Friday, March 06, 2015

FRIDAY 'ROUND-THE-HORN.


It's a good morning for... well, actually, what isn't a good morning for Motörhead?

   His fellow conservatives are all blargh, Hitlery's doomed, so Jonah Goldberg must have thought "The E-mail Scandal Won’t Doom Hillary" would be a clever contrarian approach to the wingnut rage-of-the-moment that might earn him another Pulitzer No-Prize, or at least an extra box of fudge at dinner. Of course, to keep his readers from getting turned off, the Son of the Lewinsky Scandal has to front-load the column with a bunch of anti-Clinton bosh, and this is clearly the easiest part for him to write, though that doesn't mean that he can write it well:
The server was registered under the name Eric Hoteman — someone who doesn’t exist. But it’s almost surely Eric Hothem, a Washington financial adviser and former aide to Clinton who, according to the Associated Press, has been a technology adviser to the family. Tony Soprano would be envious.
Al Capone, too ([smacks forehead] "Breaking email rules! And I hadda evade income tax, like a dummy!").
Depending on whom you ask, this was a violation of Obama-administration policy, long-established State Department rules, the Federal Records Act, or all of the above. Moreover, outside the ranks of Clinton-Industrial Complex employees, contractors, and supplicants, there’s a rare bipartisan consensus that it was, to use a technical term, really, really shady.
This flimsy fart-cloud is our first hint that Goldberg doesn't actually know what kind of trouble Clinton may or may not be in, which presages the collapse of his thesis. First, he tells us Clinton will get away with whatever it is she did because she's so damn crafty she'll manage to withhold her most incriminating emails from Republican investigators -- that is, the "incriminating stuff could remain invisible — valuable snowflakes held back from a blizzard of chaff." (Look, if he could craft a decent metaphor, don't you think he'd have a less humiliating job?) In other words, he thinks Trey Gowdy and the boys are even stupider than you do. His second reason is -- pretty much his first reason:
This points to another reason why I think Clinton will survive this mess. If there’s a damning e-mail out there, it’s been deleted, and the relevant hard drive would be harder to find than Jimmy Hoffa’s body. So critics are probably left with the task of proving a negative.
Leaving aside the idea that prosecution in this case requires retrieving a hard drive (which ain't necessarily so), I would point out that we're still talking about whether the homebrew system itself is a punishable offense, and who has the standing to punish her for it. Talking about whether there's a "Well, my Dread Lord Satan, how's the cover-up of the murder of Ambassador Stevens going?" email Clinton is hiding someplace is like speculating on whether the server itself doubled as an illegal moonshine still. (By George, they'd have her then!) Even Goldberg seems to intuit this, and closes with more Clinton curses ("Nothing in this story is surprising... and certainly not the staggering hypocrisy") and even a just-you-wait, you'll-be-sorry whine...
At some point down the tracks, when yet another fetid cloud of Clintonism erupts into plain view, many smart liberals will look back at this moment as the time when they should have pulled the emergency brake and gotten off the Hillary train.
...of the sort you only hear from conservatives when they're starting to panic, or when, like Goldberg, they actually scare themselves.

•    Speaking of the wingnut equivalent of #SlatePitches, Matthew Continetti, many of whose offenses to reason (like his column during the Ebola scare, "The Case for Panic") have been detailed here, must have retucked his shirt so furiously when he thought of this one he injured a groin muscle:
I Don’t Love Spock
Column: President Obama’s favorite Star Trek character is an appeasing arrogant jerk
Ain't even kidding.
The president is not the only writer who has drawn comparisons between himself and Spock. I am also a Star Trek fan, but I admit I was somewhat confused by my rather apathetic reaction to Nimoy’s death.
Just like when my parents died. But we went over all that in the court-ordered therapy sessions. Haw! Stupid therapists!
And as I thought more about the president’s statement, I realized he identifies with the very aspects of the Spock character that most annoy me. I don’t love Spock at all. 
Not only do Spock’s peacenik inclinations routinely land the Enterprise and the Federation into trouble, his “logic” and “level head” mask an arrogant emotional basket case.
Princess Leia and Cheryl Tunt -- now they're a different story. They can hide his emails in their homebrew anytime! [retucks shirt] I wonder how much time Continetti devoted to figuring out who would be Kirk in this scenario. A Kirk who wanted to kill Spock, I guess, then deny earthlings health care and a minimum wage. (Is this what they call "non-canon"? I don't truck much with pencilnecks.)

•    By the way, if you're a fan of Dreher dudgeon, anti-gayRod is on a tear lately. First example:
We think of ISIS as anti-human, and we are right to. But...
Always a "but" with Dreher and Islamicist lunatics.
...what if the greater threat to humanity is not among the barbaric brigades of the Levant, but among the far more sophisticated barbarians at work in Silicon Valley?
You mean those tech assholes who are fucking up the Bay Area for the few remaining poors? Don't be silly -- Dreher's just heard some Singularity geeks and is as rattled, as you would expect of someone who hasn't looked at a magazine since William Gibson was a big deal. Accepting their assessment at face value, he sputters:
Will you people who sneer at the Benedict Option and think that it’s only about trying to get away from the queers finally understand that this stuff Harari is talking about is the kind of thing I say we must prepare to resist?
Surely there must be someplace where your paranoid fantasies and mine intersect -- for one thing, I have so many of them! Oh, and someone told poor Rod about the two boys kissing on The Fosters.
Shelley was right: Poets — that is, people who create art — really are the unacknowledged legislators of the world.
[Looks again -- confirms that yes, Dreher is actually talking about network television.]
If you as a conservative parent are not pushing back against pop culture propaganda as pop culture is pushing against your kids, you all are going to get steamrollered. Turning the TV off is a start, but this is where we are now as a culture, and if all you give them is “thou shalt not,” it won’t be enough.
Clearly your own godly example won't cut any ice with your hellspawn, so it's time to lock them young'uns in the Jesus shed till this whole gay thing blows out. I half expect to see Dreher cutting some guy's head off in a video one day.

238 comments:

  1. DN Nation10:31 AM

    My wife is a fan of old Forensic Files episodes, and whenever there's some malfeasance to be had in the great state of South Carolina, ol' Trey Gowdy usually shows up as the DA on interview segments. His hair was ridiculous back then, too, though he actually sounds reasonable when talking about catching bad guys.

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  2. The problem here, Jonah and Teh Stupids aside, is that this WILL be used as a giant fart-cloud around Clinton's campaign. And her presidency, should she win.

    If there's one thing we can be absolutely certain of, it's that Democrats are held to a standard of purity unattainable by normal humans. That the server issue is a nothing burger will not stop the press from running with it forever. It will also serve to let the press bring up Whitewater, Vince Foster, the White House Travel Office, Rose Law firm, Mena Airport, Monica, Paula and every other salacious scrap from the '90s.

    For any Democrat--and for Hillary in particular--the faintest whiff of non-scandal is more than enough to get the press into feeding frenzy mode. And this email thing will be used as an excuse for every past and future molehill to be mountainized.

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  3. coozledad10:34 AM

    Unlike the documents pertaining to the Cheney energy task force, or Colin Powell's for the run up to Barbarossa 2.

