Monday, December 15, 2014

WHERE THEY'RE COMING FROM.

To those of you who worry that mainstream attention to the con artist Charles C. Johnson will damage the reputation and efficacy of journalism, I have to say you're waaaaaay late, and submit in evidence this Ole Perfesser Instapundit post from today in its entirety:
WHAT’S SAD IS THAT IN THE OBAMA ERA IT’S ENTIRELY PLAUSIBLE: Matt Drudge says spending bill passed because NSA has ‘dirt’ on John Boehner.  
Matt Drudge of the influential Drudge Report news aggregation site expressed discontent over a federal spending bill that passed with votes from both Republicans and Democrats in the House.

The $1.1 trillion spending bill that runs through September 2015 is now up for a vote in the Democratically-led Senate. Many conservatives, including Drudge, are upset that the bill funds both Obamacare and President Obama’s immigration executive orders.   
“Obama got EVERYTHING,” Drudge tweeted Friday. “NSA dirt on Boehner must be incredible. Chicago wins.” 
I’ve seen similar speculation about John Roberts in the ObamaCare case. Sad what this country has become under the Obama Machine.
This isn't just some nut, The Perfesser is king of the rightbloggers and a regular contributor to mainstream journalism outfits, and here you see him not only promoting a ridiculous conspiracy theory out of Matt Drudge, but limning it with his own bullshit.

The damage to journalism has not only been long-lived, but deliberate. The point was always to obviate any distinction between the verifiable or even believable and boob bait.

It's a different kind of problem from the bias, if that's the word for it, found in the mainstream media. The Rolling Stone/UVA story got caught by the Washington Post's Erik Wemple and others, the whole world came to know about it, and much soul-searching was seen over it in the journalism community. Even if they were insincere, they at least had to pretend. Conservative crap-merchants, however, don't soul-search. They'll dish anything, and their audiences, convinced that everything the MSM says is a lie, takes the absence of these stories from the big papers and nets as proof that their heroes are telling the truth the Lamestream won't dare to print.

This has provided a fertile environment for hucksters to throw shit, and for a loyal audience to not even care if it sticks. Johnson's just a logical mutation of that. While most of these guys just duck out of the way of the debunkings and negative attention their stories receive, Johnson welcomes the attention and makes himself the story. He's standing on the shoulders of midgets; good thing for him there's such a lot of them.

193 comments:

  1. DN Nation2:19 PM

    "WHAT’S SAD IS THAT IN THE OBAMA ERA IT’S ENTIRELY PLAUSIBLE"



    I liked it back in '08 when Ye Olde Perfesser was doing this "what's sad is that it's plausible" with fucking National Enquirer stories on Obama being a gay sex fiend. Go back to "teaching" space and robot-banging law, Glenn.

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  2. Gromet2:29 PM

    You laugh, but this constant, nefarious blackmail of right-thinking leaders is exactly what sank Atlantis.

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  3. davdoodles2:34 PM

    "I’ve seen similar speculation about John Roberts in the ObamaCare case.
    Sad what this country has become under the Obama Machine."


    Setting aside Reynolds' entirely plausible sad surprise that other gibbering right-wing fuckwits also make shit up about Obama...

    Given that these same craven arseholes were making up this same bullshit about Obama and other Democratic leaders since well-before they found themselves "under the Obama Machine", it does come off sounding like Jack the Ripper complaining about how the hookers all seem a little tense.
    .

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  4. Bizarro Mike2:35 PM

    In space you can bang all the robots you want, but they can't bang you. I mean, it's plausible.

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  5. you too, can have an exciting career in the right-wing online media.

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  6. Bizarro Mike2:37 PM

    Working the refs to make transparent fakes as effective as masterwork ones is in a sense a real undertaking for the common good of RW hacks. I mean, yeah, it will destroy our discourse and nation, but for the hacks that matter, they don't have to work as hard.

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  7. I read Brinkley/dp/B00CC7NMGIBrinkley's excellent bio of Walter Cronkite recently and everything WC feared about the direction of journalism near the end of his life has come true in spades.

    Speed trumps veracity, egoism trumps neutrality and news gathering and dissemination has become nothing more than another perversion like "reality" teevee.

    Cronkite was a huge fan of the Lumet-directed Chayefsky masterpiece Network, not least because he saw it as eerily prescient. I dare you to go back and watch this outstanding film again and not see the shit-scrawled scribbling on the wall.

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  8. Saw Network for the first time last month. I understand this film was once considered a work of satire?

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  9. Sad, innit?

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  10. One could probably just post Charles Pierce's Three Great Premises here and leave it at that, but let's go more in-depth here.

