Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

They are not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

Dear Washington Post, you are the darkness now.

We’re watching the self-immolation of the leading world power on a level unprecedented in human history.

Beware of advice from anyone for whom Democrats are “they” and not “we.”

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

This really is a full service blog.

The real work of an opposition party is to hold the people in power accountable.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

You would normally have to try pretty hard to self-incriminate this badly.

I am pretty sure these ‘journalists’ were not always such a bootlicking sycophants.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

The low info voters probably won’t even notice or remember by their next lap around the goldfish bowl.

Just because you believe it, that does not make it true.

I don’t recall signing up for living in a dystopian sci-fi novel.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

A fool as well as an oath-breaker.

After dobbs, women are no longer free.

No Kings: Americans standing in the way of bad history saying “Oh, Fuck No!”

Accountability, motherfuckers.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires.

Hey hey, RFK, how many kids did you kill today?

You are here: Home / Elections / Election 2008 / The Whitey Tape

Reader Interactions

141Comments

  3. 3.

    Evilbeard

    You bastard you popped my Rickroll cherry!

    At least you could have taken me out for lunch first.

  7. 7.

    Con Mhac

    That is one of the most despicable things I have ever seen. Mrs. Obama should be a shamed of herself.

  8. 8.

    Camper Joe

    That’s my second Michelle Obama/RickRoll

    To quote Michael Bluth after getting burned by the Cornballer… “EVERY DAMN TIME!!!”

    Good one John.

  9. 9.

    b. hussein canuckistani

    Bwahaha! I checked the comments first to see if it was something that would upset me.

  10. 10.

    Pillsy

    Whitey’s…

    Never gonna let you down
    Never gonna run around and desert you
    Never gonna make you cry
    Never gonna say goodbye
    Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you

  14. 14.

    Dennis - SGMM

    Wonder how quickly No Quarter, et al, took it down after putting it up blind.

  15. 15.

    Balakirev

    So we accidentally switched videos, and gave us McSame’s VP running mate acceptance speech?

  16. 16.

    Cain

    hehe.. I dind’t click on it, I smelled a rat! Went throught the comments first. Evil Beard had the best reaction! Points to him!

    cain

  17. 17.

    DougJ

    My college roomate thought the whole point of Rick Astley was to be as nonthreatening to girls as possible. He thought the lyrics should be:

    Never gonna feel you up
    Never gonna bone you down

  18. 18.

    dr. bloor

    Over at Willis already. Congrats, you just broke the land speed record for linkage.

  19. 19.

    Krista

    Evilbeard Says:

    You bastard you popped my Rickroll cherry!

    Ditto. Can’t believe I fell for it.

  20. 20.

    Delia

    Careful, John. Larry Agent Flowbee will declare you a troll for life and ban you from No Quarter.

  23. 23.

    Ted

    John Cole’s about the right age that he prolly used to think that guy was “rad”.

    heheh

  24. 24.

    Cain

    Props to Peter Johnson for the original link on a previous thread. Just shows what a mischivious bastard John is.

    cain

  26. 26.

    Len

    The Obama campaign is history now.

    That was powerful stuff. I’m sure Malkin is having the best day of her life. Drudge is probably creaming himself and the Powerline boys said to hell with it and jumped into bed together.

    Oh… and Johnny stroked out.

  28. 28.

    Dennis - SGMM

    Just saw a Republican on the teevee. “Obama is gonna’ raise taxes his first day in office.” That’s fresh.

  29. 29.

    cbear

    from a previous thread—

    DennisSGMM says–
    I’m staying with the notion that McCain is a distraction. I look for the Republicans to have some inconclusive ballots and then ‘draft” some other nominee. My money’s on Charlie Crist. Or they may go fully “in your face” and nominate Jeb.

    Dennis, I can’t figure out whether you’re an evil genuis–or you don’t know that Charlie Christ is teh gay.

  30. 30.

    Dennis - SGMM

    …or you don’t know that Charlie Christ is teh gay.

    Heh, heh, heh. The Republicans can have their own historical “first” – what’s wrong with that?