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  4. Ted the slacker10:34 AM

    "So critics are probably left with the task of proving a negative."
    This carefully crafted assertion is 100% wrong, a perfect brain-shart if you will.
    Critics may allege that Hillary sent something incriminating which can't be found; Hillary, if she is dumb enough to get into this argument with her critics, that she did not send an incriminating email, would be the one trying to prove a negative.
    Anyway, always remember Doughbob axiom #2: Even when you think he could not be more wrong, he is.

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  5. DocAmazing10:34 AM

    Any Democratic Party strategist who is not currently saying "Jeb Bush needs to release the remaining ninety percent of his emails" every time a camera is on in the vicinity needs to be fired for incompetence.

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  6. it's that Democrats are held to a standard of purity unattainable by normal humans

    Not by Democrats.
    ~

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  7. "Well, my Dread Lord Satan, how's the cover-up of the murder of Ambassador Stevens going?"


    This is just silly Roy, everyone knows that her missives to the Dark Lord are written in blood on fancy parchment..

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  8. Helmut Monotreme10:51 AM

    Hillary's email server will now pass into legend with the library of Alexandria, the City of Atlantis, Judge Crater, Jimmy Hoffa and whoever really killed Nicole Brown Simpson. It's actual existence has already been overshadowed by what people think it tells us about Hillary, and in a surprising development, it just reinforces what anyone thinks they already know about Hillary. Nader voters probably think it's proof she's been using it to collude with big business and bankers. Leftist Democrats think it means she doesn't know shit about technology and once again trusted an underling with more enthusiasm than sense, technical knowhow and legal acumen. Old republicans think it means she's a big hypocrite, and the Tea party true believers think it means she was using it to coordinate with the UN's agenda 21 stormtroopers and used it to plan annual celebrations of Vince Foster's suspicious death *cough* murder *cough*. Unless she is extraordinarily unlucky, she will not get sunk by this. Scott Walker had one, that was actually used to break laws around campaign finance, coordination with 'independent' PACs and campaigning on the state's time, and he looks like he won't face any consequences for doing so. I just wish I could believe that she is smart enough to stop making unforced errors. If she really is going to be the nominee, she's going to have to work extra hard at avoiding the appearance of corruption lest she spook the shy and fragile leftist voter that will use any excuse in the rain to stay home or vote 3rd party on election day.

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  9. Can I get a nutshell of this? The Washington Times site is just an endless series of pop-ups that lead to a page with a picture of Hillary, a headline about Libya, and a bunch of grayed-out text.

    Kinda like Republican Congressional investigations.

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  10. Unless she is extraordinarily unlucky, she will not get sunk by this. Scott Walker had one, that was actually used to break laws around campaign finance, coordination with 'independent' PACs and campaigning on the state's time, and he looks like he won't face any consequences for doing so.

    As it has been since the 1980s, a Republican committing actual crimes is no big deal. A Democrat who has been accused on the flimsiest pretexts of not being 100% pure MUST resign immediately, and all Democrats must act thoroughly ashamed, donning sack-cloth and pouring ashes upon their heads while agreeing with all GOP proposals.

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  11. glennisw11:16 AM

    "I don't love Spock."


    that's gotta be the penultimate "if Obama's for it, I'm against it" statement. A president gives a routine positive statement about a famous actor's passing? Suddenly the actor is an evil peacenik Libtard.

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  12. GeniusLemur11:17 AM

    "Not only do Spock’s peacenik inclinations routinely land the Enterprise
    and the Federation into trouble, his 'logic' and 'level head' mask an
    arrogant emotional basket case."
    Does Continetti give any examples, or is just more "Obama likes Spock, so Spock must be like Obama and I must hate him, so I must be justified in my hate" shit?

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  13. glennisw11:18 AM

    the staggering hypocrisy



    You want staggering hypocrisy, Jonah? Wait till we hear statements condemning Hillary come from Rick Perry and Jeb (!) Bush, both of whom have their own email scandals.

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  14. JennOfArk11:18 AM

    Hmmmm....my style manual substitutes "man who owes his career to a cumstain" for "Son of Lewinsky scandal."

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  15. DocAmazing11:21 AM

    I got out of the boat. Jesus, does Continetti ever give examples; he is a fanboi's fanboi.

    He does close with some remarkable self-awareness:
    It will take America some time to recover from the legacy of our
    Spock-loving president—though probably not as long as it will take my
    friends to stop laughing at me for writing this column.

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  16. John Wesley Hardin11:34 AM

    "...routinely land the Enterprise and the Federation into trouble..." Listen, kid, it's 'land in trouble' or 'get into trouble.' It's not half of each.

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  17. John Wesley Hardin11:36 AM

    Well they're both half-white, to start with.

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  18. montag211:37 AM

    I recall a lot of opposition complaints when the Bushies in the White House used private email to evade a paper trail, and then declared, "oops! Gone!" And I recall the VP's office declaring that, for practical purposes, they didn't exist, and therefore had no requirement to turn over work product to the archives. And, of course, there was the shred-fest at the Naval Observatory.

    With all that very recent history, my question was, what the fuck was Clinton thinking? Did she think that some intrepid Repug oppo researcher would not find out and splash the news (which is apparently exactly what happened)? And that, once out there, no matter whether there was a violation of law or not, the Repugs would have a grand, glorious hissy-fit that will not cease of its own accord until she and Bill are dead and buried, and maybe not even then? To not have anticipated that is, to my mind, just plain clueless. Appearances count, and to the Republicans, she appears to be a, well, a Clinton. And that's always been more than enough reason to engage in some political drawing and quartering. This looks more like a self-inflicted wound than a stabbing.

    As for Matthew Incontinetti, he's reacting to all the recalled stories that Nimoy, was bright, decent and thoughtful about his underpaid co-workers. So, of course Incontinetti is not like Spock. Incontinetti is a dickhead.

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  19. But maybe with the SSNs redacted this time.

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  20. John Wesley Hardin11:38 AM

    "Tea party true believers think it means she was using it to coordinate with the UN's agenda 21 stormtroopers..." No no no, that's where the Real Truth About BENGHAZIIII!!(eleven also too)!! is hidden.

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  21. RogerAiles11:42 AM

    Matt Incontinetti has to fuck a Kristol to keep his job. Have pity on him.

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  22. DocAmazing11:43 AM

    Don't do Kristol, kids.

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  23. John Wesley Hardin11:44 AM

    Not just any blood, but the blood of conservative virgins (of which there is an unlimited supply at the National Review offices, it should be noted), and parchment made from the Constitution, hand-delivered to Hell by the enslaved ghost of Vince Foster.

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  24. John Wesley Hardin11:49 AM

    Even one dose of Kristol can permanently lower your IQ; it's not worth the risk. Election winners don't use Kristol.

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  25. John Wesley Hardin11:51 AM

    "Not only do Spock’s Obama’s peacenik inclinations routinely land America into trouble, his “logic” and “level head” mask an arrogant emotional basket case." Ah, now I get his beef with Spock.