    The nature of our world is that all of us end up swallowing a lot of bullshit. That's not a character judgment, it's just the way things are. At some point - on a regular basis for some of us - you are forced into a precarious sitation. A person speaks to you about a subject you don't understand at all and presents a theory. A second person then informs you that the first person doesn't know what he's talking about and offers an incompatible theory. In an instant, you are called upon to decide which one is accurate - or if neither are, or if each one is halfway there.

    Since you know nothing about the topic, you have to take a tactical approach. If you know these people either personally or by reputation, you can probably figure out who's bullshitting you (if one of them has a history of spouting off ignorantly). You can step back and try to do research on your own, or find someone who really is an expert. You can try to guess based on who speaks with the most authority, though this often only tells you who's the better liar. You can shrug, admit your ignorance and step back.

    Or you can do what most people do and run with whichever story appeals to you the most. We all do this, it's human nature. But it's one thing when it's some guy at a bar listening to a debate between drunkards. It's another issue entirely when it's a politician, or a pundit, or anyone in our wonderful newsmedia. These people are paid to know what they're talking about. They have people on staff whose entire job is to make sure that the people in front of the cameras don't sound stupid. There's no excuse for them to just roll with it and go with the one that sounds the best.

    But fuck us all, they do. Next thing you know, you've got millions of people using as their source for information a group of people who are guessing at everything. We all get a little bit dumber, and thus does the ecosystem of bullshit perpetuate itself. The only difference between that parasite Johnson and the people higher up is that the latter are more professional in their ignorance.

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  11. witlesschum2:54 PM

    http://www.adultswim.com/videos/playlists/best-of-the-humping-robot/humping-robot/

    Research these and figure out what Glenn's next column is?

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  12. mortimer20002:55 PM

    Jesus. That's so off-the-charts embarrassing you can only imagine the dirt Roger L. Simon has on Glenn Reynolds. Like pictures of him grinning like a clown while caressing the barrel of a handgun... oh wait.

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  13. susanoftexas2:58 PM

    In space no one can hear a robot scream.

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  14. Ted the slacker3:00 PM

    "Crazy Talk" to the Perfessor would involve speculating that the gift to Wall St caused this bill to pass.

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  15. susanoftexas3:01 PM

    They don't seem to realize that when you say someone has dirt on your guy, you are saying that your guy is dirty.

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  16. But it is wholesome white mid-western dirt. Common clay, if you will. And therefore it is unfair to reveal it.

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  17. They have people on staff whose entire job is to make sure that the people in front of the cameras don't sound stupid.No wonder Fox News opposes raising the minimum wage.

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  18. coozledad3:05 PM

    Or even say no.

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  19. Giant Monster Gamera3:06 PM

    Standing on the shoulders of midgets in a bottomless sea of shit. That's what our media culture has become.

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  20. I’ve seen similar speculation about John Roberts in the ObamaCare case.
    Sad what this country has become under the Obama Machine.Jam-packed with mendacious right-wing sedition-promoting pigfucking bigots spraying shit through media firehoses nonstop? "Sad" doesn't even begin to describe it, Glenn.

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  21. smut clyde3:07 PM

    For the claim to be plausible, Boehner would have to have left such a trail of misdeeds and malfeasance that he is blackmailable. Not sure how Obama is to blame for making that so credible.

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  22. Alas, another bold patriot caught in the toils of stupid ruthless coward elite genius lazy thug relentless tyrant wimp Obama and his lackeys at the only people who are protecting us from terrorists by collecting dirt on members of Congress and the Supreme Court.

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  23. Remember when we said that Bush's comment about "easier if I was the dictator" made us profoundly uncomfortable, and the flatheads proceeded to whine at us that we were being silly and it was just a joke, get over it libs and we obviously all suffered from terminal BDS?

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  24. Sheesh... it's ALL Obama's fault!

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  25. smut clyde3:12 PM

    Now that Reynolds has accused Boehner and Roberts of bad stuff, I wonder how he feels about enhanced interrogation techniques?

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  26. "Thanks to all who defend us from the #Ferguson mob."The Justice Department hasn't vigorously cracked down on the murderous out-of-control police thugs in Ferguson, Charles, but your thanks are appreciated anyway.


    "I love spending #Thanksgiving with my Twitter family.""They can't see what I do with the thawed turkey."

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  27. coozledad3:13 PM

    Well, the Democrats have known for decades now that Boehner is a country-club pussy hound, but it's hardly a secret. he lives and breathes it, even when he's breathing enough ketones to remove shellac.

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  28. and much soul-searching was seen over it in the journalism community

    So when can we expect the calm, reasoned national debate on ethics in journalism that will be carried out on dubious internet forums with harassment and death/rape threats?