  34. 34.

    Thelonius

    So it wasn’t “Kill Whitey”, it was “Rickroll Whitey.” That explains everything. No wonder the campaign was terrified of this coming out.

  39. 39.

    Laura Roslin

    shit. This keeps happening to me. I actually like the music and video though.

    AGH!

    Then there’s this:

    Never gonna give up, let you down…. never gonna tell a lie….

  40. 40.

    cbear

    rickrolled

    I’m not sure where that term originated, but it sounds eerily descriptive of a horrifying experience that I suffered in a Bangkok bathhouse, when I was but a lad.
    The ricking was pleasant, but the rolling was painful—-and expensive.

  41. 41.

    flavortext

    I’m not sure where that term originated

    And if you’re a lucky soul, you never will.

  42. 42.

    Lamont A Cranston

    You bastard you popped my Rickroll cherry!

    Me, too.

    As a bonus, my wife looked over and asked what made me play that song; she’d never heard of Rickrolling. It’s an odd phenomenon to explain to someone.

  43. 43.

    John Cole

    I’m not sure where that term originated, but it sounds eerily descriptive of a horrifying experience that I suffered in a Bangkok bathhouse, when I was but a lad.

    It started with duckrolling.

    Kids.

  48. 48.

    cbear

    It started with duckrolling.

    Duckrolling?

    WTF?

    My Bangkok “Rickrolling” cost me $200 bucks, a nice watch, and a bad beating. I’d hate to think what my fate would have been if those guys had brought a goddamn duck in on the action.

  50. 50.

    Dennis - SGMM

    My Bangkok “Rickrolling” cost me $200 bucks, a nice watch, and a bad beating. I’d hate to think what my fate would have been if those guys had brought a goddamn duck in on the action.

    One night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble
    Not much between despair and ecstasy
    One night in Bangkok and the tough guys tumble
    Can’t be too careful with your company
    I can feel the devil walking next to me

  51. 51.

    D-Chance.

    From the No 1/4 boy:

    I now appreciate somewhat how Cofer Black, the head of the CIA’s Counter Terrorism Center, must have felt as he tried to warn Condaleeza Rice and the Bush White House about a brewing terrorist attack in the days leading up to September 11th. And please, I am not equating the Michelle tape with the attacks of 9-11.

    No, of course not, Larry. Now either put up or shut up.

  53. 53.

    cbear

    One night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble

    C’mon Dennis, on an earlier thread you said that you’d learned to not be self-conscious about posting embarrasing stuff….
    Let’s hear about your time in the barrel at that Saigon teahouse, bro.

    BTW, I’m still wondering about that whole “duckrolling” thing.
    Is that where the duck pecks you in the balls, while the other guys beat and rob you?

  54. 54.

    flavortext

    It started with duckrolling.

    Kids.

    John Cole is a …?!

    No… No! That’s not true! That’s impossible!

  62. 62.

    pjanson

    Can someone post this over at NoQuarter? I can’t post there, I’ve been banned or my posts just don’t come up or something:

    ‘I found this diatribe linked at Kos. Typical Obamaton:

    “I have some unnamed friends who say they’ll never vote for certain candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination for a variety of reasons. To which I shrug and concede “to each his own” […] It’s one thing to find one’s self stuck for four more years of the next “unitary president” like George W. Bush, but it’s quite another to participate in making that happen.

    And the highest price being paid is one that slips our minds all too often:

    The erosion of the rights of ourselves and our fellow citizens, the evisceration of Constitutional precepts, and — most precipitously and permiciously — the loss of our own humanity as well as how others regard us around the world. So to my “til-hell-freezes-over” friends, I say two words: Supreme Court.

    Don’t get too extreme about who you’re going to vote for in ’08. Your freedoms, and your future generations’ freedoms, depend on it.

    Every time you decide you hate Clinton, Obama, Edwards, Richardson, or whoever, and that you’d NEVER EVER vote for whoever you hate, just say two words to yourself: Supreme Court. […] It’s
    all the reminder you’ll need.”

    Which Obamaton posted that?

