The DiPaolas have had their coop for only a couple of weeks, but the youngest of their four children, 7-year-old Emily, has already fallen in love with Amy Fowler, a golden comet hen. (The other hen, Princess Lay-ah, scratched Emily the first day, which hurt her chances for a deeper relationship.)

    “Separation anxiety set in on Day Four,” reported Lara DiPaola , who has had to tell her daughter, “No, you cannot sleep with the chicken.”

    Renting the chickens and their coop for four weeks is costing the Anne Arundel County [Maryland] family $160. Another $125 buys another four weeks — already a certainty at this point for the DiPaolas. That money can be used toward the $615 price of buying the coop, the hens, watering dish and other essentials. (Roosters are not part of the rental package. They are too mean and too noisy. And the hens can lay eggs without them.)

    Lara DiPaola, 42, is more comfortable around chickens than many RentaCoop customers. She grew up collecting eggs before school as a child in rural California, and she never thought of them as pets. When her Brooklyn-bred husband talked her into the idea of backyard chickens, she became an object of familial ridicule.

    “My parents are making endless jokes about the fact that I got suckered into renting chickens,” DiPaola said. “They laugh so hard you can’t have a conversation.”

    Prefer discussing fowl, vs. foul.

  33. 33.

    hueyplong

    You could pay me $300 an hour to read The Wall Street Journal, but not a penny less.

    Dick Cheney makes Tywin Lannister look like George Bailey.

  34. 34.

    PurpleGirl

    Betty — a good story (i.e., creative idea, well written) and post. Good comments from readers.

    OT: NYC expected to be in the 90s today; I’ve already put on the living room AC.

  35. 35.

    jayjaybear

    Liz is important because these people believe in aristocracy. She’s the Heir Apparent.

    As for Stonekettle, about 80% of people in the media don’t understand the concept that just because it’s on the internet doesn’t mean it’s free. You pay either money or name credit when you lift something from someone else’s site (yes, even bloggers!). If you don’t, it’s just like someone quoting your column without attribution. There’s a disconnect between the two acts with these people, and it would really be nice if that were fixed.

  36. 36.

    jayjaybear

    Since I have no edit function for some reason (FYWP), I’d just like to note that the lack of recognition of proper citation is common now. Journalism is a dying profession, replaced by the worst habits of the right-wing blogger.

  37. 37.

    D58826

    Rather than shutting down GITMO, we should round up these bottom dwellers and move them into the cells at GITMO. Then maybe we won’t be inflicted with their views any more

  39. 39.

    NorthLeft12

    Not having read the latest Cheney opus [really, I’m on vacation and who wants the negativity?], it is probably very similar to his other opii on the same subject from 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013.

    But really Dick, giving your daughter co-author status? That would qualify as child abuse up here.

  40. 40.

    NorthLeft12

    Not having read the latest Cheney opus [really, I’m on vacation and who wants the negativity?], it is probably very similar to his other opii on the same subject from 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013.

    But really Dick, giving your daughter co-author status? That would qualify as child abuse up here.

  41. 41.

    beltane

    It’s a given that Dick Cheney, et al. will never be made to answer for their crimes in a court of law. However, it would be beneficial someone went to the effort of building a formal case against them. As a country, we really cannot move forward unless we come to terms with our recent past. These people are trying feverishly to alter history and even memory itself. We cannot let them get away with it.

  43. 43.

    Betty Cracker

    @Elizabelle: I don’t blame that lady’s parents for laughing at her for renting chickens! That farm girl should know better! Chickens are fun to have around, and fresh eggs will spoil store-bought ones for you forever, but $125 a month to rent chickens? FFS! Just build a coop, buy the chicks, and wah-lah!

    On second thought, it probably is a good idea for people who aren’t sure that chickens will work out for them. Still, that price is highway robbery. Maybe I should start a sideline…

  44. 44.

    PurpleGirl

    @NorthLeft12: As Liz generally believes the same stuff as her father, I don’t think it’s child abuse. She’s an adult and fully able to express other opinions if she has them. If child abuse happened, it happened as she was being raised to transform her into a mini-me.

  46. 46.

    beltane

    @PurpleGirl: Sometimes the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. In Liz Cheney’s case, both parental “trees” are the worst human beings imaginable. She’s just following the family tradition.

  47. 47.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    @PurpleGirl: I wonder, just as an aside, if Cheney ever had Obama as a professor when she was in law school.

  48. 48.

    Patrick

    Unlike Cheney, Obama caught and killed bin Laden.

    Unlike Cheney, Obama was against Cheney’s disastrous Iraq war.

    Enough said!

  50. 50.

    maya

    Obama Doctrine: You roll the bones of foreign policy with the skeleton you were given.

  51. 51.

