To The Ghouls
By Mitch Berg
I’ve avoided the suppurating mass of leftybloggers and commentators that have reacted disgracefully to the death of Tony Snow. I haven’t commented on this blog because my only reaction to such moral retardation – depressed disgust – doesn’t translate to print well.
Patterico notes that there is one guy who does this sort of thing very well:
I stopped watching Bill O’Reilly a long time ago, but he’s good for one thing: righteously laying into someone with passion and anger. When there are goons who laugh about people’s deaths — whether they are Ted Rall, or commenters at the L.A. Times web site (posting with the permission of comment moderators) — you need someone with O’Reilly’s attitude to take them to task.
Well done.
I’ve only seen O’Reilly’s show maybe three times (barring the odd clip that pops up here and there). Don’t care much for him, most of the time.
But…well, just watch:
July 15th, 2008 at 2:18 pm
“And maybe you know this and are being disingenuous”
This is just RickDFL’s usual misuse of the powers of reason.
“On a party-line vote” You insult the Court and the GOP. Only five of the seven Republican appointees could be convinced to stop the recount.
The seven were non-partisan appointments by GOP presidents with the consent of a mostly Democratic ruled Congress. They are not Republican political appointees, their job is to decide cases on their constitutional merit.
This is followed by:
The Bush v. Gore dissent was a perfectly bi-partisan affair with 2 Dems and 2 Republicans standing up for the Constitution.
Which uses the truth that 7 out of 9 justices were nominated by Republican presidents to lend credence to the notion that SC justices are supposed to represent political parties.
One could just as easily note that in the Bush v Gore 5-4 decision all the catholics were in the majority while all the jews were in the minority and therefore the decision was clearly an example of religious partisanship.
July 15th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
RickDFL informed: “The Bush v. Gore dissent was a perfectly bi-partisan affair with 2 Dems and 2 Republicans standing up for the Constitution.”
You are right, of course, Rick DFL. Once again I am forced to sack my girl, who is responsible for the error.
July 15th, 2008 at 2:42 pm
AssClown Reminisced: “Once again I am forced to sack my girl”
I bet you heard that a lot as a young AssClown, AssClown…every time another
customerdate came to pick up Mom.July 15th, 2008 at 3:03 pm
Tim Russert worked for well-respected politicians
No, he worked for Mario Cuomo.
July 15th, 2008 at 3:13 pm
Gee Terry, thought you were smarter than all this. I’ll try to educate you.
“What is a “fake riot” anyway?”
A riot organized and staffed by Republican operatives for the purpose of intimidating poll workers and shutting down the recount in heavily Democratic Dade County.
“What was the party composition of the FL supreme court?How was it that they did not know that you can’t recount just some of the votes without violating the 14th amendment? You don’t want to look at what happened in the FL supreme court because they agree with you and decisions they issued were partisan and constitutionally untenable.”
Please stop with the legal blather when you know dick-all about the law. Under the U.S. Constitution, it’s up to Florida to decide its vote. And the the last stop in the state system is the Florida Supreme Court in Tallahassee. The U.S. Supreme Court had no role. It invented one for itself. In this one election, on the one case, an anonymous majority (en banc!) claimed it was protecting the 14th Amendment rights of voters in non-recount counties. An odd thing for a majority that, otherwise, doesn’t go out looking to base new rights on the equal protection clause. How to solve the problem? Make the opinion that, by its own terms, can’t be applied in any other election litigation. That’s a lawless opinion.
“This is puts the the SC’s decision on Bush v Gore on the same level as Mets v Yankees.”
In the U.S. Supreme Court, and nowhere else, the Mets would have won the 2000 World Series.
“Problem is it used standards that neither Bush nor Gore was asking for in 2000 and used a method of determining voter intent that did not pass equal protection muster.”
All you prove is that Bush gamed the system more successfully than Gore. We kinda knew that. The press recount shows that Florida voters voted for Gore. The vote counters fscked it up, with the active participation of state and national Republicans to keep it fscked up.
But you’ve known this for almost eight years. Because you really only care about power, you wingnut thugs just ignore what it. You are bad people. Soon you will be back on the political fringe where you belong.
