Great minds think alike.
(Scroll down. You will understand.)
by John Cole| 17 Comments
This post is in: Previous Site Maintenance
by John Cole| 51 Comments
This post is in: General Stupidity, I Read These Morons So You Don't Have To
Michelle Malkin, last week:
Update 1:00pm Eastern. Snort-worthy blue-on-blue spat of the day: ThinkProgress vs. CNN.
Snort-worthy reverse conspiracy theorizing of the day: ThinkProgress in a tizzy over a McConnell aide’s e-mail to reporters about blogger coverage of Harry Reid’s poster child abuse, which the left-wing group touts as proof! proof! that McConnell was “involved in the right-wing campaign to smear Graeme Frost and his family.” He’s no more “involved” in the “right-wing smear” than CNN or any of the other MSM outlets trailing behind and finally asking hard-headed questions about the story behind the story.
Update 1:10pm Eastern 10/10. Snort-worthy conspiracy theory of the day…The tinfoil hatters at ThinkProgress actually believes conservative bloggers were in cahoots with Mitch McConnell, whom I lambasted below. The unreality-based community really does live in a different galaxy.
Interesting.
The Horses Mouth brings us this story:
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s spokesman acknowledged yesterday that he alerted reporters last week to questions bloggers raised about the financial circumstances of a 12-year-old boy Democrats had used to urge passage of an expanded children’s health insurance program.
But Don Stewart, the Kentucky Republican’s communications director, said he also wrote a follow-up e-mail later the same day that said a blogger he respected had determined that there was no story and that “the family is legit.”
Personally, I would call that ‘proof! proof!’
I believe that would make the current score in the Frost affair:
Tin-Hat Nutroots Leftard Members of the Unreality Based Community from Another Galaxy: 11833
Citizen Journalist Michelle Malkin: 0
Seriously. Is there any aspect of this story our intrepid ‘reporter’ has gotten right? The Frost’s aren’t rich. They aren’t paying for expensive schools. They don’t run a lucrative business. They don’t live in a mansion. They were not claiming they would be hurt by this veto.
And most important of all, they don’t have marble counters.
by Tim F| 8 Comments
This post is in: Republican Stupidity
Heh.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s spokesman acknowledged yesterday that he alerted reporters last week to questions bloggers raised about the financial circumstances of a 12-year-old boy Democrats had used to urge passage of an expanded children’s health insurance program.
Double heh:
[A] Senate Republican leadership aide” suggested GOP aides were “complicit in spreading disparaging information about the Frosts.
ThinkProgress has obtained an email that congressional sources tell us was sent to reporters by Sen. McConnell’s communications director Don Stewart.
On Monday morning, Don Stewart reportedly sent an email with the following text to reporters:
“Seen the latest blogswarm? Apparently, there’s more to the story on the kid (Graeme Frost) that did the Dems’ radio response on SCHIP.
Damn. Wouldn’t it be embarrassing if…
Republicans on Capitol Hill, who were gearing up to use Graeme as evidence that Democrats have overexpanded the health program to include families wealthy enough to afford private insurance, have backed off.
An aide to Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, expressed relief that his office had not issued a press release criticizing the Frosts.
Gotta love the chutzpah.
***Update***
First off, the old saw that great minds think alike is rubbish. One defining feature of a great mind is that it doesn’t think like any other. So fine, whatever, maybe I won’t win the Nobel. But WHERE ARE AL GORE’S CAT PICTURES?! We’re smart in ways that count.
by John Cole| 42 Comments
This post is in: I Read These Morons So You Don't Have To
Yesterday, in another one of her spit-fleckled posts about the rich little bastard Graham Frost, Michelle Malkin veered perilously close to an actual argument:
Like the Frosts, the new spokesfamily has a tragic personal story and is a curious example of the supposedly pressing need for S-CHIP expansion…because the family already qualifies for the existing program and nothing President Bush or the Dems propose to do would change that.
This was quickly dropped to once again begin frothing about human shields and evil Democrats and the like. For a fleeting moment, though, it looked like an actual argument was forming, but it was lost in the red meat for the masses in yet another unabomber manifesto.