    Belafon

    @SiubhanDuinne: It looks like Juan Cole posted a link to the site Americans Against the Tea Party, which has the article as being posted by Jim Wright. Not sure if the site took it and attached his name, or if he put it there.

  53. 53.

    gf120581

    I personally don’t think there’s a more pathetic character in the DC conservative set than Liz Cheney. She’s the ultimate daddy’s girl. Everything she does is to please her father. She’s not an individual, she’s a ventriloquist dummy with Daddy’s hand jammed up her ass, controlling her every move.

    She’s been dubbed her father’s “avatar” and that’s not far from the truth. Her whole existence seems to be defending her father’s horrendous legacy.

  54. 54.

    Hill Dweller

    Chuck Todd went on the twitter machine and TV and said Obama’s presidency “is done”.

  57. 57.

    Betty Cracker

    @beltane: Yep. Dick and Lynne are an abominable pair; it’s unsurprising that they produced monster spawn.

    I read something about Dick Cheney years ago — an excerpt from a book he wrote, maybe? Anyhoo, apparently, Dick is the only one in the family who can cook, and once when he was in the hospital or away from home for some other reason over Thanksgiving, he left incredibly detailed instructions for the rest of the crew on how to cook the turkey, starting with removing it from the plastic wrapper. (I have no idea why a rented chef wasn’t on hand, but this was the account I read.)

    The story was meant to humanize Cheney. It might have been completely made up, expressly for that purpose.

    I have many redneck family members with appalling political views who are nonetheless good-hearted people. So I try not to automatically write off even hardcore conservatives as reprehensible human beings. But the Cheneys? Yeah, horrible, heinous, awful people.

  58. 58.

    Elizabelle

    @Betty Cracker:

    Eggzactly.

    PS: good blogpost. Although (1) I hope irony resurrects himself; there will be work to do, always and (2) I have no interest in discussing anything by Cheney or spawn. Fuck them and the WSJ that gives their article a home.

  62. 62.

    Hill Dweller

    @Elizabelle: Todd released an NBC poll with bad approval numbers for Obama, which he claims is the death knell for his presidency.

  63. 63.

    LAC

    Cheney’s next piece should hopefully be entitled: “Confusion in Hell: Satan’s painful doctrine”

    Fucking piece of shit…

  64. 64.

    Uncle Cosmo

    We doctors know

    a hopeless case if — listen: there’s a hell
    of a good universe next door; let’s go

    Once crosstime travel is perfected I am going to volunteer to search for one where Darth Cheney, Rummy & Hyenawitz all failed to file their deferment requests on time, woke up to find themselves humping a rifle in ‘Nam, & ended up dying in utter agony in a “friendly-fire” napalm fest, while McCain’s chute failed to open over the North. Got to be a better alternity than this one…

  65. 65.

    Barry

    @NorthLeft12: “But really Dick, giving your daughter co-author status? That would qualify as child abuse up here. ”

    Liz is in her forties, and is an enthusiastic Cheney.

  66. 66.

    Cervantes

    @Betty Cracker: That really happened. Thanksgiving 2000.

    He’s not the only one in the family who can cook, just the one who usually makes the Thanksgiving turkey.

    He did leave instructions but, as it turned out, Colin Powell’s wife came to the rescue.

  69. 69.

    Hill Dweller

    @LAC: Even if Obama’s poll numbers are down, Todd has done more than his fair share to help it become a reality. The Beltway media is every bit as guilty as the Republicans of sabotage.

  70. 70.

    Citizen_X

    I’m interested in hearing from Dick Cheney.

    Oh, but just the words “Guilty” or “Not guilty,” when asked to enter a plea on charges of waging aggressive war, torturing POWs, etc. Later, he can defend himself under oath. Other than that, he can STFU for now.

  71. 71.

    Kristin

    These people are evil.

    I also agree with Linda Featheringill. Cheney’s legacy is, at best, abject failure. At worst, criminality. He’s pissed that Obama’s will be far better. He’s a bitter old sociopath.

  72. 72.

    Betty Cracker

    @Hill Dweller: Other findings from that poll:

    Yet while Obama is unpopular in the poll, he looks like the homecoming king compared with the Republican Party.

    Just 29% of respondents have a favorable view of the GOP, versus 45% who have an unfavorable view. (By comparison, the Democratic Party’s fav/unfav rating is 38% positive, 40% negative.)

    Views of the tea party are even worse, with 22% seeing it in a favorable light and 41% in a negative one.

    So if Obama is “done,” the GOP/TP must be burnt to a crisp and tossed into the dumpster….

  75. 75.

    Patrick

    @Hill Dweller:

    If his presidency is done, then why is the GOP considering impeachment? BTW – Obama’s number is still 50% higher than Bush’s.

    Also, via executive orders, Obama can still make all kinds of changes. And finally, if poll numbers is the definition if someone is done, then Congress was done a long time ago.