July 15th, 2008 at 3:15 pm
Didn’t I tell you to try again tomorrow, Swiffer? You are my beeyotch. All I want to hear from you fpr the rest of the day is “Yes, Daddy.” M’kay?
July 15th, 2008 at 3:17 pm
A tin foil hat on a red curly wig? Now that’s a bold fashion statement!
July 15th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
And with yet another comment, AC strikes another blow in the name of LIBERTY!
That, or he wasted another 10 minutes of his life venting his impotent rage.
July 15th, 2008 at 4:01 pm
A riot organized…
By eight guys in dockers and dress shirts.
It was like Chicago in ’68 all over again.
July 15th, 2008 at 4:02 pm
Not true, Cathcart. It gives Angryclown great pleasure to mock a room full of guys who wonder why they always made fun of Frank Burns on M*A*S*H. And you wouldn’t call Angryclown “impotent” if you’d ever been treated to the sight of his massive, turgid clownhood. Sadly for you and – God knows – Swiffer, Clowny don’t swing that way.
July 15th, 2008 at 4:04 pm
Angryclown can’t be blamed cause you all dress like life insurance salesmen and high school vice principals, Mitch.
July 15th, 2008 at 4:09 pm
I can’t imagine any plausible scenario in which seeing AC’s turgid clownhood would in any way constitute a “treat.”
July 15th, 2008 at 4:11 pm
“And you wouldn’t call Angryclown “impotent” if you’d ever been treated to the sight of his massive, turgid clownhood.”
Right, and if you don’t believe it, just ask his mom.
July 15th, 2008 at 4:13 pm
Y’know, dying of colon cancer may be the only thing worse than what this thread’s turned into.
Back to your corners, all.
July 15th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
Under the U.S. Constitution, it’s up to Florida to decide its vote. And the the last stop in the state system is the Florida Supreme Court in Tallahassee. The U.S. Supreme Court had no role.
The Florida Constitution provides for the state Legislature to decide a contested election. The Florida Supreme Court was attempting to circumvent the state’s separation of powers.
That was the real issue.
Since that action would affect a national election, the SCOTUS most certainly did have a role. And wasn’t one of the two decisions they handed down 7 – 2?
July 15th, 2008 at 4:19 pm
So AC defines a ‘fake riot’ as a term that can only describe a single incident in the ol’ space-time continuum. This so-called ‘fake riot’ was ‘organized’ within minutes of the Miami-Dade canvassers taking the ballots to a private area where they could count the ballots without objections from accredited GOP observers — or the press. GOP observer (& rioter!) Bryan Wilkes described his motivation:
Please stop with the legal blather when you know dick-all about the law. Under the U.S. Constitution, it’s up to Florida to decide its vote. And the the last stop in the state system is the Florida Supreme Court in Tallahassee.
This may be the first time a liberal has insisted that a southern state can be trusted to run its elections without the supervision of the federal government.
The FL SC cannot violate the 14th amendment by ordering a recount without setting a standard for determining voter intent. The FL SC cannot change legislation that specifies a date for certifying a vote by fiat.
An odd thing for a majority that, otherwise, doesn’t go out looking to base new rights on the equal protection clause.
I may not even be a poor ol’ country lawyer but I know that piling one insinuation on top of another does not make a fact. All you prove is that Bush gamed the system more successfully than Gore.
And you say that I don’t know the law? The law consists of ‘gaming the system’! No matter who was declared the winner in 2000 it would have been a result of ‘gaming the system’. Gore, in his speech after the US SC decision repeated that he wanted to count ‘all the votes cast in Florida’ which conveniently leaves out military absentee voters.
The press recount shows that Florida voters voted for Gore.
Actually it shows that using the newspaper consortium standards Gore would have received more votes. They determined this in Nov. of 2001. “If only I had used more rosin I wouldn’t have fumbled that pass, coach! We was robbed!”
July 15th, 2008 at 4:19 pm
AC:
“Once again I am forced to sack my girl, who is responsible for the error.”