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  26. montag211:52 AM

    I'd settle for all the ones between him, his brother's campaign staff and between him and Katherine Harris. I'll bet those would make for interesting reading.

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  27. Depending on whom you ask, this was a violation of Obama-administration
    policy, long-established State Department rules, the Federal Records
    Act, or all of the above.

    The fact that nobody seems to be able to pin down exactly what rule or law she might have violated is a pretty good indicator that there's no there there. Not that this stops anyone from speculating -- after all, look at how many people got their shorts in a wad because she didn't withdraw from the Michigan primary, even though there was absolutely no rule or law of the party or Michigan that required her to.

    In any event, the Federal Records Act isn't an issue. It wasn't amended to require the use of official accounts by senior officials until after Clinton left State. She did what her predecessors dating back to Colin Powell did -- used a non-governmental email account to conduct business and turned over emails when the rules changed and the administration came around to collect the emails to comply with the new law. There's nothing nefarious in her review of the emails prior to sending them for collection -- she's got a right to make sure there isn't any unredacted personal information (Jeb!) or classified stuff.

    There are a lot of reasons why a Secretary of State might want to use a private email account when dealing with foreign leaders. But nobody raised a stink when it was Condoleezza Rice doing it.

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  28. montag211:53 AM

    "Election winners don't use Kristol."

    Scary Sarah pretty much proving your point.

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  29. coozledad11:55 AM

    Not only do the Republican's inclinations routinely land the country in the shitter, their "adults in the room" and ‘macho posturing’ mask an appetite for leather shod scatplay…Boehner and the Republicans spend most of their terms as a freelancing rentboys eager to fellate any grifter or murdering dickheel, from Bandar Sultan to Vlad Putin.

    I have decided this TV show sucks balls.

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  30. coozledad12:00 PM

    This.

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  31. DN Nation12:06 PM

    "Princess Leia and Cheryl Tunt -- now they're a different story."


    Based on last night's Archer, you can include Lana Kane to that, though I doubt Continetti would ever admit it for, y'know, reasons.

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  32. DN Nation12:07 PM

    "Nader voters probably think"


    Objection.

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  33. His beef is that Spock managed to moisten thousands of panties every day during syndication. Needless to say, he doesn't.

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  34. I'd like pay extra and have a happy ending with this post.

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  35. I wonder who took over the supply contract for the GOP pols when Walter White went out of business?

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  36. tigrismus12:25 PM

    Apparently Jonah also tweeted about how Democrats would have exploded if Cheney had had a mail server in his house. Apparently the "in the house" bit is the bad part, and if instead Hillary had had a server at the DNC, if the emails had been deleted instead of turned over, and if folks had been told to use it specifically to avoid legal entanglements, then Republicans would be OK with it.

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  37. Yep. It's either willful obtuseness or just plain chutzpah for Clinton to be off the grid. I go with the latter.


    And this is just a little trickle before the dam bursts full of floundering Republicans and their tidal waves of inane criticism against Clinton. You think it's bad when there's a black man in the White House? We ain't seen nuthin' yet!


    I'm going to love every minute of it, because I adore really stupid people acting really really stupidly. But then, I'm a bad person.

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  38. See also media figures.

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  39. Mr. Wonderful12:37 PM

    "...or when, like Goldberg, they actually scare themselves."

    Obligatory:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wBPIcZpFIk

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  40. Jenkoe12:37 PM

    The amount of conservative "thinkers" who quote Heinlein and Star Trek is staggering. Almost like they spent their formative years playing video games and watching TV rather than serving in the military. See: James "don't ever call me Jim" Lileks.

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  41. As someone who has toiled at the NR, I'm here to tell you KJ-Lo's pallor is shocking.

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  42. Mr. Wonderful12:42 PM

    Left, Right, and Center (a local--whatever that means at this point--political show on lefty radio station KCRW in L.A.) has Continetti on from time to time. Like Rich Lowry, Matt sounds like a feisty high school senior rehearsing for Pledge Week at the Dartmouth Review.

    Also, is it me, or does "Trey Gowdy" sound like a slang New Orleans term for a showoff? "Dat 'bone player, he's a bit trey gowdy."

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  43. Mr. Wonderful12:45 PM

    Thanks. I stubbed my mental toe on that, too. Critics will be left, not with having to prove a negative, but with having to prove something in the absence of proof. Jeez, doesn't Goldberg ever READ what he oh fuck it never mind.

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  44. Mr. Wonderful12:51 PM

    "...will not stop the press from running it forever."

    This. Also this, from Digby, on that very ish:

    http://tinyurl.com/muxfeod

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  45. Ted the slacker12:52 PM

    "I wonder how much time Continetti devoted to figuring out who would be Kirk"
    Duh. Two seconds. And the answer was, [fap] [fap] [fap] Sarah Palin.

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  46. mark f12:52 PM

    Always good when the author of The Tyranny of Cliches employs them liberally fascistly. Clintons-as-mobsters, "to use a technical term, [colloquialism]," "[X]-Industrial Complex," "harder to find than Jimmy Hoffa’s body," "cloud of" corruption, pull-the-brakes-and-get-off-the-train. All in four short paragraphs.

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  47. billcinsd1:08 PM

    in any case an Enterprise in trouble is a temporary thing. Or so I have heard

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  48. redoubtagain1:11 PM

    Um, this is the wide-angle-poster boy for "absence of evidence is not evidence of absence".

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  49. "Nothing in this story is surprising... and certainly not the staggering hypocrisy"Well, Jonah, that's certainly true.
    many smart liberals will look back at this moment as the time when they should have pulled the emergency brake and gotten off the Hillary train.Oh, damnit. I'm not exactly enthusiastic about a Clinton candidacy, but with Republicans tut-tutting about how we're just asking for trouble with her, I'm forced to conclude that they foresee her wiping the floor with whatever fascist theocratic shit-on-a-stick they end up nominating. Or, I guess there's Martin O'Malley. Damnit.
    I don’t love Spock at all.Oh, fuck you, you miserable little assweasel.
    A Kirk who wanted to kill Spock, I guess, then deny earthlings health care and a minimum wage.Well, somebody would have to do something, or the Federation could well end up socialist.
    (Is this what they call "non-canon"? I don't truck much with pencilnecks.)Hey!

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  50. Ted the slacker1:15 PM

    It's more a logic-turd in the middle of a fart cyclone. You are focused on the surreal atmospheric phenomenon that swirls around you that you just miss the fact that this boulder-sized brown thing you walked past, barely noticing, is actually a ginormous shit that you couldn't believe possible for a human to produce.
    But, no, Jonah had other ideas.

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  51. Well spotted. Maybe it's performance art... nah.

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  52. In the end, we're all getting jerked off.

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  53. Obviously Continetti wants to live in the mirror universe. All he needs is a goatee and a violent, xenophobic attitude, which means he's already halfway there (at least).

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  54. coozledad1:32 PM

    I half expect to see Dreher cutting some guy's head off in a video one day
    Is that what the kids are calling it these days?

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  55. Well, he was trying to moisten panties when the cops made him take those panties out of his mouth and put them back on the neighbor's clothesline.

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  56. Give head, take head. It all works out.