    SusanUnPC.

  63. 63.

    dr. bloor

    One night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble
    Not much between despair and ecstasy
    One night in Bangkok and the tough guys tumble
    Can’t be too careful with your company
    I can feel the devil walking next to me

    Hmm…how much farther behind can “Headrolling” be?

  65. 65.

    Rick Taylor

    For those like me who had no idea what rick rolled means, here’s an explanation. Evidently it’s connected to the WOW community.

  66. 66.

    dr. bloor

    John Cole Says:

    The real question is how many blogs have rickrolled their commenters before?

    You have to admire a man so willing to share his feelings of ambivalence contempt toward his readers.

  68. 68.

    Krista

    My Bangkok “Rickrolling” cost me $200 bucks, a nice watch, and a bad beating. I’d hate to think what my fate would have been if those guys had brought a goddamn duck in on the action.

    I feel bad about the fact that your misfortune amuses me.

  69. 69.

    flavortext

    pjanson:

    I just tried, and I’m fairly sure they’re filtering any posts with links to the GOS.

  71. 71.

    OriGuy

    There’s actually an entry in Wikipedia for rickrolling. I wonder how long it will take before this manifestation gets added to the list.

  74. 74.

    Chris Johnson

    flavortext- you KNOW it to be true :)

    I always say, that place contains everything, even the truth. Purely hypothetically, mind you. It’s been over 9000 days since I visited any such website.

  75. 75.

    wasabi gasp

    What’s the problem with Rick Roll?

    As long as you’re not richardmarxin’ me or chungin’ my wang, I’m good.

  76. 76.

    pjanson

    flavortext: thanks mate. What’s the GOS exactly? The KOS diaries?

    I managed to get one long, very clear minded post up there, a couple days back, saying basically, ‘don’t believe everything you are told, think for yourself and investigate these allegations against Obama yourself’. It stayed for about five minutes then was deleted. Pretty sure they don’t want people thinking for themselves.

    While I am getting mightily sick of people throwing lists of names together, and other people lapping them up, I figure it’s worth a shot, right?

    If you think Obama has skeletons, well, you just wait. McCain is about a half inch of skin from being a skeleton himself! Think about it guys, McCain hasn’t been vetted. I’m grabbing my big bag of popcorn and I’m munching it down because I’m a fat arsehole piece of shit with nothing else to do:

    Check this out: McCain, Timothy McVeigh, Jeffrey Dahmer, John Gotti’s ex-wife, Benedict Arnold, the guys who killed Socrates, ohhhh boy, McCain has skeletons!

    Anyway, once they catch that guy who hijacked that plane in the ’70s and parachuted to escape, the beans will all be spilled, all over the Republican Convention. Yeah!

  78. 78.

    Chris Johnson

    PeterJ- that link would have been much better if it was another rickroll, as I expected it to be…

    Kinda ‘holy shit’ ville there.

    Are we talking ‘make Obama grovel and apologize for days when he gets elected’, or are we talking ‘we’re about to throw half our population into prison camps, what would we want with human rights?’?

  79. 79.

    1jpb

    John Cole says:

    “The real question is how many blogs have rickrolled their commenters before?”

    Always brilliant and insightful; now a trail blazer too.

    Count me as one more sucker.

  80. 80.

    passerby

    Every time you decide you hate Clinton, Obama, Edwards, Richardson, or whoever, and that you’d NEVER EVER vote for whoever you hate, just say two words to yourself: Supreme Court. […] It’s
    all the reminder you’ll need.”

    Which Obamaton posted that?

    SusanUnPC.

    But, pjanson, I don’t understand what’s up. I thought that SusanUnPC was a rabid racist and was beating her drum up and down the intertubes for Hillary to prevail.

    Huh?

    T

  81. 81.

    cbear

    I feel bad about the fact that your misfortune amuses me.

    No worries, K.
    Like I said, I’m just thankful to have avoided the duck-on-man action—and escaped with my balls, if not my diginity, intact.

  82. 82.