    I am soooooo sick of our media idiots.

  79. 79.

    beltane

    @Patrick: Our media are not idiots. They are skilled propagandists that have successfully misinformed and manipulated the American public for decades. Rather than throw up our hands and complain about how dumb and lazy they are, we should recognize them for being the force for evil that they are.

  83. 83.

    Citizen_X

    @Betty Cracker:

    Just 29% of respondents have a favorable view of the GOP

    Getting awfully close to the magic number there. Margin of error, even.

  87. 87.

    hildebrand

    @Hill Dweller: Todd is one of many who work for MSNBC that make me laugh when people kvetch about ‘liberal MSNBC.’ MSNBC doesn’t turn to the left until after Andrea Mitchell gets off the air – thus over a third of their broadcast day is decidedly not liberal.

  88. 88.

    Soonergrunt

    If only Obama would get drunk and shoot a friend in the face, then Cheney would approve of him!

  89. 89.

    ...now I try to be amused

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    You know what the funny thing is? The “Obama Doctrine” doesn’t even exist as such. It is merely pragmatic. Do what we can, don’t try to do what we can not.

    Amen. I admire Obama for being the least doctrinaire, the least ideological, the least dogmatic President of my lifetime. Of course ideological people fail to appreciate this and see him as inconsistent because they can’t pigeonhole him.

  91. 91.

    piratedan

    @Patrick: all part of the general smear campaign to ensure that the Black POTUS doesn’t get any credit for anything positive at any time. Hence why Dems poll numbers are down because the Beltway narrative within the media is all about selling horse-races for the next election, how can you do that when the GOP is outright batshit insane? Well you play the plague on both your houses card ad nauseum without affixing blame where it belongs. This also adds to the fact that any real issues get soft peddled when you can just press the outrage button. I mean we could be having debates on what the 2nd amendment really means, we could be discussing NSA oversight and checks and balances, we could be talking about how to get jobs to rural locations, we could be talking about how to address climate change in the environment, be it economic or otherwise but our media refuses to allow those discussions to take place in an open forum because Benghazi.

  92. 92.

    hildebrand

    @…now I try to be amused: When did pragmatism become such a dirty word? And while I am asking such questions, why is it that the media, who seems to get collective woodies whenever some kind of ‘Middle Way’ candidate arrives on the scene to say that we all need to get along – that we actually need to find ‘common ground’ – berate Obama for trying to work out compromises and find the most pragmatic solution to a great deal of stupid around the planet?

    I find the national media types to be the most perplexing…no, I guess I don’t, they learned the wrong lesson about the whole ‘follow the money’ business from Watergate, they thought it meant something utterly different, aspirational not investigative.

  94. 94.

    gogol's wife

    @Betty Cracker:

    This is a long story. I woke up this morning thinking, “Lynne Cheney, Lynne Cheney” (before I read this post, of course). When I was fully awake, I realized why I was thinking this. A colleague and I applied for an NEH grant when Lynne Cheney was the director of the agency. When our contact at the agency sent us the reports on our project proposal, she said, “I’m only sending you the negative comments, because praise is not helpful.” She had actually gone through and cut out all the negative comments to send to us, so we got an envelope full of slips of paper with one or two sentences on them. We eventually got the grant, but now about 30 years later I look back and realize how deeply weird and unprofessional that was. For some reason it was in my mind when I woke up this morning. I don’t know whether to blame Lynne Cheney for it, but I choose to do so.

  98. 98.

    divF

    @Ruckus:

    “Oh, ho, ho, irony! Oh, no, no, we don’t get that here. See, uh, people ski topless here while smoking dope, so irony’s not really a, a high priority. We haven’t had any irony here since about, uh, ’83, when I was the only practitioner of it. And I stopped because I was tired of being stared at.” – Steve Martin as C. D. Bales, in “Roxanne”

  101. 101.

    danielx

    @dmsilev:

    I see that the spirit of Cheney is well along in the process of transferring itself to the next-generation host.

    Don’t count on it, that lump of plutonium Cheney pere has in place of a heart has a long half life.

  104. 104.

    maya

    @beltane:

    we should recognize them for being the force for evil that they are.

    This year’s competition for the coveted Joe Goebbels Award in Broadcasting Effluence is a real horse race.

  105. 105.

    Rex Everything

    Don’t know if anyone read Krugman’s latest, but it’s on point.

    The wingers have made their bid to control policy; they put up the longest, dirtiest fight they could; but they lost. This is them making a pathetic attempt to control narrative.

  106. 106.

    Steeplejack (tablet)

    @Belafon:

    It seems not. Jim Wright has a “Screw all y’all” post at Stonekettle Station, and he doesn’t except anyone.

  109. 109.

    the Conster

    @beltane:

    We need a truth and reconciliation committee, but it would have to be proposed and advanced by the Dems, and they’re largely useless. We need more Barney Franks.