Bonus Malkin: “Look at me! I’m a victim! Again! Leftosphere! RARARRRAGGH!“
by John Cole| 65 Comments
This post is in: Military, Blogospheric Navel-Gazing
New targets for the wrath from the party of Bush- twelve former Captains pen an editorial:
There is one way we might be able to succeed in Iraq. To continue an operation of this intensity and duration, we would have to abandon our volunteer military for compulsory service. Short of that, our best option is to leave Iraq immediately. A scaled withdrawal will not prevent a civil war, and it will spend more blood and treasure on a losing proposition.
America, it has been five years. It’s time to make a choice.
Prepare to have your backgrounds investigated, your service smeared and attacked, your judgement and motives questioned, and your patriotism besmirched. It is what they do, and the poor dears really can’t help themselves, and as we were told during the Frost affair, if you put yourself out there, you are “fair game.” The Confederate Yankee:
I value the writers’ service and their opinions as soldiers who have served in Iraq, but wouldn’t this editorial have meant more if the Washington Post had managed to find soldiers to write it who had actually been in in Iraq in the last year?
Only two of the 12 captains had been in Iraq as late as 2006, with the rest all departing in 2005 or before. None of them are currently on active duty.
Bob Owens has never served in Iraq.
For bonus fun, try to find the first person to make the argument that the Washington Post had to publish this editorial, because they had published good news over the past few days. If I had to bet, I would put my money on McQ at Q and O.
by John Cole| 9 Comments
This post is in: Science & Technology, War on Terror aka GSAVE®, Outrage
You don’t have anything to hide. Amirite?
Verizon Communications, the nation’s second-largest telecom company, told congressional investigators that it has provided customers’ telephone records to federal authorities in emergency cases without court orders hundreds of times since 2005.
The company said it does not determine the requests’ legality or necessity because to do so would slow efforts to save lives in criminal investigations.
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In an Oct. 12 letter replying to Democratic lawmakers, Verizon offered a rare glimpse into the way telecommunications companies cooperate with government requests for information on U.S. citizens.
Verizon also disclosed that the FBI, using administrative subpoenas, sought information identifying not just a person making a call, but all the people that customer called, as well as the people those people called. Verizon does not keep data on this “two-generation community of interest” for customers, but the request highlights the broad reach of the government’s quest for data.
Your privacy, flushed down the tubes. Brought to you by the bed-wetting morons who now dominate the Democratic and Republican party. Sorry Jefferson, Washington, et. al. We gave it a good try.
by Tim F| 84 Comments
This post is in: Domestic Politics
In an amusing sign of the times, John Boehner promises to deliver a Republican answer to Democratic proposals for healthcare coverage. I don’t have any inside track on this but we can safely rule out any proposal that involves expanding Medicare or SCHIP or implementing a program that models the VA. If Boehner drops even a hint of government-managed healthcare in his proposal the base will eat his liver. We can also rule out mandates that will piss off the insurance biz, e.g. adding new regulations that block insurers from dumping risky individuals.
What does that leave? The most obvious answer is for Boehner to endorse the Giuliani plan of paying for everyone’s health care through tax credits, but that faces the problem that Giuliani’s “plan” isn’t really a plan. Until Giuliani explains how he plans to deal with people who pay mostly payroll taxes and what sort of “plan” those tax credits will go towards paying he just has a few moderately interesting bullet points.
My money says that Boehner will reach deep into the box of failed Republican ideas and bring back “health savings accounts.” It covers the rightwing agenda points as effectively as privatizing Social Security, and like Social Security privatization the public hated it. Individualizing healthcare costs glosses over the simple fact that the few people who come down with expensive or chronic diseases will burn through a pitiful Health Savings Account in the time it takes to finish one round of chemo. God save those with the bad luck to get sick young when there isn’t much in the account. It shouldn’t be hard to remind people why the idea died in utero the first time it came up.
Heck, maybe I’m wrong and Boehner will find some new way to combine tax cuts, reduced government care and industry giveaways. But if I’m right, super. Nothing would make me happier than watching the GOP flame out on yet another topic of major national importance.
When All You Have Is A Tax Cut, Everyone Looks Like ParisPost + Comments (84)