    Royston Vasey

    Well done. I went straight to the video.
    =)

    Meanwhile….
    The recording that shows Michelle Obama saying disparaging things about white folks is for real. It is not part of some elaborate dirty trick. The people who have seen her comments describe it as “stunning” or “devastating.” I have not spoken directly with the people who have seen the tape, but I have spoken to two of my friends who are friends with those who watched the tape/dvd.

    /-|

  83. 83.

    pjanson

    Anyway I’ll try and get the post up there somehow. Every post I make is filtered, regardless of whether I clear cache, restart the computer, change email/nickname/re-register.

    I can’t figure out if all these people saying ‘Oh I’m so torn, blah blah blah, goodbye Democrats, drama drama drama, I’m voting McCain’ are serious. I’ve seen so many duplicates that they are probably posting pseudonymous repetitions but I can’t be sure.

    I feel like I really have to get at least one or two posts on there, especially some of the words of SusanUnPC when she was at KOS:

    Another example:

    “John McCain: Anything to Win

    Karl Rove has taught John McCain well. Be macho and attack. Always attack. Macho Manly Man McCain doesn’t think the military should divert soldiers to train Iraqis, even though American commanders in Iraq, as reported in Tuesday’s New York Times, are already transferring thousands of soldiers from traditional combat to be advisers to Iraqi units.

    But, the biggest lesson McCain learned in the 2000 South Carolina primary after Rovian henchmen spread rumors that McCain had a black baby? “Do unto others!””
    dailykos.com/story/2006/12/7/123210/357/88/278580

    (Also some comments she posted on the above thread):

    “The racist attacks on McCain taught him that racist attacks work. Makes all the sense in the world to hire the guy who made that racist attack ad against Harold Ford Jr.”

    —

    “most of us bought into that maverick act of his.
    Sadly, too many still believe it. It’s hard to overcome “first impressions.” But, if somehow people are clued in?”

    —

    “Aren’t they wary of Romney’s religion (Mormon)? And I’d think that Romney’s lack of international / foreign policy / military experience would be a big drawback. ? […] But I read that McCain already has a big operation going in some of the early primary states, including Nevada. (The story mentioned another state where he has a big operation, but I can’t recall … Iowa or NH? Maybe So. Carolina? SNORT.)”

    —

    And so on. I emailed John the screengrabs and the downloaded site I got from when the ‘Representation’ thread was ‘Wild Savage Evil Blacks Running Wild’ or some such nonsense, and I emailed him a bunch of those quotes, asking if he’d let me whip up a post here with a few condensed versions. That way at least a few more people would see it, and it might be somehow propogated to NQ.

    I dunno if it’s entirely futile, but it’s really doing my head in to be honest – whether these people are lunatics, serious, Republican trolls, SusanunPC copies, idiots stirred up by Larry Johnson, or what.

  84. 84.

    passerby

    Oops, looks like I’m trying to perfect the art of inverse block quoting.

    T

  85. 85.

    cbear

    …whether these people are lunatics, serious, Republican trolls, SusanunPC copies, idiots stirred up by Larry Johnson, or what.

    My advice?
    Go with D.) All of the above.

  87. 87.

    Dennis - SGMM

    Let’s hear about your time in the barrel at that Saigon teahouse, bro.

    I was drunk. Just don’t ask me about the “wax job.”

  88. 88.

    pjanson

    Passerby:

    Actually that’s exactly the point I’m trying to make.

    The sheer one sidedness at No Quarter, the generalised, pancake view of reality, y’know, good or evil, mostly evil, it’s so prevalent that it’s almost a parody, but unfortunately it isn’t.

    So SusanUnPC is quite possibly demented – a very complex condition, as far from one-sided as a mental condition can get.

    But in all seriousness – I couldn’t tell whether you were being subtly sarcastic, or whether you were implying that I had portrayed her as a chest-beating racist.

    In any case, by posting her own arguments, made before the campaign at Kos, my aim is to try and show the people at NoQuarter, and maybe SusanUnPC herself – that before she was immersed in this environment of ‘yes Larry, no Larry’, she could think for herself. And did think – or write – almost in diametric opposition to her political expressions now.