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  57. Since all he's missing is the goatee . . .

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  58. I think these conservatives watched Star Trek and ended every episode bitterly disappointed that Kirk did not turn the planet's surface into boiling plasma with phaser blasts and photon torpedoes. "Ah, fuck! They ended it peacefully AGAIN!"

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  59. DocAmazing1:43 PM

    I think that it also chapped them that the closest thing to free-market heroes were Harry Mudd, pimp to lonely miners, and Cyrano Jones, importer of invasive Tribbles.

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  60. In an episode of The Simpsons, Homer makes an accurate guess about how a meteorite will burn up to be the size of a chihuahua dog. Lisa says "Dad you were right, I'm scared!"
    This is how I feel with Blowbergs column. He's right, nothing will happen to her but he then doesn't take the obvious step of realistically asking why. It's not because of the Clinton - Industrial Complex (shudder) which is figment of Blowbergs Cheeto fried brain but it is because the American political system is buggered.
    The reason she will get away with this is the same reason that Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld do not have a resident gig in The Hague.
    Too big to be held account.
    Instead of doing frat-boy jokes about Hilary trains etc. he should be looking at the root of all this and deciding "Yeah, we're screwed, someone should do something about this" and then realising that the only people who can do anything about it are people he despises, poor, minority groups, women and men of the left.
    But he'll keep on with the multi-syllabic fart jokes because that's where the money is.

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  61. ohsopolite1:44 PM

    "Staggering Hypocrisy" is what they call Jonah on the NRO cruises after he's had a couple too many.

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  62. So much so that, to this day, Donald Trump wears a Tribble on his head to protest the show's anti-capitalist ways.

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  63. ohsopolite1:45 PM

    Performance, yes. Art, assuredly not.

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  64. <a href="http://yastreblyansky.blogspot.com/2013/09/he-wishes-he-knew-how-it-feels-to-be.html”>I went there when the book came out</a> (thanks to Edroso,too). Just saying.

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  65. Gromet1:56 PM

    Not only do Spock’s peacenik inclinations routinely land the Enterprise and the Federation into trouble


    [pushes up glasses] Citation, please?

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  66. " I wonder how much time Continetti devoted to figuring out who would be Kirk in this scenario."


    I think it's clear that Kirk, for a fan like Jonah, needs to be George W. Bush, with his good judgment constantly getting overcome by that Vulcan compassion of patsies like Condoleezza Rice and Paul Wolfowitz.

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  67. Gromet2:07 PM

    If you as a conservative parent are not pushing back against pop culture
    propaganda as pop culture is pushing against your kids, you all are
    going to get steamrollered.




    Wait. I thought gay sex was gross and repulsive and obviously wrong? How is it seeing some of it going to push kids into being gay and loving gayness? Isn't it going to push them into the arms of the church with the force of a five-alarm hurricane?


    I think my favorite thing about people of severe faith is how they prove again and again that they have absolutely no faith in their faith.

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  68. and another thing--why are all these fee-males wearing clothes?

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  69. Gromet2:14 PM

    Baseless and impossible thought it is, it's gonna stick with a solid 25% of the population. I remember my rightwing roommate saying of all the loopy accusations hurled against Clinton in '96 (Vince Foster, dildos on the Christmas tree) that okay, maaaybe none of them were true, but there were A LOT of them, therefore SOMETHING had to be true. "Where there's smoke, there's fire!" was her mantra. It never occurred to her that there were just a lot of assholes blowing smoke.

    (And then of course Clinton got a hummer so for the rest of time all these lunatics can shout, "SEE? I was right!!!")

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  70. Gromet2:19 PM

    Cosign.

    A Republican is caught committing a crime involving money, perverted sex, and Russian spies: "Pff, both sides do it."

    A Democrat is under suspicion of helping a relative get a loan: "He must resign for the good of the nation!"

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  71. Hmm, Ricardo Montalban, Benedict Cumberbatch ... Based on my calculations, in the next reboot, Khan Noonian Singh will be played by an albino from Iceland.

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  72. Baseless and impossible thought it is, it's gonna stick with a solid 25% of the population.On the bright side, virtually all of that 25% would rather eat radioactive glass splinters than vote for any Democrat. (And probably will, if Scott Walker ends up calling the shots for the EPA.)

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  73. Gromet2:23 PM

    "I useta like tha' there saloon but they put in all tha' brass railins an' ferns an' now it a tad trey gowdy."

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  74. trizzlor2:31 PM

    Yeah, the alias account is a non-issue, but the FRA still required that all work-related emails be indexed in a timely way prior to the rule change. Having 50,000 emails that were inaccessible to FOIA requests and only releasing them three years later when the media complained *is* pretty shady.

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  75. Gromet2:31 PM

    "Sure, I don't like eating radioactive glass splinters, but do you want to crash the economy? Jesus, just imagine the fix we'd be in with Hillary as President! She'd be emailing someone right now and keeping it secret from us -- us, the American People! Pass the ketchup."

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  76. THAT'S DREHER'S POINT ENTIRELY

    (in fairness, i know a screenwriter fella who tracked some of this stuff in private message boards and stuff--paramount were complete nutjobs about getting b.c. onto the film, and the ethnicity thing was something that the writers attempted to reconcile in a comic mini-series. but the damage is done, yay corrupt and demented movie financing industry)

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  77. Gromet2:34 PM

    I heard Benecio del Toro was offered the part and said no... Alas, what might have been!

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  78. A friend of mine used to say: "We were screwed,and it didn't even feel good".

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  79. she's so damn crafty she'll manage to withhold her most incriminating emails from Republican investigators


    That's what repugs have insisted since their first official investigation in the 90s.... they didn't find anything incriminating the first time, or second time or tenth time... because the Clintons are SOOOO good at concealing their crimes! (Well, there is a lot of pony poop!)

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  80. He's unclear on the definition of 'irony'.

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  81. Gromet2:51 PM

    Honestly, that can cause more problems...
    http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20060918223205/startrek/images/thumb/0/06/Let_That_Be_Your_Last_Battlefield.jpg/431px-Let_That_Be_Your_Last_Battlefield.jpg

    ReplyDelete
  82. bourbaki2:57 PM

    Speaking of Martin O'Malley, if I'm following Continetti's (ahem) reasoning: Martin O'Malley=Tommy Carcetti=Littlefinger.



    Are we sure this email server scandal isn't part of some sort of fiendishly intricate plot on the former governor of Maryland's part?



    I'm sure there's at least a oolumn or two's worth of topical musings to be wrung out of this.

    ReplyDelete
  83. Ted the slacker3:01 PM

    I'm a bit perplexed by this story, but for other reasons. For a variety of good reasons, most people in senior positions (govt and pvt sector) use their official email accounts sparingly. But they still have them, and they use them when they want to make a particular record of something.
    I'm a little surprised Hillary didn't do this, but I'd be a lot more surprised if a genuine scandal arose out of this; e.g. she conducted sensitive state business over this pvt email.