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  29. smut clyde3:16 PM

    a federal spending bill that passed with votes from both Republicans and Democrats in the House
    Boehner cast all those votes himself for the Party of Personal Responsibility?

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  30. http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/img/charles/2014/12/12/ZZ487AEC4D.jpg

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  31. smut clyde3:17 PM

    Ah, another libertarian who never saw a boot he didn't want to lick.

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  32. He contains multitudes.

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  33. Authoritarian anti-authoritarians.

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  34. smut clyde3:19 PM

    No mayonnaise for me, please.

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  35. Ahem:


    President Bush was just humorously, wistfully speculating about a world where he could enact the agenda ratified by the electorate, without having to face relentless obstruction by Democrats and the MSM. Obama is actually a dictator, running roughshod over all opposition and the Constitution itself, aided and abetted by a worshipful MSM. Simple.


    ... Now I need a shower.

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  36. Of course Glenn is too much of a weasel to come out and actually make a direct accusation. It's all passive-aggressive wink-wink-nudge-nudge so when it's eventually proven to be bullshit he can be all "Oh, I never said that the President is a horse-fucker... I just said that it's a shame that it's something that people would believe when patriots such as Charles C.W. Johnson make the claim."

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  37. AngryWarthogBreath3:21 PM

    "What's sad about this story that Obama has murdered everyone in the United States except for me and replaced them with hideously lifelike bio-engineered clone-creatures suffused with Martian and Deep One DNA..."


    After six years of building up a dude to be history's greatest monster (bar Jimmy Carter, natch), it's amazing the kind of shit that's plausible.

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  38. Just sayin', but could you see Obama taking us to war on as flimsy a justification as Bush did?

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  39. Sad what this country has become under the Obama Machine.Yeah, what's next, torturing innocent people to death?

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  40. coozledad3:22 PM

    Or the campus police trying to extract him from one of those welded scrap-metal sculptures.


    Hell, by now the dispatcher just says "Reynolds. Again." And they head out with the WD-40 and the tweezers.

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  41. Giant Monster Gamera3:22 PM

    Thanks Obama!

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  42. Shorter smut clyde: "Ah, another libertarian."

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  43. smut clyde3:24 PM

    Johnstone seems to like the "neuroatypical" identity, which allows him to argue that pointing out that he's a vile little shitweasel, is actually a hate crime against Aspergers.

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  44. Worse - giving them healthcare regardless of pre-existing conditions!

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  45. Is it irresponsible to speculate that Charles C. Johnson and Instapundit are craven opportunists" It is irresponsible not to.

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  46. Those aren't oysters...

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  47. smut clyde3:27 PM

    That information is classified CODE BLUE HADES, sir.

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  48. Giant Monster Gamera3:28 PM

    "Craven" means they are cowardly. The only thing they're afraid of is the right-wing gravy train ending, otherwise they'd have to fend for themselves. By keeping the shit flowing, they keep the pump going.

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  49. *sigh*.... get out the nanotech kill-bots, people, we've got a job to do...

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  50. We have no hesitation in terming it the "shittapump", hornstrumpot!

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  51. Obama charged at Boehner LIKE A DEMON, and John panicked. It's understandable.

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  52. coozledad3:32 PM

    This 'Cave thawed turkey' has shit on it, Charles.

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  53. KatWillow3:34 PM

    No justification is too flimsy for repugs. If Obama wants to bomb France & Germany for... oh, say, getting rid of nuclear power plants, the repugs would say YEAH!

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  54. smut clyde3:35 PM

    "I have a turkey on my cock. Fits much better now it's cooked."

    http://www.lowbird.com/data/images/2011/12/oglaf-saturnalia.jpg

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  55. http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/377/2268/1600/Rabbot.jpg

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  56. Helmut Monotreme3:37 PM

    It's sadly plausible that in Obama's America, Professor Reynolds needs monthly tetanus shots from just this sort of situation.

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  57. smut clyde3:38 PM

    He does seem to have a fixation about being "under the machine".

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  58. KatWillow3:38 PM

    If Obama has dirt on Boner, why didn't he use it earlier? Why wait for a crappy spending bill that everyone but Wall Street hates to "blackmail" Boner?


    If he has really bad stuff on Roberts, why didn't he use it in the Hobby Lobby case?

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  59. DEVIL BUNNY NEEDS A HAM

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  60. KatWillow3:40 PM

    "Turd herders"

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  61. susanoftexas3:41 PM

    Where did that bunny put his other hand?

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  62. sharculese3:41 PM

    At this point, they don't consider Boehner to be one of them. So of course he's corrupt- the only way he wouldn't be fighting the pure sainted 'bagger fight is if there's something that's compromising him. If this has the added bonus of implying he's complicit with the Tyrant Obama, so much the better.