She should organize:
http://www.opeiu.org
July 15th, 2008 at 4:24 pm
Terry whined: “If only I had used more rosin I wouldn’t have fumbled that pass, coach! We was robbed!”
Actually Gore did catch the pass in the end zone, but the ref called him out of bounds cause the ref worked for the other team.
July 15th, 2008 at 4:26 pm
“Y’know, dying of colon cancer may be the only thing worse than what this thread’s turned into.”
The worst thing is when you get to Hell and you have to go to lunch with Nixon and Hitler every day. FOREVER!!!!
July 15th, 2008 at 4:31 pm
The worst thing is when you get to Hell and you have to go to lunch with Nixon and Hitler every day
Enh. Hitler’s table is crowded with people trying to get away from Leona Helmsley.
July 15th, 2008 at 4:47 pm
Good AC, honest AC…
Will there be cucumber sandwiches at Satan’s Cafe? I love cucumber sandwiches, AC.
Have a pleasant and productive day, my good friend.
Your BFF,
Swiftee
July 15th, 2008 at 6:41 pm
Ah Swift One, old chum.
Yes indeed, with the crusts cut off, just as we like them.
Tea, my friend?
Your humble servant,
Angryclown
July 15th, 2008 at 7:01 pm
Not really on the subject, but “We prefer to call them African Americans.” Except that they aren`t, because they`re not from Africa. And anyway,Africa is a continent, not a country. I demand from now on to be called a European American, my own little victim group with my own special rights. The term “African American” could argueably be more honestly applied to a racist, white man from the country of South Africa because, well, he is an African living in America unlike 99.99999% of blacks in this country. Damn those pesky facts.
July 15th, 2008 at 7:11 pm
jimf:
Wow. Haven’t seen that old cannon rolled out since the great PC wars of the early nineties.
July 15th, 2008 at 8:21 pm
RickDfl Wow. Then you didn`t see ACs` post from this morning. I know this is hard to follow, but here goes- The “old cannon” is only rolled out because you guys still use it from time to time (see AC post). See, connect dot A to B. And whether he was joking or not, the fact is the “Great PC wars” from whenever are still going on, and getting worse. Wow. And you thought they were so yesterday or something.
July 15th, 2008 at 9:09 pm
[…] Via Mitch at Shot in the Dark. […]
July 15th, 2008 at 9:27 pm
Call me a bit ‘unsteady’ if you like, but I prefer cream cheese with my crustless cuecumber sandwiches. The tea? Darjeeling.
July 16th, 2008 at 9:15 am
Trying to get back on theme rather blathering about Supreme Court decisions, may I ask Rick and AC if this level of attack on public figures with whom you disagree is considered proper now? And if so, is this how you want the public, talk radio, and the blogs to behave when Ted Kennedy passes on? How about either of the Clintons? Soros? Any of those folks have enough that they’re personally responsible for that would make the “substance” of the attacks on Tony Snow pale in comparison.
July 16th, 2008 at 10:08 am
Who cares? You can’t hurt the feelings of a dead guy. A temporary moratorium on vicious wingnut propaganda would be meaningless. Fire away.
Angryclown would expect any obit of Bill Clinton to put impeachment in the lead, Monica further down and his self-destructive womanizing, in some detail, further down still. A Kennedy obit would mention Chappaquiddick near the top.
July 16th, 2008 at 12:50 pm
Nerbert:
Truces are for sissies.
July 16th, 2008 at 12:56 pm
Excellent! So you believe that snide, vapid, vile, unsubstantiated and unwarranted attacks on someone who can’t defend themselves are acceptable in the world of the Left. Now that we’ve settled the acceptable ground rules, we can work on just the phrasing.
“The womanizing murderer Ted Kennedy passed away in the most appropriately horrific manner of having his brain slowly eaten away yesterday. Well known for his boozing, bad driving and …”
“George Soros, who singlehandedly caused millions of poor children in third world countries to die from famine and disease, passed away…”
Who cares? You can’t hurt the feelings of a dead guy.
No, but it isn’t just about the dead guy. As I seem to recall in this case the dead guy had kids, family, friends, etc. who might also have some feelings.