    ReplyDelete
  84. smut clyde3:10 PM

    Tómas Lemarquis is ready for casting.

    http://www.newyorkerfilms.com/administrator/movie_images/1312312958Noi_Albinoi_6.jpg

    ReplyDelete
  85. DocAmazing3:11 PM

    Rod likes the idea of subsistence farming, but with himself as a baron and the rest of us paying him tributes in grain, and he's so very ready to get on with it that he lives in Louisiana.

    ReplyDelete
  86. The problem with the Dreherian Benedict Option is that most of it consists of sitting at the window of the insane asylum, yelling at the passersby. That's what his blog is, after all.

    ReplyDelete
  87. smut clyde3:16 PM

    "If only there were groups of like-minded individuals which I could join to follow a 'Benedictine Rule' and turn inward away from society, a 'monastic order' as it were!"

    ReplyDelete
  88. NonyNony3:16 PM

    I was very irritated that they couldn't find a goddamn actor with at least one parent from the Indian subcontinent to play Khan.

    I mean seriously - Montalban playing an Indian superman was mildly progressive in 1967, but in 2015 we can actually hire actual Indians to play the Indian guys! It's a radical concept that you might want to look into, Hollywood!

    ReplyDelete
  89. Ted the slacker3:20 PM

    And people who manage to get to the top are smart enough to never leave the smoking gun email. Virtually never anyway (the Amy Pascal exception).

    ReplyDelete
  90. Brian Schlosser3:27 PM

    It's like how everyone assumes that, in the event of Z Day, they would be a heroic aurvivor, battling the undead hordes, instead of almost certainly being one of the horde.

    ReplyDelete
  91. DocAmazing3:32 PM

    It's a bit like past-life regression--you've probably noticed that there are a lot of reincarnated pharaohs and not so many reincarnated cesspool diggers.

    ReplyDelete
  92. Ubu Imperator3:41 PM

    always a butt with Dreher


    FTFY.

    ReplyDelete
  93. Robert William Alexander Jr.3:44 PM

    It seems clear enough ('cause I read it amazed twice) that Matthew is unaware he's revealing a good deal more about his make up than that of a beloved fictional character...

    ReplyDelete
  94. Did anyone ever get that pool started where we all pick the date we bet Rod Dreher will be discovered in a sleazy motel room with Bryan Fischer's cock in his mouth?

    ReplyDelete
  95. Nah. Doughy Pantlod it will always, accurately, be.

    ReplyDelete
  96. Much like the word "fascist," JG has absolutely no clue the meaning of "tyranny."


    (Neither does Dreher, but he thinks they're disgusting.)

    ReplyDelete
  97. "If you're gonna' fuck me, at least give me a little kiss."

    ReplyDelete
  98. Their belief in their God is hollow and weak.

    And they believe their God is himself hollow and weak. Like most true believers, if even one person emits a thought that their God might not be the one, they must attack--because an omnipotent god cannot possibly stand up for him/her self.

    ReplyDelete
  99. Holy crap, you're not kidding. What a sad lonely life it must have been to grow up liking Star Trek but unable to enjoy its most iconic character. I assume this was the nerd nerds beat up in the 60s.


    I like the long list of what most people would call movie plot devices that he interprets as damning character flaws in the President, including the movie where Spock is dead.

    ReplyDelete
  100. SatanicPanic4:06 PM

    "valuable snowflakes held back from a blizzard of chaff"


    This is just terrible. Almost as bad as BENGHAZI!

    ReplyDelete
  101. The FRA required no such thing, because it had not been updated between 1950 and 2014: https://aallwash.wordpress.com/2014/12/03/presidential-and-federal-records-act-amendments-become-law/

    And even the Wall Street Journal admits that there was no rule of the National Archives (which is really what we're talking about here) requiring indexing, etc. of emails by high-ranking officials:



    The 2014 overhaul, which postdates Mrs. Clinton’s tenure at the State
    Department, placed explicit limits on agency officials using private
    email accounts for official business. The new law said agency officials
    can’t create or send a government record on a private account unless
    they also copy or forward the email to their official government email
    address.

    The National Archives and Records Administration in
    September 2013 issued guidance to federal agencies that said federal
    employees generally shouldn’t use personal email accounts to conduct
    official business, except in limited situations, such as during
    emergencies when an official may not be able to access an official
    account.

    That 2013 guidance, which also postdated Mrs. Clinton’s
    tenure, replaced a 2008 memo on federal recordkeeping that didn’t
    specifically address email records.

    But in 2009, the

    National Archives

    did issue regulations that said agencies allowing employees to do
    official business on nonofficial email accounts had to ensure that any
    records sent on private email systems are preserved “in the appropriate
    agency recordkeeping system.”

    Mrs. Clinton turned over 55,000
    pages of emails to the State Department but only after they were
    requested in October of last year. That appears to have been a belated
    effort by the department to comply with the 2009 regulations. Mrs.
    Clinton supplied the email records in December.

    “Both the letter
    and spirit of the rules permitted State Department officials to use
    nongovernment email, as long as appropriate records were preserved,”
    Clinton spokesman

    Nick Merrill

    said.


    You can call that "shady" if you want, but you can't call it illegal or against the rules. I'm not the world's biggest fan of Hillary Clinton, but it really astounds me how eager people are to read illegality and shadiness into her actions when they're completely standard for people in her position.

    ReplyDelete
  102. In some alternate universe space-Rod Dreher is musing that the Klingons may be marauding barbarians but at least they keep their culture pure and heterosexual.

    ReplyDelete
  103. smut clyde4:11 PM

    The thing to understand about Johan's writing is that his head is occupied by a tangled inchoate hairball of cliches, and he grabs hold of a single thread and pulls in the hope that they will flow out smoothly in some sort of linear sequence. Instead the hackneyed images get stuck and smooshed together, like two camels trying to fit through the eye of the needle at the same time.
    Line up, camels, take turns!

    ReplyDelete
  104. trizzlor4:16 PM

    How do you interpret this:
    But in 2009, the National Archives did issue regulations that said agencies allowing employees to do official business on nonofficial email accounts had to ensure that any records sent on private email systems are preserved “in the appropriate agency recordkeeping system.”


    Also, the Foreign Affairs Manual has defined e-mail as federal records since 1995:
    All employees must be aware that some of the variety of the messages being
    exchanged on E-mail are important to the Department and must be preserved;
    such messages are considered Federal records under the law. The following
    guidance is designed to help employees determine which of their E-mail
    messages must be preserved as Federal records and which may be deleted
    without further authorization because they are not Federal record materials.
    It would have been huge news if the government truly didn't consider e-mail to be a federal record until 2014.

    ReplyDelete
  105. GeniusLemur4:27 PM

    Yeah, just like the Spartans.

    ReplyDelete
  106. OR somebody that looks even more like an otter than Cumberbatch... if that's possible.

    ReplyDelete
  107. I interpret it as a regulation allowing what she did, as long as the records were kept in the agency recordkeeping system. The FAM doesn't have anything to do with the Federal Records Act.

    ReplyDelete
  108. trizzlor4:36 PM

    But the whole point is that the records were not kept in the agency recordkeeping system but on Clinton's own server. Which is why they were inaccessible to FOIA requests until the most recent release.