  110. 110.

    Corner Stone

    @Rex Everything: I had no idea “shambolic” was a word.
    A couple parts were curious:

    Put it all together, and Mr. Obama is looking like a very consequential president indeed. There were huge missed opportunities early in his administration — inadequate stimulus, the failure to offer significant relief to distressed homeowners. Also, he wasted years in pursuit of a Grand Bargain on the budget that, aside from turning out to be impossible, would have moved America in the wrong direction.

    And:

    A larger answer, I’d guess, is Simpson-Bowles syndrome — the belief that good things must come in bipartisan packages, and that fiscal probity is the overriding issue of our times. This syndrome persists among many self-proclaimed centrists even though it’s overwhelmingly clear to anyone who has been paying attention that (a) today’s Republicans simply will not compromise with a Democratic president, and (b) the alleged fiscal crisis was vastly overblown.

    But this was a good one:

    But who cares what centrists think?

    Don’t you *dare* show your face around BJ, Kthug!

  112. 112.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Since it’s an open thread, I guess this isn’t O/T:

    WASHINGTON — The US Patent Office has ruled the Washington Redskins nickname is ‘‘disparaging of Native Americans’’ and that the team’s federal trademarks for the name must be canceled.

    According to the article, they can continue to use the name/logo while they appeal. But public sentiment on racist sports team names is shifting quickly, and I think Washington’s NFL team is going to have a new moniker within the next couple of years. Good news.

  113. 113.

    mai naem

    I’m just wondering if the WSJ would have Bill Clinton writing about how his opinion about the kissing congressman and whether he should run for congress again. Or have Anthony Weiner write about the coke buying congressman. Why Dick Cheney? Why Liz Cheney? What? They couldn’t find any of the other PNAC flunkies to write an opinion piece.

  114. 114.

    Elizabelle

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Wow.

    Just checked the WaPost website. That’s top story, and another football story beside it:

    How NFL’s TV Business Could Crash

    The Supreme Court is poised to rule on a case that could shape the future of television and how we watch football.

    Maybe the US will join socialist countries in making soccer the national sport. (And girls play it well too!!)

  115. 115.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Baud:

    I still have no idea what Liz brings to this or any other table.

    She is the spawn of the Dark Lord. In any hereditary aristocracy, that is all that matters. She is his disgusting issue.

  116. 116.

    danimal

    Wow, 113 comments, and no references to Alanis Morissette’s Ironic?

    Dick and Liz’s WSJ article: It’s the bad advice that we just didn’t take….

  117. 117.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Betty Cracker: The loathsome insect that is Chuckles the Toddler won’t bother to mention that, because he, like all his fellow Villager vermin, hate the near sheriff simply for being near, and a Democrat.

  119. 119.

    Corner Stone

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    The loathsome insect that is Chuckles the Toad won’t bother to mention that, because he, like all his fellow Villager vermin, hate the near sheriff simply for being near, and a Democrat.

    IMO, that’s obviously a big part for some of the characters, but I think people like Todd are more disgusted with the president because he’s been so personally clean. He hasn’t given them anything juicy or nasty to play with. Chuckles and others are forced to keep having to breathlessly cover the phony shit the R’s are trying to pull. And after a while they just want that fucker in the WH to slip up so they can have their signature moment(s).

  120. 120.

    LanceThruster

    Why bother?

    Let’s turn off the television, step into the sunlight, and count the bodies. As we were watching inside, the non-virtual continued at its own pace and on its own path, indifferent to our indifference, unamused by our ironic detachment, unsympathetic to our political impotence, unmoved by our carefully selected apparel, unfrightened by our nihilism, unimpressed by our braggadocio, unaware of our pain. Evolution and entropy remained outside the cocoon of complacent images, refusing to be hurried or delayed, declining to cut to the chase, unwilling to reveal either ending or meaning.

    We shade our eyes and scan the decay. We know that this place, this country, this planet, is not the same as the last time we looked. There are more bodies. And fewer other things: choices, unlocked doors, democracy, satisfying jobs, reality, unplanned moments, clean water, a species of frog whose name we forget, community, and the trusting, trustworthy smile of a stranger.

    Someone has been careless, cruel, greedy, stupid. But it wasn’t us, was it? We were inside, just watching. It all happened without us — by the hand of forces we can’t see, understand, or control. We can always go in again and zap ourselves back to a place where the riots and tornadoes and wars are never larger than 27 inches on the diagonal. We can do nothing out here. Why bother?

    Why bother? Only to be alive. Only to be real, to be made not just of what we acquire or our adherence to instruction, but of what we think and do of our own free will. Only, Winston Churchill said, to fight while there is still a small chance so we don’t have to fight when there is none. Only to climb the rock face of risk and doubt in order to engage in the most extreme sport of all — that of being a free and conscious human. Free and conscious even in a society that seems determined to reduce our lives to a barren pair of mandatory functions: compliance and consumption.