  89. 89.

    Notorious P.A.T.

    John Cole’s about the right age that he prolly used to think that guy was “rad”.

    heheh

    He was. Words can’t describe how great it is that the biggest soul voice this side of Motown belongs to a skinny Brit with a carrot-top.

  90. 90.

    passerby

    But in all seriousness – I couldn’t tell whether you were being subtly sarcastic, or whether you were implying that I had portrayed her as a chest-beating racist.

    Nope, it was a straight question. From her comments about the “savages” yesterday I had already assumed that she was a chest-beating racist.

    She sounds demented. Probably one who needs constant attention and so runs around trying to garner as much of as she can, wherever and however she can.

    Sad, actually.

    T

  92. 92.

    norbizness

    It’s going to be difficult to choose between all-denim Rick Astley or black turtleneck-with-a-white trenchcoat Rick Astley for President.

  94. 94.

    Mike

    “Do you remember Rick Astley?
    He had a big fat hit, it was ghastly.”

    — Nick Lowe, “All Men Are Liars”

  95. 95.

    PaulB

    What’s the GOS exactly? The KOS diaries?

    GOS = Great Orange Satan = DailyKos. I think this started around the time that some on the right were pretending that everyone in the lefty blogosphere took their cue from Kos.

  96. 96.

    PaulB

    I absolutely love Larry Johnson’s latest pathetic attempt to pretend that there is actually, really, no, seriously, this time I mean it, a “tape” out there because he has “two … friends who are friends with those who watched the tape/dvd.”

    It’s also hilarious to watch him pretend that the Obama campaign has coordinated a disinformation and attack campaign on those who are trying so valiantly to find the truth, whether it’s Obama aides “verbally assault[ing]” a McClatchy reporter, or the Obama campaign sending instructions to bloggers to claim that Michelle said “why’d he” instead of “whitey,” or the Obama campaign circulating the novel from which this storyline was cribbed.

    Oh, and you’re going to love this direct quote:

    I now appreciate somewhat how Cofer Black, the head of the CIA’s Counter Terrorism Center, must have felt as he tried to warn Condaleeza Rice and the Bush White House about a brewing terrorist attack in the days leading up to September 11th.

    Can you get any more delusional than that? What’s pathetic is that there are still people on that site who cannot see through the obvious scam.

  97. 97.

    rachel

    PeterJ Says:

    OT, but WTF?

    US quits Human Rights Council

    But did the US leave voluntarily, or was it kicked out?

  98. 98.

    Krista

    Like I said, I’m just thankful to have avoided the duck-on-man action—-and escaped with my balls, if not my diginity, intact.

    Well, you know what they say…kinky is when you use a duck feather.

    Perverted is when you use the whole duck.

  103. 103.

    OriGuy

    Has anyone ever seen Larry Johnson and Douglas Feith at the same time in different places? It seems impossible that two people could be that stupid.

  105. 105.

    Cris

    Dennis – SGMM Says:
    I was drunk. Just don’t ask me about the “wax job.”

    Viva Buddy Hackett.

  106. 106.

    Kilo

    Gee that almost sounds like Larry Johnson is wondering what it would have been like to be in the field of CT and making predictions about OBL’s capabilities prior to 9/11.

    I wonder if this interweb has a search function.

    He’s serious about wanting to kill Americans, but as long as he’s in Afghanistan, as long as he doesn’t have access to a cell phone, as long as he can’t just hop on a plane and travel wherever he wants without fear of being arrested, his ability to plan and conduct terrorist operations is extremely limited. We have to recognize [that] he would like to do a lot of damage. He would like to kill Americans, but wanting to is different from being able to, having the full capabilities in place. – Larry Johnson, 2000, PBS Frontline.

  109. 109.

    kravitz

    one of the reasons astley had a problem with that era of his life was the onerous contract he had with stock/aiken/waterman who produced it. of course, when they parted ways, he also stopped having such big hits…

  110. 110.

    CBeck

    Trolling the rightwing blagosphere is like pissing into an ocean of piss.

    I knew I liked you, Mr. Cole.