    ReplyDelete
  109. KCRW podcasts its Left, Right & Center show, and I listen to it regularly. That's how I recognized the name of Matthew Continetti.

    So I guess it it's not exactly local anymore.

    ReplyDelete
  110. trizzlor4:39 PM

    >>The FAM doesn't have anything to do with the Federal Records Act.

    The FAM explicitly defines what constitutes a record under the FRA. It is the definition for all State Department members, including Clinton. See here: http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/85696.pdf

    ReplyDelete
  111. coozledad4:39 PM

    In Louisiana, he'll be lucky to stay ahead of the "home guard" sent to fetch his ass out of the swamp to fight another war against the rest of the country, or the next plantation up the road, or that cousin who contested the conveyances in mama's will.


    Hell, he's lucky they're not chasing him through the swamp right now.

    ReplyDelete
  112. And now she's turned them over. She didn't destroy them.

    ReplyDelete
  113. J Neo Marvin4:42 PM

    I'm sure there is nothing in Hillary's sent file as interesting as Dick Cheney's private correspondence from the last 20 years.

    ReplyDelete
  114. trizzlor4:45 PM

    Like I said, if the regulations require your documents to be indexed in the recordkeeping system, but you only turn them over years later after being called out, that's shady. The simple fact that FOIA requests were being returned with "no emails found" is indication enough that this was illegal and misinformed the public.

    ReplyDelete
  115. J Neo Marvin4:52 PM

    For years, I've thought of Republicans as Ferengis who think they're Klingons.

    ReplyDelete
  116. J Neo Marvin4:54 PM

    I think it's the reliance on logic that he really hates.

    ReplyDelete
  117. I just learned the real story behind emailghazi. Spoiler: It involves lesbians, the Muslim Brotherhood. Warning: Link goes to crazy person.
    http://pamelageller.com/2015/03/guess-who-else-was-on-clintons-private-at-home-server.html/

    ReplyDelete
  118. whetstone5:01 PM

    Harari says that we are returning to a social and political structure
    that is the norm for human history: the powerless masses dominated by
    all-powerful elites. It’s already happening now, and it will only grow.
    We are losing, and may have lost, the ideal of the common good that
    teaches us that economic progress should be shared.


    Actually, Rod, we may have already lost that ideal in the 1980s when Ronald Reagan was elected, and will only grow not because some nerds will run a Firewire cable into our spines, but because the GOP keeps programming anamatronic dead-eyed granny-starvers like Paul Ryan and Scott Walker to finally put a fork in the social contract.

    When the Industrial Revolution begins, you see the emergence of new
    classes of people. You see the emergence of a new class of the urban
    proletariat, which is a new social and political phenomenon. Nobody
    knows what to do with it. There are immense problems. And it took a
    century and more of revolutions and wars for people to even start coming
    up with ideas what to do with the new classes of people.


    One of those ideas, educate them for free and pay them to do shit we want to have, worked real good. I say we try that again.

    ReplyDelete
  119. J Neo Marvin5:03 PM

    I would have liked to see Aziz Ansari as Khan.

    ReplyDelete
  120. Gabriel Ratchet5:06 PM

    It's kind of a wonder the Pyramids ever got built at all, when you consider that, if the number of people claiming to be the reincarnation of someone who lived back there are to be believed, pretty much everyone must have been a pharaoh.

    ReplyDelete
  121. Gabriel Ratchet5:16 PM

    Though to be fair, the first Ferengi to run for president did so as an independent (cf. Perot, Ross).

    ReplyDelete
  122. Gabriel Ratchet5:22 PM

    How do we know he didn't already have one in one of his "man-sized safes"?

    ReplyDelete
  123. Gabriel Ratchet5:37 PM

    I used to listen to the podcast version of Left, Right, and Center, but had to give it up -- putting up with the predictably oleaginous Tony Blankly was bad enough, but when they brought on Amity Shlaes to spell him from time to time, I figured enough was enough.

    ReplyDelete
  124. Clinton-Industrial Complex? Doesn't he realize that he's nothing more than a shoddy product, made of spooge and malice, extruded by that "complex"?

    ReplyDelete
  125. Its hard to appeasing, evil peacenik. But Spock's impulsive peaceniking generated all sorts of Star Trek episodes. 3rd season, of course.

    ReplyDelete
  126. If you're gonna kiss me, at least give a fuck.

    ReplyDelete
  127. Actual amoeboid sperm you might say.

    ReplyDelete
  128. Doesn't Continetti know that, since the Murphy Brown kerfuffle, one really shouldn't pick fights with fictional characters?

    ReplyDelete
  129. Sir, the New Zild Prime Minister has done battle with a fictional author, sir.
    "She has no particular great insights into politics, she is a fictional writer. I have great respect for her as a fictional writer"
    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11395177

    ReplyDelete
  130. It is surprising that Clinton was so unconcerned. Unless, of course, its a RED HERRING, leading intrepid repugs away from the REAL CRIME.


    Really, I think she is very shielded and protected, told what people think she wants to hear. Not good, but understandable in her position.

    ReplyDelete
  131. I liked Enterprise.

    ReplyDelete
  132. the blood of conservative virgins (of which there is an unlimited supply at the National Review offices, it should be noted) ... and they're all guys!

    ReplyDelete
  133. Jesse, I've turned off the TV for pert near 10 years now, and somehow I still don't hate the gayes. What am i doing wrong, Brother Rod?

    ReplyDelete
  134. No happy endings till they've dragged it out 5 seasons past its due date.

    ReplyDelete
  135. FDRliberal6:37 PM

    Yeah, but the right-winger vs fictional character thing is just so entertaining, my favorite being Jerry Falwell vs Tinky Winky the Teletubby.

    ReplyDelete
  136. coozledad6:43 PM

    I'll bet most people in the US are descended from relatively recent immigrants. Scots, Irish, the wave from the potato famine, refugees from the 1848 revolution... working poor, tradespeople at most.
    My folks did the genealogy stuff and came to a screeching halt when they came to the first bog Irish.
    I could have told them that's what where we came from without looking through any records.

    ReplyDelete
  137. Mr. Wonderful6:48 PM

    Did someone say Atlas Shrugged? "Fictional works," yes, but "oddly prescient" about our world today.

    Actually it's worse than that. They present fiction as proof of their cloistered-nerd assumptions and theories. If they're Zhdanovites like Dreher, they deplore fiction's corrupting effects on its consumers when it seems to promote things they don't like, but are silent on why Heinlein and Rand haven't transformed their readers into a nation of rugged capitalists.

    And when they get something entirely wrong (like "Sasquatch Isreal"), they reach for a fiction-like rationale to justify their error i.e., "What does it say about my enemy, that he inspired in me this perfectly understandable mis-reading?"

    You get the feeling that they don't give a fuck about the world. They just want to feel right.

    ReplyDelete
  138. Mr. Wonderful6:50 PM

    NOW you tell me.

    ReplyDelete
  139. RogerAiles7:16 PM

    Don't mess with Jessica Fletcher, Prime Minister.

    ReplyDelete
  140. RogerAiles7:20 PM

    Tim Mattheson?