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  63. For that matter, why didn't he use it to force through a proper single-payer universal health care bill?

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  64. TGuerrant3:45 PM

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNa019FaNW0

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  65. billcinsd3:49 PM

    which is still not as bad as Case Nightmare Green. Code Blue Hawaii is the best though

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  66. DN Nation3:51 PM

    Heh indoodily ding dong diddily doddily doo, interesting if true.

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  67. coozledad3:55 PM

    #readyforferguson

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  68. montag23:58 PM

    The comments are cherce. "He's like if Newt Gingrich and George F. Will had a giant baby."

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  69. dhsimmons3:59 PM

    Look at it this way:


    When the NY Times admitted that they deliberately withheld the story of Bush's wireless wiretapping in order to make sure it wouldn't impact the 2004 election, the paper of record lost me forever. I will no longer believe them, ever, on any topic, and I will ALWAYS wonder what story they think it's better I not know TODAY (and every day). And if the Times is no longer worth anything, how can any other paper be?


    "Respectacle" journalists have proven that they will withhold information to achieve desired ends, or "responsible" ends. So fuck them all. Burn it all down and start over.

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  70. montag24:08 PM

    Good point, but I fear the correct answer is: "let's look forward, and not backward."

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  71. montag24:10 PM

    And he's got a real inner glow. Too bad it's crept out to his epidermis, though.

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  72. salvagesalvage4:20 PM

    They don't seem to realize, anything.

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  73. I think Boner is the real victim because if the NSA were to reveal the dirt it has on him, the mean, hypocritical un-Christian liberals would leap all over him and the lamestream media would join in and ruin his career then go back to having gay abortion orgies.

    But we're probably putting 1,000% more thought into their gibberish than they do.

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  74. Mickey Bitsko4:22 PM

    THIS!

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  75. The president gets a budget passed that might bring some relief to foreign workers and those seeking affordable health insurance. As dark conspiracies go, it's not exactly MK Ultra or the grassy knoll.

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  76. You only think you're joking.

    http://www.reddit.com/r/conspiratard/comments/1ehfve/

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  77. I’ve seen similar speculation about John Roberts in the ObamaCare case.


    I've seen speculation (don't ask where, it's a secret!) that Prof. Reynolds likes to have sex with his own feces.

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  78. montag24:34 PM

    It's okay. That's Mrs. Ol' Perfesser.

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  79. It would be irresponsible not to speculate.

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  80. Jay B.4:37 PM

    It's almost inconceivable to watch an interview like that now. Christ, Dina Shore was gentle, Paddy was self-effacing and kind and they were talking, quietly, about dehumanization. It's so tonally different than watching five minutes of literally any interview show on TV that it was jarring.

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  81. I realize, colored by nostalgia and golden age and all that, but fuck, discourse back then really was a lot more decent and tolerant than it is now.

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  82. Jay B.4:48 PM

    Sad what this country has become under the Obama Machine.


    Get bent, hillbilly.


    Christ, once again, I wish that this angry leftist Chicago Marcus Garvey they live in constant fear of actually existed. The "Obama Machine" we're stuck with managed to lose almost every goddamn election in November. That's not how machines are supposed to work Dr. Crackerbarrel. This is such an abjectly stupid country and Reynolds, through sincere belief or cynical gibberish, is a poster boy for just how fucking stupid we've become.

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  83. Giant Monster Gamera4:49 PM

    He's in good company with known floorshitter Chuck C. Johnson.

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  84. I can't believe people are still harping on the floorshitting after Gawker came out with that thing about the sheep.

    Alleged sheep.

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  85. Lurking Canadian5:11 PM

    That's "Professor" Reynolds, yes? Oh, to be a fly on the wall when the Department's Promotion and Tenure Committee gets together:

    "Give him a chance, you said! His paper on torts will be a classic, you said! And what did we get? Sex with robots and invisible conspiracies! Nice fucking job. Next time, you don't get a vote!"

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  86. "Common clay"

    Morons? Oh, that's Western, not mid-Western. Sorry

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  87. TGuerrant5:19 PM

    Chuck's still trying to rally some evidence against that one...

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  88. TGuerrant5:22 PM

    It's the new "keep our powder dry."

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  89. First of all, that's DOCTOR Mrs. Ol' Perfesser to you, smart ass!
    Second, she had her teeth fixed, so we know that is not she.

    Although the eyes are certainly a match for hers. (She was the understudy for the "demon sheep," but I think they decided the term "demon bunny" might be giggle-inducing.)