    Life is a endless pick-up game between hope and despair, understanding and doubt, crisis and resolution.

  121. 121.

    Hill Dweller

    @Corner Stone: It’s also partly due to current and former Obama WH officials ridiculing the Beltway media both publicly and privately. That, and a purported lack of access(ass kissing), has enraged the Village to the point of apoplexy.

  122. 122.

    voncey

    @WereBear: This is likely the most succinct description I’ve read about Cheney, Bush and their ilk. I think it’s also a description of a sociopath — no regret, no remorse, no self-reflection.

  125. 125.

    J R in WV

    @Betty Cracker:

    Betty, it isn’t quite as stupid as it sounds, you missed the “rent to own” part of it, they’re buying coop, birds, and all associated stuff ($650 maybe? sounds high, but I’m not in a big city) for their monthly rental.

    And the eggs, OMG the eggs.

    Cooking story, when we kept hens, I was farmer.house husband, chief cook too. So one night for dinner/dessert I made a glorious lemon meringue pie. It looked so perfect, because the free range birds lay such rich golden egg yolks, and the whites being 3 days old make perfect meringue… plus I baked it well, brown and white with no black spots.

    So we have a great dinner, I go get two plates with gorgeous golden lemon pie for dessert, and we each fork a pointy piece of wonderfulness, and pop it into our mouths almost in complete unison, and instantly our faces fall! There was no lemon in the lemon pie, it was beautiful nothing custard!!!!

    The lemon juice was still by the stove in the measuring cup! And the pie was pretty but totally tastelessly gagging sweet.

    Kind of like a press release from the Cheney family’s evilness trust, huh? Pretty but nasty inside!!

    I AM a good cook, but after 40 years there are a few accidents, some of which can be pretty funny, in distant retrospect. It was actually pretty funny right then, too. Once I got over not having one of my two favorite pies. (Other is pecan!)

  126. 126.

    D58826

    For the moment

    Obama has opted not to conduct airstrikes in the immediate future partly because ISIS targets are difficult to identify, and it’s unclear if they would significantly alter the situation on the ground

    Waiting for the GOP response but I’m sure it can be summarized as the ‘delusional America hating terrorist loving Kenyan socialist usurper has struck again’.

  128. 128.

    Corner Stone

    @D58826:

    Waiting for the GOP response but I’m sure it can be summarized as the ‘delusional America hating terrorist loving Kenyan socialist usurper has struck again’.

    “The only good VC, is a dead VC.”
    /GOP

    We know that they don’t do nuance, and to them any dead brown person is fine. But when the US kills some important Sunni Iraqi while they’re trying to kill ISIS, it’s going to be on like Donkey Kong.

  129. 129.

    Betty Cracker

    @J R in WV: Haha, great story! You’re right — nothing like fresh eggs. I posted a picture here once of something I made with homemade hollandaise sauce (eggs benedict maybe, I forget…), and someone remarked that it looked like yellow paint.

    Whenever I crack open a store-bought egg at someone else’s house (on the rare occasion I don’t bring my own!), I’m always appalled by how pale the yolks are. It’s just…sad.

    RE: the coop — I didn’t see a picture at the link, but if it’s a portable dealio (and it must be for rental purposes), my guess is it’s a chicken tractor, which shouldn’t cost more than $300 or so to assemble. Those city folks are getting screwed!

  130. 130.

    Corner Stone

    “Leadery Leadership is what’s called for here! And the polls say Obama ain’t got it!”
    /all DC media and pundits

  131. 131.

    Higgs Boson's Mate

    The Cheney’s screed was published solely because our corporatist media needs to maintain the fiction that there are still two worthwhile political parties in the US. Calling out the GOP for having gone off the rails some years ago isn’t even an option.

  132. 132.

    Corner Stone

    Oh goody. Andrea Mitchell’s going to interview Joe Manchin on “what to do”.

  135. 135.

    Corner Stone

    @Villago Delenda Est: He’s actually supportive of the president’s decisions and is baldly against putting troops back in.
    I expected him to pull some more naive bipartisanshipisneedednow bullshit.

  136. 136.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Corner Stone: That is surprising. Well, Andrea makes up for it, I’m sure, with the usual Village conventional wisdom bullshit that has earned them all irrevocable tumbrel ride tickets.

  139. 139.

    Elizabelle

    @OzarkHillbilly: @SiubhanDuinne: @Belafon: @Steeplejack:

    Talk about ironic.

    It would be Jim Wright removing his work from the blogosphere (admittedly, because some are using his work without attribution: Juan Cole and the ant-TP group) while, meanwhile, Dick Cheney and spawn are given Wall Street Journal space, and Chuck Todd and his toadies rule the airwaves at liberal MSNBC.