    ReplyDelete
  141. ColBatGuano7:24 PM

    Depending on whom you ask


    This is doing a lot of the work for Jonah. As usual.

    ReplyDelete
  142. Uh ... [BACKPEDALS FURIOUSLY] ... of course, but you liked it ironically. [BLOTS COLD SWEAT FROM BROW] And, er, for the "old school" vibe. Continetti would like it solely for Jolene Blalock's phaser array.

    ReplyDelete
  143. smut clyde7:36 PM

    Does it count if the rest of Bryan Fischer is elsewhere?

    ReplyDelete
  144. Smurch7:36 PM

    I see what you did there.

    ReplyDelete
  145. John Wesley Hardin7:46 PM

    "The Contract Infernal didn't specify a sex for the virgin-sourced-blood, they get what they get."
    "Goldberg, you're up."

    ReplyDelete
  146. billcinsd8:18 PM

    like so many conservatives he confuses it with tranny, and ran, and knee, and tan, and tiny, and Tyra, and whiny, and Ann, and why -- that's 8 definitions and 2 names to keep straight and who can do that.

    ReplyDelete
  147. No, the FAM adopts the definition of record as set forth in the FRA. See 5 FAM 415.1. Also, take a look at 5 FAM 414.8 (a):

    Required by law to preserve
    documentary materials meeting the
    definition of a record under the
    Federal Records Act, 44 U.S.C. § 3301, as reproduced in 5 FAM 415.1 (a)

    In any event, FAM is a set of policies, not the law itself. The most you can say, then, is that Clinton didn't follow all of the internal policies at State perfectly. She didn't violate the Federal Records Act, because the Federal Records Act didn't make what she did unlawful until after she'd done it.

    While I get, and agree, that not having those emails on State Department servers looks bad when State wasn't able to fulfill a FOIA request, it still doesn't make it illegal for her to have them on her own server. At least she didn't pull a Cheney and shred them all.

    ReplyDelete
  148. Do you understand the difference between policies and regulations and laws? Because I'm not entirely sure you do. Yet you keep using words like "illegal" to describe what was probably at most against department policy.

    ReplyDelete
  149. tigrismus8:29 PM

    But you've got to stub them out when you're down to the filter!

    ReplyDelete
  150. trizzlor8:30 PM

    The FAM says:
    E-mail messages are records when they meet the definition of records in the Federal Records Act. The definition states that documentary materials are Federal records when they:
    —are made or received by an agency under Federal law or in connection with public business; and
    —are preserved or are appropriate for preservation as evidence of the organization, functions, policies, decisions, procedures, operations, or other activities of the Government, or because of the informational value of the data in them.



    So FRA says records have to be preserved. And the State Department defines E-mail to be considered a record under the FRA. You're doing some crazy parsing to simultaneously claim that the FRA is ambiguous, and that the FAM clarification of that ambiguity doesn't count because FAM is just a set of policies. Yes, FAM is a set of policies for how the State Department follows the FRA. If you break those policies you're breaking the FRA. Which is illegal. If that wasn't clear enough, it was made explicitly clear by the 2009 National Archives regulation.

    ReplyDelete
  151. You know, it would be really helpful if you provided a citation to the particular section you're relying on/quoting here rather than make me have to guess which of the gazillion pdfs that make up the FAM I need to look at to respond.

    The very next section of the portion of FAM you're quoting (6 FAM 443.2(b) for those playing at home) says that not all emails are records, and the two subsections following that give guidance on what is and is not a record that is required to be preserved. BTW, printing is the method of preservation specified in FAM's email preservation policy, so it really doesn't matter if the emails are stored on Clinton's server.

    So, to recap: Clinton was not required by law or regulation or policy to preserve each and every email, nor was she required to provide access to her server. It's up to the person creating the email to determine whether it falls under the definition of "record," and it's entirely possible that whatever business she conducted on her own domain didn't fit that definition. It's also possible that nobody printed out what was determined to be a record, but they were still available on the Clinton server.

    So, unless you can show me that the clintonemail.com emails all fit the definition of "record" in the FRA, the FAM AND the NARA regulations, I'm going to decline to get worked up about any of this.

    This is all a whole lot of nothing.

    ReplyDelete
  152. trizzlor9:06 PM

    Sorry I wasn't clear, I was only quoting sections from the one PDF I cited earlier.


    The original story was that Clinton was doing *all* of her business with the alias e-mail and that FOIA requests for communication between her and her coworkers were coming up null. If that's not the case, and Clinton was only using the private account for private business, she could have simply stated that right off the bat and defused the whole issue. It's also inconsistent with NYTimes reporting that these emails came at the request of a State Department investigation into government business.


    Look, if the emails come out and most of them are non-government-related I'll totally concede the point. But based on the current reporting, the account was being used for things that would clearly fall under the FRA.

    ReplyDelete
  153. ken_lov9:08 PM

    Exactly. Someone should explain to Jonah that emails aren't just FROM someone, they are TO someone. Plus I imagine Clinton is quite smart enough not to put anything incriminating in emails, even if there was anything to hide. The crazies just want to get their little hands on thousands of pages so they can do a 'Climategate' and pluck a phrase out here and there to support whatever is the latest Hillary scandal du jour.

    ReplyDelete
  154. ken_lov9:11 PM

    NSA is storing all our text messages. How long before some enterprising right wing crazy demands that the government produce all Hillary's SMSs?

    ReplyDelete
  155. They can be government-related and still not be "records" that must be preserved. NARA really doesn't want everything, they want the stuff that is significant.

    Let me repeat that: not every communication from or with a government employee counts as a "record" for purposes of the FRA.

    It's entirely possible that Clinton used the private account to conduct government business, but that anything she had on that account wasn't a "record." So it wouldn't have been preserved even if she were using a state.gov address. Most likely, she conducted the really important stuff on the phone instead of in a form of communication that wasn't terribly secure and could be supoenaed by idiots like Darrell Issa to wave around in his Benghazi witchhunt.

    ReplyDelete
  156. trizzlor9:15 PM

    Fair enough. I still find it hard to believe that 50k work-related emails did not contain significant records of business done at State. But I guess we'll see.

    ReplyDelete
  157. Bitter Scribe9:16 PM

    Maybe the Clinton e-mail thing is a genuine scandal, but these assholes have cried wolf so often...

    ReplyDelete
  158. Halloween_Jack9:44 PM

    Once they pried Rick Berman and Brannon Braga's hands off the controls and handed it over to people who knew their canon and actually gave a damn about it (Manny Coto and the Reeves-Stevenses), the overall quality of the show increased by orders of magnitude. Unfortunately, UPN itself had by that time screwed the pooch.

    ReplyDelete
  159. The e-mails are coming from inside the house.

    ReplyDelete
  160. Meanie-meanie, tickle a person10:44 PM

    Of the art irritates life variety...

    ReplyDelete
  161. Meanie-meanie, tickle a person10:47 PM

    Kiss me once, shame on you. Kiss me twice, won't get fucked again.