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  90. Howlin Wolfe5:28 PM

    Your Conservative Movement! Establishing Epistemic Relativity Since 1964!

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  91. drspittle5:28 PM

    One of the best films ever made and, yes, eerily prescient. Like Idiocracy, I can easily view it as a documentary.

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  92. drspittle5:32 PM

    Which one is the furry and which one is the perfesser?

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  93. Boehner has occasional lapses of common sense (YOU WANT ME TO DO WHAT!) for this they suspect him of latent liberalism. Boehner, after all, is only the leader of the insane asylum and not one of the inmates. It would be funny if it wasn't so tragic

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  94. LookWhosInTheFreezer6:08 PM

    He could have prevented bad Scotus decisions on Citizens United, gun restrictions, Voting Rights...but he didn't. even. try.

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  95. smut clyde6:10 PM

    Powdered rye? Boehner is snorting it.

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  96. I wish that this angry leftist Chicago Marcus Garvey they live in constant fear of actually existed.

    So say we all!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3EzRAgjo_s
    ~

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  97. Not to mention, shits on the corpse of ACORN:

    http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2014/12/the-racist-bone-in-our-congressional.html

    ~

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  98. Newsweak edition:

    UPDATE: Newsweek has published a story about CIASavedLives.com which mentions Harlow: "The former CIA officials behind the site include Bill Harlow, a top CIA spokesperson during the George W. Bush administration..."

    Unfortunately, there's so little institutional memory at media outlets now that there's no mention of the fact that Harlow lied about what should have been one of the most important stories in Newsweek's history.
    ------
    ~

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  99. Alleged sheep are the dirtiest.

    OR SO I HAVE HEARD.
    ~

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  100. there's a lot of projection going on in the persona he's building on FB and twitter, apparently--constantly referencing the aspergers thing, as well as allusions to people hating him because his mother was ill when he was young, and the loneliness and rejection of his college years.


    he's a james ellroy character come to life.

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  101. Evidently those binders aren't very high quality, because they keep getting loose.

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  102. Gromet6:33 PM

    Jeez. You'd have to watch PBS at 11 pm to find a conversation with this many complete sentences now.

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  103. LookWhosInTheFreezer6:35 PM

    What next? They'll wanna marry animal robots!!

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  104. Thanks for this.

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  105. The flying beetles of Objectivism are much worse than the cockroaches of Existentialism.

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  106. Colonel "Bat" Guano:
    I think you're some kind of deviated prevert. I think General Ripper
    found out about your preversion, and that you were organizing some kind
    of mutiny of preverts. Now MOVE!

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  107. susanoftexas7:09 PM

    The Perfessor was very disappointed the first time he saw a Playboy bunny. Too much woman, not enough bunny.

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  108. John Wesley Hardin7:10 PM

    I like how it's "THE OBAMA ERA." Yes, Glenn, everybody's personal data was safe under Bush, before the NSA was created. Go back to your Battlestar Galactica-branded fleshlight and leave us alone.

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  109. susanoftexas7:11 PM

    And puts the taxpayer back on the hook when a bank says it's too big too fail. Credit swaps for everyone!

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  110. davdoodles7:16 PM

    Finally something I can agree with Johnson and Reynolds about, though I never thought they'd be the type to trumpet that their dreamy pal Boehner:
    (i) probably has a filthy filthy closet full of embarrassing and/or illegal misdeeds, and
    (ii) is so spineless he’d pants-shit his principles in a heartbeat to protect his worthless arse.
    .

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  111. John Wesley Hardin7:17 PM

    Yeah, but they still get booked to play at dive bars so it's a living.

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  112. It's gonna be Las Vegas every day on Wall Street!

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  113. John Wesley Hardin7:24 PM

    Absolutely. The tea party types are in an uproar but no Grand Jury in the country would hold Boehner responsible.

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  114. How about the palmetto bugs of gLibertarianism?

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  115. Here, in frame 387, we see Uncle Sam's head jerk back.. and to the left. Back... and to the left...

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  116. John Wesley Hardin7:26 PM

    "me and hideously lifelike bio-engineered clone-creatures" is how most of Glenn's fanfic stories begin.

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  117. bekabot7:27 PM

    "The damage to journalism has not only been long-lived, but deliberate."

    The damage to journalism hasn't come from anything ol' Insty's said, but rather from the fact that he's been the one who's said it, and from the related fact that he's been given such a high and mighty set of podiums to quack from. In short, we're looking at damage which journalism has done to itself. We're gazing upon journalism's self-inflicted wounds. Such being the case, I can't say I'm riven with sorrow for journalism. Journalism (the respectable kind, I mean) should have branded Insty on the forehead years ago with a symbol generally understood to mean "this man is a mountebank and a shill and nobody should take him seriously" but its practitioners neglected their duty, with the regrettable consequences with which we are all familiar. Lost opportunities, they are a bear.