    Steeplejack: can you let Wright know that he should NOT give up blogging, and that he can handle the situation better by not taking his football and going home?

    For anyone who missed it, here’s a link to the CityWatch blog in Los Angeles, which did properly attribute. (It would seem.)

    Absolutely Nothing: A Veteran’s Savage Indictment of the Iraq War (as originally published at Stonekettle Station blog).

    Also, Wright’s performed a public service, because it’s past time for the blogosphere to clean up its act on giving credit, respecting intellectual property (and the author’s effort), and linking to the original. Always. (Caveats: when you can find it, or as far back as you can, or via a link that credits the original).

  140. 140.

    GregB

    When Liz Cheney was born the doctor didn’t slap her. He just wiped the shit off of her heels.

  141. 141.

    Elizabelle

    Betty: I’m in moderation. Put up too many “reply to’s” re the Jim Wright/Stonekettle Station issue.

    Short, short Elizabelle: Supreme irony would be Jim Wright taking his work off the blogosphere when Cheney and Todd get prominent print space and airtime.

    Don’t let him do it! We need his voice.

  142. 142.

    WaterGirl

    @Elizabelle: My thought was that he was taking it down for a bit and would follow up with strong legal action against the sites that did it. Hoping maybe this is one way to get the attention of the hacks that are stealing his work.

    Really disappointed to see that Jim Wright’s post is up at Juan Cole in exactly the same way as it was yesterday. I thought Juan Cole was supposed to be one of the good guys.

  143. 143.

    Poopyman

    @LanceThruster:

    Life is a endless pick-up game between hope and despair, understanding and doubt, crisis and resolution.

    Wait, isn’t that three games? Or are substitutions allowed?

  144. 144.

    Cervantes

    @Betty Cracker: In his kitchen, you mean? No.

    @Corner Stone: And it’s not just him — it’s family, friends, associates, virtually the entire administration — nothing titillating, nothing even seedy. Imagine how enraging that must be to pornographers dressed up as journalists.

  145. 145.

    Corner Stone

    @muddy:

    Actually I think it’s best to say God is an iron. A glutton practices gluttony. A felon commits a felony, etc.

    So…a muddy is someone who mudds?
    I couldn’t find a way to make this joke without it being overly dirty.

  146. 146.

    Elizabelle

    @WaterGirl:

    I hope it’s just that. And Jim Wright should smack them down, as a public service. Even if intent was benign. The Juan Cole site use was egregious.

    Maybe this is why John Cole includes nude mopping, missing mustard, and Subarus in farmers’ fields in his rants. Proof of authorship.

  147. 147.

    muddy

    @Corner Stone: Good on you for trying though! Mud and muddy don’t have the -on, -ony endings, silly.

    However, I am generally quite filthy, and have no shame in it.

  148. 148.

    nellcote

    Grifters gotta grift.
    Cheney’s WSJ op-ed was a kickoff for his new PAC.

    Dick and Liz Cheney have joined forces to form a new grassroots group to take on President Obama.

    Shortly after the father/daughter duo criticized Obama in an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal, the pair announced Wednesday their 501(c)4 nonprofit group “Alliance For A Strong America.”

    With the two Cheneys at the helm, the group will work on “preserving freedom and restoring American strength and power in the wake of the Obama administration’s national security failures.”

    In their Journal opinion piece, the pair blamed Obama for the rise of insurgents in Iraq – earning scorn from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

    From the Senate floor on Wednesday, Reid said, “if there’s one thing this country does not need, is that we should be taking advice from Dick Cheney on wars.”

  149. 149.

    Corner Stone

    @nellcote: Saw where the Koch bros are also starting a $15M superpac specifically to spend on 2014 midterm elections.

  150. 150.

    Higgs Boson's Mate

    @nellcote:
    They’ll be grifting taking on Obama for years. Just as their predecessors took on Carter and Bill Clinton.

  152. 152.

    andy

    By Crom the comments under the story are something else. And those people commenting- we’re supposed to be getting in line to kiss their asses because they’re our holy “job creators”? If they’re that divorced from reality, how are they going to run a business?

  153. 153.

    LanceThruster

    @Poopyman:

    Good question. Since even not playing the game is playing the game, I’d think any strategy is valid within the framework.

  154. 154.

    Betty Cracker

    @Cervantes: Oh. You were so definite about it; I imagined Liz carving a slice and serving it to you with a flourish! Glad to know you don’t associate with such riffraff!

  155. 155.

    muddy

    @Betty Cracker: I have had dinner with someone who has had dinner with Cheney. He used to be a decent guy but he’s a lunatic now, possibly from breathing Cheney’s miasma of evil.

  156. 156.