    ReplyDelete
  162. Meanie-meanie, tickle a person11:01 PM

    And he waves this over his head to "prove" his "point"

    Not only do Spock’s peacenik inclinations routinely land the Enterprise
    and the Federation into trouble, his “logic” and “level head” mask an
    arrogant emotional basket case.



    still smoking from the alternate-reality transporter platform. Hope he didn't singe his fingers. OK, no I don't.

    ReplyDelete
  163. AGoodQuestion11:21 PM

    The Federation was doubly betrayed aboard the Enterprise. As his brain adviser, Kirk had the green-blooded socialist Spock. For his heart - bah! - he had that limp-wrist embarrassment to the South McCoy. If only Kirk had Dick Cheney giving him counsel we could have had black sites all over the galaxy where we could really question the Klingons in a Forceful and Effective Manner.

    ReplyDelete
  164. AGoodQuestion11:25 PM

    If Dubya didn't say that, he should have.

    ReplyDelete
  165. AGoodQuestion11:30 PM

    Funniest thing. We were all sitting around the television set and Obama came on the news, said he loved breathing oxygen. A few minutes later that Continetti fella collapses, all blue in the face.

    ReplyDelete
  166. AGoodQuestion11:40 PM

    Gotta give Jonah this: He's got spunk.
    I hate spunk.

    ReplyDelete
  167. AGoodQuestion11:48 PM

    Phlox definitely had style.

    ReplyDelete
  168. AGoodQuestion11:56 PM

    Making the primaries an extended coronation for one particular candidate is an invitation for that candidate to get sloppy and complacent, which is one reason why coronations are bad. It's also worth keeping in mind that this deference to the Clintons is something that only exists among Democrats, and politically active centrist Democrats at that. In a general election Republicans will use every kind of bullshit weapon against her, and the media won't call them on it.


    All told, I'll still be surprised if she's not the eventual nominee. But the party is going about this all wrong.

    ReplyDelete
  169. AGoodQuestion12:02 AM

    Spooge and Malice were my favorite hair metal band.

    ReplyDelete
  170. AGoodQuestion12:09 AM

    It's the circle of life. (a 69 looks like a circle in some fonts,)

    ReplyDelete
  171. AGoodQuestion12:15 AM

    My guess is that the Klingon horde, just like the Spartan army, was chock full of homosexuals who happened to like fighting.

    ReplyDelete
  172. montag212:27 AM

    All true enough--I'd generally agree (although "centrist" is one of those words that gives me heartburn; in Democratic parlance, it's just another euphemism for kowtowing to the business elite, and might as well be a synonym for "moderate Republican).


    The danger, of course, is in thinking that Clinton's nomination is an inevitability, that's she's already conceived to be the anointed one. As you say, this attitude of the nomination being a fait accompli is hardly a way to poll the public on the issues and certainly suggests that the Dems in power are comfortable with control of the political process by the business elite. And, in this particular election, it will probably drive the Republican money to Jeb Bush, as the press will inevitably portray the election as a battle of political dynasties, just so they can see some extra fur fly.


    And no good can come of that..

    ReplyDelete
  173. JennOfArk1:40 AM

    I'm pretty sure he's unable to grow facial hair.

    ReplyDelete
  174. Tehanu2:58 AM

    "My mind is a raging torrent, flooded with rivulets of thought cascading into a waterfall of creative alternatives." He wishes!

    ReplyDelete
  175. DerBrunoStroszek3:51 AM

    Remember when Michelle Obama told kids to drink more water? I like to think she was trying the same thing.

    ReplyDelete
  176. montag24:34 AM

    Shit, I'm betting that his doodles would give Hieronymus Bosch the fucking willies.

    ReplyDelete
  177. smut clyde4:35 AM

    Heinlein and Rand haven't transformed their readers into a nation of rugged capitalists.
    I dunno. I get the impression, looking at the US from outside, that psychopathy is now seen as a laudable ideal.

    ReplyDelete
  178. coozledad8:37 AM

    Let's not drag cock-headed manwhore Jeff Gannon into this.


    Oh. You said doodles, not diddles. Carry on.

    ReplyDelete
  179. billcinsd9:49 AM

    especially on a blue dress

    ReplyDelete
  180. billcinsd9:57 AM

    to be fair, I have heard that Jonah assumes everything he finds is in its edible version. Just like toddlers and dogs

    ReplyDelete
  181. StringOnAStick10:06 AM

    Jonah's OK with us being screwed as a political system, as long as his party is the one in charge thanks to that being true. I suppose this is why all their True Patriot (tm) posturing irritates the shit outta me; it is all about gaining advantage, and zero about any deference to ideals any higher than "my side must win and the losers ground into dust".

    ReplyDelete
  182. billcinsd10:12 AM

    There are immense problems. And it took a century and more of revolutions and wars for people to even start coming up with ideas what to do with the new classes of people.

    If by the first people, one means the economic elite maybe it took a century or more, until they acceded to the ideas coming from the new classes of people

    ReplyDelete
  183. StringOnAStick10:14 AM

    I bet he got all tingly when he wrote "chaff"; look Ma, a military reference! Why, in O'Lielly land that's good enough for Jonah to claim he was fighter pilot with 20 confirmed kills.

    ReplyDelete
  184. StringOnAStick10:16 AM

    He gets extra no-class points for slagging on a recently deceased person.

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  185. AGoodQuestion10:45 AM

    In this case I was using "centrist" as shorthand for "people who have or expect to have political influence/access and are all about preserving it." Even among registered Democrats there are people on the left, the right (think the people Jim Webb wants to reach) or just in the great disaffected expanse who aren't really taken into account.

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  186. AGoodQuestion10:46 AM

    Where do you find the edible version of toddlers anyway? AFAF.

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  187. billcinsd10:56 AM

    There's good eating on a toddler. or so I have read

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  188. billcinsd10:58 AM

    what is the virgin K-Lo? unlimited chopped liver?

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  189. billcinsd11:00 AM

    I'm a reincarnated pharoah. Sam truly was a sham

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  190. mgmonklewis11:01 AM

    Though I do like Roy's "Son of Lewinsky Scandal" formulation. It doesn't give the Doughy Pantload the undeserved courtesy of using his name, and it reminds everyone that he's a talentless hack who owes his entire odious career to a revolting case of nepotism.

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  191. mgmonklewis11:08 AM

    Never say never!

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  192. glennisw11:26 AM

    I imagine the alternate-reality transporter to function somewhat like it did in Galaxy Quest before they tweaked it - turning the transported being into a steaming pile of inside-out guts.

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  193. Boy howdy but Rod puts the Jerk off back into Jeremiad. Somebodys really wigging out there.

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  194. mgmonklewis11:29 AM

    I thought they were a punk vaudeville team.

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  195. mgmonklewis11:31 AM

    I would like to invite this comment to be chased through a hellish dreamscape by a man-bird with a funnel on its head.

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  196. AlanInSF1:14 PM

    Shorter Rod Dreher and every other conservative: Unfettered capitalism is totally awesome and is a tool of The Left being used to destroy America.

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  197. JennOfArk1:33 PM

    Kinda like needing to delve into Bill Clinton's sex life, just in case he had shared information about secret fraudulent land deals during "pillow talk."

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