  111. 111.

    LanceThruster

    I’ve never been Rickrolled though I’ve sought out his material on my own before. Does that confer some sort of immunity or should I still get a shot?

  114. 114.

    pjanson

    passerby: Yeah, I think so too. Having read somewhere that she was aged and of ill-health, I presume she may be encountering mental health problems that are commensurate with physical ill health associated with aging. Symptoms of delusional paranoia may be a result of cerebral atrophy.

    Or maybe she’s just a nasty bigot.

    Either way, since I can’t post my quotes from her days of sanity on NQ, I’ll figure out a way to get them up on a blog site or send them to her directly.

    She’s probably fucking Larry Johnson. Who knows, but on Kos she started fawning over him in her diaries around ’05, and at some stage he actually wrote the diaries for her.

    Maybe she is Larry Johnson.

    In any case, to preserve my faith in humanity I’ll probably steer clear of NQ, just for the time being or until I need another dose of the kind of slap-face silliness they provide there.

  115. 115.

    TenguPhule

    Trolling the rightwing blagosphere is like pissing *swimming* into an ocean of piss.

    The mark you leave on it will be nothing compared to the mark it leaves on you.

  116. 116.

    River

    What’s really hard is trying to explain RickRoll to someone who can barely read and send email – my partner.

  117. 117.

    PeterJ

    From his vorpal sword:

    A good rule of thumb for keeping the two Larrys separate is that Larry SINCLAIR is all about the johnson, but Larry Johnson is just a dick.

  118. 118.

    PeterJ

    But did the US leave voluntarily, or was it kicked out?

    Seems like the US has been unhappy for a while about some countries that really aren’t pro human rights being members of the council, so they left voluntarily.

    The more interesting question would be if they felt they should leave before some other country asked them to leave based on the idea that countries that aren’t pro human rights shouldn’t be members of the council…

  122. 122.

    Tom

    Someone whose entire purpose of public speech stems from their former CIA employment seems uniquely reliant on personal credibility. I encountered Johnson’s writing at TPM. He frequently based what he had to say on his experience, which the rest of us can’t verify because for some unknown reason the CIA won’t let us in the front door.

    It’s not like the NYT’s Kristol, who can spew endless nonsense, we can verify whether or not it’s nonsense, and eventually the _NYT_ might be embarrassed enough to run a correction. It’s not like other writers starting from verifiable facts to draw conclusions from arguments which we may or may not find persuasive. In the Johnson TPM articles I read last year, his facts rely upon his credibility. Which should now be shot.

  123. 123.

    Julie Hensley

    Guess we all better be careful if we say ‘why’d he’…. good grief all this crap over her saying why’d he cause the GOP is desperate…boy are they desperate if they have to twist that tape that badly.

  124. 124.

    Answering response 137

    Out loud, Say "Why’d he" as in "Why’d he do it?" real fast
    What does that sound like?
    Who’s been had?
    Does the image of a jackass come to mind?
    No?

    Whitey Republican got duped by a misheard word.
    But can you convince Whitey the word Michelle said was "Why’d He" NOT WHITEY
    Talk about building Bigoted hatred based on Bigoted Spin!
    SHEEEEESH!!!!!!!!

Comments are closed.

Trackbacks

  9. […] John Cole responds with a link to a mocking YouTube spoof video, which is unfortunately lame. Lots of left-side blogs are linking it and pretending that it is terribly amusing. By JDZ Feedbacks on this entry via RSS 2.0 Please leave a Comment or discuss via Trackback! Comments Please Leave a Comment! […]

  14. […] But by this point, Clinton’s campaign was clearly losing steam. New rumors ground to a halt. When Obama was asked to respond to one version on his press plane, Johnson accused him of a “non-denial denial”: “If Barack said, ‘No, and hell no’ I would be wondering about my sources. But he punted.” The story had become a joke, with bloggers riding the rumor to “RickRoll” gullible readers, sending them to a video of Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up” disguised as “Michelle Obama’s Whitey Video.” (As of June 18, the video had clocked more than 175,000 views on YouTube.) […]