    Suffern ACE

    @nellcote: God. They are such ninnies. He so clearly is the kind of CEO who’s company would burn around him if he didn’t have government contracts. Even when they tried to do the war on the cheap, it ended up draining the treasury. All of that group of thugs supposedly strategic power plays end up costing us a fortune with no ROI. All they do is let local “moderates” lead us in circles.

  157. 157.

    Steeplejack

    @Elizabelle:

    Still a fail on CityWatch’s part, it seems. At Stonekettle Station there is a very prominent link on the front page to “Sharing material from Stonekettle Station,” where it states that (a) you need to ask Jim Wright’s permission first and (b) “My name and a link to Stonekettle Station will be clearly included at the top of the article.” CityWatch clearly did not do (b), which means they probably didn’t do (a) either.

    In general, I am a little squeamish about verbatim repostings of entire articles and essays, especially when it is so easy to give a brief description or say “what’s so great about this” and then provide a link to the original. A lot of sites skate on the thin ice of “We’re providing the service of a convenient one-stop source for all this great stuff,” but in reality they’re just stealing content to drive traffic to their own site.

    And Americans Against the Tea Party, which came under my baleful gaze yesterday because Juan Cole “syndicated” Jim Wright’s piece from that site, appears to be a prime offender.

    A story headlined “Veterans Demand Fox News Be Turned Off in Waiting Room—Fox News Goes Berserk,” appeared there yesterday, “posted by” News Corpse. If you click on the News Corpse byline, you get a list of all the stories he or she has posted at AATTP, which makes it seem as if News Corpse is an AATTP contributor or member or whatever. But if you drill down, you find that the story was posted the day before at Newscorpse.com by someone called “Mark NC.” So I wonder if Newscorpse is getting the Stonekettle treatment—AATTP is harvesting stories from Newscorpse and posting them with minimal attribution that makes it appear that the source is an AATTP “contributor.” (And all of the articles at AATTP have the “syndicate this article” Repost button on them.)

    Finally, I got on the Google and looked for some phrases from the “Veterans Demand Fox News Be Turned Off” article, and I got more than 100 hits each time. All are copies of the same story, but it’s impossible to tell where it originated. It’s just, like, out there, man.

    All of the stories at AATTP that I looked at are like that: “posted by” someone who turns out to be a source from another site. Maybe AATTP is doing its own original reporting/commenting somewhere, but I can’t find it.

  158. 158.

    Irony Abounds

    Hmmmm, guess I need to change my name to Irony No Longer Abounds. Hopefully it won’t screw up my karma, but I really hope Cheney has a long, very extended, and very very painful death. I just hate that motherf**ker.

  159. 159.

    WaterGirl

    @Steeplejack: If you don’t mind my asking, did you get a response to your email to Jim Wright?

    Somewhat related:

    I really want us at BJ to be good neighbors. I feel a bit squeamish about how BJ handles links to other articles, not always, but too often. I don’t think we should have to click a link in order to find out who wrote something and what site it was posted on.

    I also think Jim Wright’s request to quote no more than a paragraph might be a good rule of thumb.

  160. 160.

    eemom

    @Steeplejack:

    In general, I am a little squeamish about verbatim repostings of entire articles and essays

    hmm. Something. Can’t quite put my finger on it. Something about this point…..a FPer on this blog and…..irony….

  161. 161.

    Betty Cracker

    @WaterGirl: Good points. I should probably be more careful about that. I always try to provide a link and attribution for the publication if I’m quoting, but I generally don’t cite the author’s name if it’s a big time publication like the NYT. If it’s a blog, I generally do. But yeah, those sites flat-out ripped off Wright, and I don’t blame him for being angry about it.

  164. 164.

    Mike G

    The WSJ editorial page has always been an intellectual sewer of moral cowardice and mendacity, but since Murdoch took over it reeks worse than ever.

  166. 166.

    Elizabelle

    @WaterGirl:

    re the paragraph for fair use: and I’m sure I’m one of the offenders:

    I excerpt longer passages, particularly from sites with a paywall (NYTimes, LATimes, WaPost) in event BJuicers want to get the meat but not use a click (if they’re not subscribers and can only see 10-20 articles per month). I have subs to all three.

    Personally, I don’t click every link a Juicer puts up, particularly if there’s no indication of what it will be.

    And I like seeing the gist of an article in a longer excerpt, so that I don’t have to click unless it’s something to read in more depth.**

    And that is an issue with fair use. Maybe the excerpts should be shorter, but that can lead to putting up misleading information, because paras 2 and 4 follow and explain what is a provocative (maybe unnecessarily so) lead paragraph.

    Anyhow, would be a good topic for a thread.

    [** although, with BJuice, get a lot of good articles, eclectic topics, to bookmark for future reading; not the usual dross “everyone” is reading and screaming about that day]

  167. 167.

    Elizabelle

    @Steeplejack:

    Very interesting. Good point about stealing to drive traffic to their own site.