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  118. susanoftexas7:38 PM

    The House always wins!

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  119. montag28:28 PM

    Hmm. I always thought that "palmetto bugs" was just a Florida euphemism for "big fuckin' cockroaches."

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  120. James Kelley8:29 PM

    The movie Hotel Rwanda paints an accurate picture of what an intentionally divisive media apparatus can do to a nation. The scary reality is that the agitators in our midst - meaning the deep state actors who travel the globe destabilizing governments and fomenting revolution - could easily ply their trade here and once that Pandora's box is open it would be very hard to close it again.


    I think the reality is that if a progressive movement ever gained enough traction to make a legitimate grab for power within the United States, the existing deep state power structure would unleash their puppet terrorist armies to wage war, foment fear, and disrupt the democratic process.


    In other words, business as usual. See: JFK, RFK, MLK, Malcolm X, John Lennon, Paul Wellstone, Deborah Jean Palfrey, JFK Jr, etc.

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  121. I have no idea, but they're goddamn annoying whatever they are.

    Like gLibertarians.

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  122. smut clyde8:40 PM

    What would long-horn beetles symbolise?

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  123. smut clyde8:44 PM

    Is THIS enough metal?
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uROMTzJsfOI

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  124. tigrismus9:00 PM

    Subtlety.

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  125. Chris Anderson9:47 PM

    I love this phrase, "It's Entirely Plausible." It's applicable to anything, because absurd and unlikely things have happened on occasion. It bypasses issues of proof, evidence, and what have you ... as for logic, or probability, the whole gambit is that stuff HAS happened, so Obama's Chicagoland gangsta machine exploited dirt on Boehner. There you have an extension of the Cheney 1% doctrine.


    By extension, It's Entirely Plausible that colonial-era witchhunts were after dangerous witches, or that Cheney's seemingly-innocent torture victims were actually jihadist masterminds. The burden of proof is on you, the sissypants faggot! Manly Increase Mather + Dick Cheney aren't skeptics, or making big claims, YOU are, by disputing guilty-until-proven-[via torture]-innocent.


    Pardon me, I'm ranting ineffectually.

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  126. Meanie-meanie, tickle a person9:47 PM

    "I'm sorry, Glenn, I'm afraid I can't do that..."

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  127. Tehanu10:08 PM

    That tweet or whatever from Drudge -- "Obama got everything," meaning "everything he wanted" out of the bill -- gosh, I hate to think he might have been right.

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  128. Glenn on his wedding night: "Open your pod bay doors, please, Mrs. Perfesser."

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  129. It's entirely plausible that Glenn Reynolds is, as we speak, constructing a robot/goat sex toy in his garage.

    Prove me wrong Glenn.

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  130. AGoodQuestion11:01 PM

    The beauty of a header like "WHAT’S SAD IS THAT IN THE OBAMA ERA IT’S ENTIRELY PLAUSIBLE:" is that the logic is entirely circular. Take any kind of look at it and it translates to "This rumor isn't so far-fetched in the context of all the other insane bullshit my buddies and I have claimed without any kind of evidence." It's like a snake eating its own tail. Or a moron breaking his back to suck himself off.

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  131. AGoodQuestion11:04 PM

    It's rinse, lather, repeat. At no point are they supposed to give it any thought.

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  132. AGoodQuestion11:05 PM

    "Out there" in both senses of the phrase.

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  133. AGoodQuestion11:14 PM

    Naw. If we're torturing them, they must at least be guilty of being tortured.

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  134. AGoodQuestion11:23 PM

    Poor robots. I'm not getting much sleep tonight.

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  135. AGoodQuestion11:28 PM

    Photo taken just before the death rays began shooting out of the eyes. Whose eyes? I'll let you guess.

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  136. AGoodQuestion11:39 PM

    I'm just waiting for the day when Drudge goes to pull something out of his ass and he falls in never to be heard from again.

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  137. ChrisV8211:44 PM

    "The facts may tell you one thing. But, God is not limited by the facts. Choose faith in spite of the facts." - Joel Osteen, November 26, 2014 via Twitter.

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  138. Meanie-meanie, tickle a person11:54 PM

    “Obama got EVERYTHING!!!11!”

    Well, it was either that or raise up a twitstorm over Santa Cruz putting a pile of free appointments in Obama's stocking. Come to think of it, that may be what he's really pissed about...

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  139. Meanie-meanie, tickle a person11:55 PM

    It's bedrock Amurikan, from duh to shining duh...

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  140. ChrisV8211:57 PM

    By which I mean, facts are irrelevant.