That and the effects of relentless, dehumanizing partisanship on what little soul the Left possesses.
July 16th, 2008 at 4:22 pm
Nerdbert
“unsubstantiated and unwarranted attacks”
In case you have not been reading, I, and most Americans, consider the charge that the Bush Admin Press Secretary did not have a “command of the facts” to be completely obvious and uncontroversial. Frankly, it’s sin is mildness.
Re: Kennedy and Soros
Those descriptions may pass for accurate in your little circle of wingnutia, but unlike the remarks about Snow, the rest of the country disagrees. If you and your friend want to have your little hatefest when they pass, go ahead. My point is that the rest of America no longer cares what you think.
“As I seem to recall in this case the dead guy had kids, family, friends, etc. who might also have some feelings.”
So did the people who died in Iraq or were tortured by Americans. We owe it to them to hold Tony and the rest of the Bush Administration accountable.
July 16th, 2008 at 5:23 pm
Those descriptions may pass for accurate in your little circle of wingnutia, but unlike the remarks about Snow, the rest of the country disagrees.
Oh, the rest of the country doesn’t think Kennedy killed someone and isn’t a drinker? News to me.
As to Soros, he’s rather well protected from negative criticism. He’s broken banks and national economies, he’s been convicted of insider trading and other financial crimes, he runs offshore hedge funds to hide his activities and actively resists SEC oversight, he invests heavily in Colombian drug-linked banks, etc.
Thanks for playing. Snow was a partisan. Both Soros and Kennedy actually were personally and criminally liable for their actions.
We owe it to them to hold Tony and the rest of the Bush Administration accountable.
Remember your own standard of holding someone responsible for a political disagreement. It’ll be interesting to see if you could see someone trashing Wellstone, Kennedy, or Obama with the same fervor and not be repulsed.
Christ, man, when Wellstone bought it the DFL went freaking nutzo about someone even talking about having debates with the next nominee rather than concentrating on canonizing Wellstone! I can imagine your reaction if “wingnutia” had been spewing forth bile about how bad a person he was because he didn’t have workman’s comp and other insurance on the folks with him.
July 16th, 2008 at 5:54 pm
In case you have not been reading, I, and most Americans, consider the charge that the Bush Admin Press Secretary did not have a “command of the facts” to be completely obvious and uncontroversial.
You continue declaring yourself the spokesbeing for “most Americans”.
You are not qualified.
July 16th, 2008 at 6:08 pm
Haha! Yeah, it’s you 30-percent Bush dead-enders who know what “most Americans” think.
July 16th, 2008 at 6:09 pm
If this was the 1950’s, RickDFL would have proudly endorsed Jim Crow, along with most Americans, and insisted that it was a completely uncontraversial position.
July 16th, 2008 at 6:48 pm
RickDFL wrote:
Re: Kennedy and Soros
Those descriptions may pass for accurate in your little circle of wingnutia, but unlike the remarks about Snow, the rest of the country disagrees.
Chappaquick sunk kennedy’s 1980 presidential bid.
And the ‘little circle of wingnutia’ must include the 50.3% of citizens who voted for Bush in 2004. Insulting the people who you want to support your candidate may explain the poor results democrats usually get in presidential elections. The last D to get more than 50% of the vote was Carter.
July 16th, 2008 at 10:20 pm
Mitch:
“You are not qualified”
So what, I am right.
“And the ‘little circle of wingnutia’ must include the 50.3% of citizens who voted for Bush in 2004.”
If you want to assume the fundamentals of American public opinion resemble Nov. 2004 be my guest.
July 17th, 2008 at 12:34 am
RickDFL said:
“So what, I am right.”
So it is “articles in peer reviewed professional publications” sometimes, and at others it is this preschool substitute for rational argumentation. This must be that constantly changing bar Mrs. Obama was talking about.
July 17th, 2008 at 5:58 am
Didn’t one of you wingnuts say Obama will be elected president when there’s snow in hell?
July 17th, 2008 at 4:03 pm
So what, I am right.
If it makes you feel better to think so, go for it.
It’d be a rare thing indeed.
Oh, and you’re not.