    AATTP sounds sketchy. Possibly unverifiable items, some used against authors’ will. Hmmm. Vile brew.

  168. 168.

    priscianus jr

    Harry Reid ain’t taking this shit.

    “This morning, there was an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal. Now who would write that? How about Dick Cheney … former Vice President of the United States, who clearly was the chief architect of the war. … If there is one thing that this country does not need, it’s that we should be taking advice from Dick Cheney on wars. Being on the wrong side of Dick Cheney is being on the right side of history.”
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXord2Fl-Vk

  169. 169.

    Betty Cracker

    @priscianus jr: Harry Reid has morphed from milquetoast to Captain Take No Shit over the past few years — possibly since he triumphed over that deranged “Second Amendment Remedies” person in an election everyone thought he would lose. His Twitter feed is a hoot too.

  170. 170.

    Corner Stone

    @Elizabelle:

    And I like seeing the gist of an article in a longer excerpt, so that I don’t have to click unless it’s something to read in more depth

    When I link things I try to give a nugget of what the argument or opinion may be about, then link back so anyone interested enough can click to check it out.
    I don’t like overly long block quotes, usually. For the commenters here that repost the whole thing, I generally just scroll by.
    On the front page I skim enough to see who or where the article is from and then see if there is any commentary/analysis to add to the point.

  172. 172.

    Steeplejack

    @Elizabelle:

    Maybe the excerpts should be shorter, but that can lead to putting up misleading information, because paras 2 and 4 follow and explain what is a provocative (maybe unnecessarily so) lead paragraph.

    It doesn’t have to be an either/or choice between a context-free (and possibly misleading) short quote or an infringe-y long quote. One could quote the mot juste or killer point but then add one’s own comment, e.g., “The writer goes on to discuss some of the problems with this approach, such as [whatever]—definitely worth a read.” Hyperlink and done.

    I usually don’t have a problem with quotes longer than one paragraph, but when you get up to a third or half of the original piece that’s getting sketchy.

  175. 175.

    WaterGirl

    @Elizabelle: Good idea – I think it would be a great topic for a thread.

    @Betty Cracker: I completely agree. If it’s a blogger, then I think it’s good form to include the name. If it’s the NYT or WP, that’s a different story.

    I would really love BJ to respond to this Stonekettle Station thing in a way that helps something good to come out of this shitty situation. And I hope Jim Wright sues the shit out of some of these places that ripped him off.

  176. 176.

    Cervantes

    @WaterGirl:

    If it’s the NYT or WP, that’s a different story.

    Disagree, not least because there are reliable people and unreliable people at any publication and it helps to know which you’re dealing with.

  177. 177.

    Elizabelle

    @Corner Stone:
    @Steeplejack:

    Good points. I shall aspire to pithiness! And be more ruthless with editing.

    I do the longish excerpts because I prefer the “pencil press” — the journalists are [usually] good writers, with an eye for detail and clever turn of phrase — and want to get their work out there. They’re getting shut out enough by broadcast press — pictures, yes, but not enough exposition. Context is important.

    And they’re being done in by their own paywalls, in some instances.

    Also, I suspect most of us skim for the major points.

  178. 178.

    Corner Stone

    @Elizabelle: Sure, just IMO. I also think there is some distinction to be made the lower down the rank pole one goes. Credit should always be given for original work or sourcing, but the WaPo or NYT source will survive with a link for attribution. Blogger A or Indy Journo Z should get a namecheck, where possible.
    I’m guilty of not always doing even that, so maybe just a reasonable effort by “us” could be a big improvement in the future.
    Power to tha people!

  179. 179.

    WaterGirl

    @Cervantes: I agree with what you’re saying in terms of our convenience – is it worth the click or not, but not sure it matters from the respecting folks like Stonekettle Station point of view.

    That’s what would be great about a thread where we could all discuss this with an open mind, without pointing fingers.

  180. 180.

    Corner Stone

    @WaterGirl: It’s your fault we are unable to discuss this in a clear, open, rational manner. So, a little high and mighty, much?

  181. 181.

    WaterGirl

    @Corner Stone: I don’t get why you’re saying that. My best guess is that either you have misunderstood what I was trying to say or that I worded something badly.

  182. 182.

    Corner Stone

    @WaterGirl: Man, I can’t even engage in a little hyperbole to get you hepped up? You are no fun, WG.
    Blow your top for once!

  183. 183.

    WaterGirl

    @Corner Stone: Fuck you, you evil arrogant whiny bastard! Just shut your fucking mouth and go away forever.

    Oh, wait, you’re not Dick Cheney. Sorry about that.

  188. 188.

    brantl

    Can I get a lottery together of all the people that want to kick the Cheneys in the junk, and then have them all win? These two perennial dickheads need to be stopped.

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