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  141. Meanie-meanie, tickle a person11:57 PM

    Replace "God is" with "we are", and you come closer to what's really on his--and all deeply, devoutly religious people's--minds

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  142. Meanie-meanie, tickle a person11:59 PM

    It would be irresponsible not to speculate...

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  143. Meanie-meanie, tickle a person12:02 AM

    Obama the Galactic Emporer who couldn't manage a cub scout campout, Episode 2874...

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  144. susanoftexas12:07 AM

    I wonder what bullying excuse they'll come up with when they piggy up to the trough next time. Probably the same one--give us all your money or the economy gets it.
    It was obvious that our end of the economy would get it and their end would get richer but the president decided to look forward not backwards.

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  145. Vegas has that at even money.

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  146. When their audiences won't even question one of them being caught in the Dominican Republic with someone else's Viagra 'script?

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  147. Neither do the droolers in front of the idiot box, unfortunately.

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  148. Another Kiwi2:35 AM

    All we would be arguing about is the colour of the goat-robot.

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  149. smut clyde3:55 AM

    a damaged white guy singing a minor part in the sleazy right-wing
    chorus, seething with equal parts rage, racism, and bottomless
    self-loathing.

    So a toxic, reviled individual who has failed at everything, and continues to fail at "facts" and "accuracy" and "self-awareness". Who wants to be the Real Victim while victimising everyone else. If not the right-wing misinformation human centipede, where else was he going to go?

    In NZ we have one Cameron Slater, another low-life fuck-up who's ended up in a similar role as a plausibly-deniable right-wing pukefunnel who flings the shit that the political party doesn't want to be seen flinging directly

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  150. Pope Zebbidie XIII5:19 AM

    Hey! They were supposed to mate with me first.

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  151. Well! THAT certainly helped the caffeine do its job this morning.
    Thanks. I think.
    Of course, it takes something of a sick mind to find pictures like that. I know, I know - you didn't look for it, it just mysteriously appeared on your screen one day.

    Of course, the alternative reply would be: how did you ever manage to find that picture of Cheney? He doesn't allow pictures before Makeup.

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  152. As an alum of UT, I speak from experience when I opine that they probably got pretty much what they wanted. But it's nice to imagine otherwise...thanks.

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  153. coozledad7:46 AM

    Docking sequence complete?


    You're shitting me.

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  154. coozledad7:52 AM

    The man who mistook his ass for a fedora.

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  155. randomworker8:00 AM

    PS: Send more money!

    ReplyDelete
  156. montag28:06 AM

    The word that appears more frequently than any other in transcripts of the talking head shows is: [crosstalk].

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  157. NonyNony8:25 AM

    You misread the conservative psyche, susan. The assumption that conservatives have is that all politicians are dirty lying scumbags. There is no such thing as a clean politician in the conservative worldview - by definition politicians are corrupt.

    Once you realize that you understand why hypocrisy among politicians isn't a sin in their eyes and they will always vote for whoever is willing to push the most conservative agenda. In a way it's a healthier outlook than a lot of liberals have. Liberals expect their politicians to be role models. Conservatives only care that their politicians vote the way that they're supposed to.

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  158. tigrismus8:43 AM

    And "faith" with "obedience."

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  159. Guilty of resisting torture!

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  160. "God may tell you Joel Osteen is a putz.

    Listen to God."

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  161. realinterrobang9:21 AM

    What the hell is that???

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  162. Unless you're watching Charlie Rose, in which case it's most Charlie talking over his guests as they struggle mightily to answer one question before Charlie's ego begins spouting something unrelated.

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  163. cambridgemac9:23 AM

    wholesome STRAIGHT white MALE mid-western dirt.
    There. Fixed it.

    ReplyDelete
  164. Halloween_Jack10:07 AM

    When your guy does it, he's Taking The Law Into His Own Hands because Justice Must Be Done and He's Upholding the Sacred Spirit of the Holy Constitution (If Not Exactly the Letter), while the Adversary is Working Against All That Is Good and Holy, in his Diabolical Quest to Bring About the Tyranny of Gay Sex and Affordable Healthcare.

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  165. RogerAiles10:14 AM

    I call Chuckie "Ginger O'Keefe," the red-headed stepchild of Andrew Breitbart and James O'Keefe. Matt Drudge is the real father; Lucianne Goldberg the biological hazard mother.

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  166. Halloween_Jack10:20 AM

    It must be awesome to be able to use Chicago as a power battery to get whatever you want. When I'm there for Christmas, I'll see if I can get the power of flight, maybe invisibility while I'm at it. Or I could just pitch Chuck Johnson in orbit?

    Speaking of whom, from Roy's last link: '“I’m basically one of those kids who was bullied all his life,” he said. He’s now extracting payback, one post at a time.' Let's see that class photo with all of your victims in it, Chuckie.

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  167. PaulDavisTheFirst10:33 AM

    "JFK" as an example of a progressive movement getting close to a legitimate power grab ... not convincing.

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  168. susanoftexas10:41 AM

    Because exceptionalism.

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  169. susanoftexas10:44 AM

    That rabbit's dynamite!

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  170. the repugs would say YEAH!Nope, they'd say IMPEACH! Remember how a whole bunch of them suddenly delivered a conscience about Presidential warmaking in Syria? Followed by nonstop denunciations of the President for failing to use sufficient military force in Syria? If Obama wants it, Republicans don't, plain and simple. I mean, 9/11 is supposedly the justification for the US torturing all those innocent people, but imagine the GOP response if the Obama administration were to hunt down the architect of 9/11. Though perhaps I'm not giving them enough credit in my hypothetical.

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  171. Jesus wants you to upvote my comment. Don't disappoint Jesus.

    ReplyDelete
  172. coozledad11:30 AM

    A guy who used to drum for a band I was in told me about this movie. When he said there was a rotating metal dick I assumed it was anime.


    Stupid me.

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  173. Mary Belle11:57 AM


    Last month i got paid 11000 dollars... All I was doing was some simple freelance jobs from home for several hr/day that i got from company I found over the internet and they paid me for it 95 dollars/hourly...
    See it yourself here C­a­re­e­r-re­p­o­r­t­­.c­o­­­m

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  174. Chutney Taco Bell12:44 PM


    Last month i got paid 11000 dollars... All I was doing was some simple freelance jobs from home for several hr/day that i got from company I found over the internet and they paid me for it 95 dollars/hourly...
    See it for yourself here C­a­re­e­r-re­p­o­r­t­­.c­o­­­m

    ReplyDelete
  175. Gromet1:15 PM

    This. Their guy breaking the law is a superhero pursuing justice at all costs. Our guy breaking the law is a supervillain (even if our guy didn't break the law, or the law he broke was just lying under oath about who blows him).

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  176. willf1:53 PM

    I’ve seen similar speculation about John Roberts in the ObamaCare case. Sad what this country has become under the Obama Machine.



    Yes, it must be NSA blackmail! There's no other reason that members in good standing of the Money Party would put their donors' financial interests above that of their constituents!


    You know, I've seen progressives tie themselves into pretzels trying to figure out why elected Democrats ignore the base and do the bidding of the their wealthy owners sponsors, but this is the first time I've noticed the hate-wingers doing it. Though it must be a pretty common occurrence on both sides by now.

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  177. billcinsd2:45 PM

    I'd love Obama to go after Henry Kissinger. 9/11/73 was indeed a dark day

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  178. billcinsd2:55 PM

    Where was the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch when it was needed most?

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  179. Tom Parmenter3:14 PM

    Charlie's got the *biggest* head.

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  180. smut clyde3:21 PM

    Yup. Each time I am startled afresh by this rhetorical device of describing one's own stupid credulity and presenting it as an indictment of one's opponent.

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  181. Tom Parmenter3:30 PM

    Anybody notice that he's "Glenn Reynolds" when he's Instapundit, but "Glenn Harlan Reynolds" when he's even-tempered technical journalist?

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  182. Tom Parmenter3:34 PM

    To be fair, Reynolds was one of the first national political bloggers.

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  183. bekabot1:18 PM

    Yes, and what that means is that "journalism" wasted no time in slitting its own throat. Sorry to be so snippy, but such is my view of the matter.

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  184. James Kelley2:59 PM

    JFK was as progressive a leader as this country has had since the Syndicate had him murdered, and that same Syndicate hasn't released the reigns of power ever since. If anything, they've consolidated their grasp.

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  185. i think so. and Johnson Dominating of all case.
    ________
    www.tourshalong.com

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  186. i think so . hâhha
    _____________
    http://tourdulichtrungquoc.net.vn/

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  187. Obama charged at Boehner LIKE A DEMON, and John panicked. It's understandable.
    ________________

    Tour Du lịch Hạ Long

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  188. Now that Reynolds has accused Boehner and Roberts of bad stuff, I wonder how he feels about enhanced interrogation techniques
    ______________
    Tour Du lịch Trung Quốc

    ReplyDelete
  189. Trung Quốc Tour du lịch5:06 AM

    I’ve seen similar speculation about John Roberts in the ObamaCare case.
    Sad what this country has become under the Obama Machine.
    ______________
    Tour Du lich Trung Quoc

    ReplyDelete