You’ve got to love these latest attacks on Jonah’s book:

Ezra…credits David Neiwert whose review is exactly the sort of shallow, cliche-ridden, attack-the-messenger stuff that I would expect Ezra to find so persuasive. More on that in a moment. But I find it hilarious that the part Ezra thought sufficiently profound to highlight was, in part, the bit where Neiwert insists that the fascist threat remains on the right and in particular that there’s a threat of “totalitarianism” from “dogmatic individualists.”

Apparently, to these people, words don’t mean things at all.

[Early evening update]

Jonah corrects the record, via an email by Niewert (and per a comment by Duncan Young in comments). Those were Ezra’s words, not his. The point remains.

A panel of judges of rules that it’s against campaign finance laws to advertise a film:

Attorney James Bopp argued that they should be considered “issue- oriented” speech because viewers aren’t urged to vote for or against the Democrat.

“What’s the issue?” asked Judge A. Raymond Randolph, a federal appeals judge sitting on a mixed panel to review the case.

“That Hillary Clinton is a European Socialist,’ aren’t you saying vote against her?”

Bopp disagreed because the movie did not use the word “vote.”

“Oh, that’s ridic…,” Lamberth said, trailing off and ending the line of questioning.

Hey, some people (too darned many, in my opinion) like European socialists. Maybe it was a pro-Hillary ad.
It gets better (or worse, depending on your point of view).

The movie is scheduled for two screenings in theaters, once each in California and Washington. It is also being sold on DVD. Neither of those methods are regulated under campaign laws. The advertisements, however, are scheduled to run during the peak presidential primary season and would be regulated.

Bopp, who successfully led a challenge to one aspect of the campaign finance system last year, compared the film to television news programs “Frontline,” “Nova,” and “60 Minutes.” That prompted Lamberth to laugh out loud from the bench.

“You can’t compare this to ’60 Minutes,'” the judge said. “Did you read this transcript?”

Apparently, the judge missed the “Sixty Minutes” episode in which Dan Rather used fake documents to do a hit job on George Bush six weeks before an election.

The Supreme Court should have thrown the law out in toto. But it looks to me, at a minimum, like they’re going to have to at least interpret this (un)Constitutional abomination.

Emmett Tyrrell has some thoughts:

The reason for the dramatic decline in Hillary’s front-runner status is that Democratic voters increasingly are alarmed about a large hairy monster that has been roaming through their consciences for years, probably since they first heard of Gennifer Flowers and of Bill Clinton’s diplomatic negotiations with his draft board. The monster is the Clintons’ record of lawlessness and scandal. Already in this campaign cycle, Democratic voters have reminders of the Clintons’ unsavory practices, felons among their contributors, even shadowy Asians bundling checks, as in 1996, and, of course, the politics of personal destruction practiced against their opponents.

My guess is that a sizable number of Democrats have had enough of it. Obama represents a clean break with a troubled and mediocre past. As Hillary leaves New Hampshire, she challenges Obama on the question of experience. The junior senator from Illinois should take up her challenge. Hillary can chide him for his lack of experience, and he can remind us all of Hillary’s unique experiences, beginning with the Clintons’ “holiday from history,” and Travelgate, Filegate, missing billing records, lying under oath, her cattle-futures bonanza, the Riady family, Johnny Chung, John Huang, Charlie Trie — and suddenly, you see it, too, the large hairy monster that is the Clinton legacy.

Also, long-time cartoonist nemesis of Bill and Hill, Sean Delonas, is in high form in the wake of New Hampshire. (Note to visitors from the future, not a permalink. Select January 10th, 2008 in the pulldown boxes).

[Update a couple minutes later]

Dr. Sanity has some additional thoughts on the Democrats denial and anger:

Just as Hillary had a neurotic and “forgetful” moment regarding the antics of her husband; what we are witnessing is a supremely neurotic moment on the part of the left, who willy-nilly have jumped the Clinton ship and climbed aboard the Obama “vessel of hope”. They are astounded that the antics of the Clintons (which for years they have rationalized and excused) are being used against them. Their idealization of the Clintons had worn thin and, just in the nick of time, along comes a younger, prettier face that can help them shore up those tired, old “progressive” ideas, and delude them into believing they actually are supporting something fresh and innovative.

I hate to tell them, but Obama is just another socialist hack. For sure, he’s fresh and young and articulate. But his ideas are no fresher than Hillary’s and quite a bit more rigid and uncompromising. Hillary and Bill never believed in anything but themselves. Obama comes across as selfless as Mother Theresa, promising to lead us to his utopian wonderland.

What we are witnessing is the neurosis and fickleness of the political left, who just a short time ago adored the Clintons and could bear nothing bad be said about their legacy in the White House.

I still see a lot of potential for a very ugly August in Denver.

[Update a couple minutes later]

Oh, man. I didn’t pop the corn soon enough. I didn’t expect this until March, at least. They’re eating their own:

Obama’s national campaign co-chairman, Jesse Jackson Jr., slammed Clinton’s now-famous misty-eyed moment by wondering aloud why she didn’t shed public tears for victims of Hurricane Katrina, for example.

“They have to be looked at very, very carefully in light of Katrina, in light of other things that Mrs. Clinton did not cry for,” Jackson told MSNBC.

And they think that Huckabee is going to split the Republicans? This could be the crackup that finally drives the blacks off the Democrats’ liberal plantation. The slave revolt may be finally beginning. The big tent may be falling down around their ears. And the destruction of that coalition that the Clintons started back in the nineties may be finally coming to completion. If so, let’s just hope that some new, and better parties arise from the ashes.

[Update a while later]

Dennis Wingo in comments links to Camille psychoanalyzing Hillary today. This may not be just a night, but a year of the long knives.

Emmett Tyrrell has some thoughts:

The reason for the dramatic decline in Hillary’s front-runner status is that Democratic voters increasingly are alarmed about a large hairy monster that has been roaming through their consciences for years, probably since they first heard of Gennifer Flowers and of Bill Clinton’s diplomatic negotiations with his draft board. The monster is the Clintons’ record of lawlessness and scandal. Already in this campaign cycle, Democratic voters have reminders of the Clintons’ unsavory practices, felons among their contributors, even shadowy Asians bundling checks, as in 1996, and, of course, the politics of personal destruction practiced against their opponents.

My guess is that a sizable number of Democrats have had enough of it. Obama represents a clean break with a troubled and mediocre past. As Hillary leaves New Hampshire, she challenges Obama on the question of experience. The junior senator from Illinois should take up her challenge. Hillary can chide him for his lack of experience, and he can remind us all of Hillary’s unique experiences, beginning with the Clintons’ “holiday from history,” and Travelgate, Filegate, missing billing records, lying under oath, her cattle-futures bonanza, the Riady family, Johnny Chung, John Huang, Charlie Trie — and suddenly, you see it, too, the large hairy monster that is the Clinton legacy.

Also, long-time cartoonist nemesis of Bill and Hill, Sean Delonas, is in high form in the wake of New Hampshire. (Note to visitors from the future, not a permalink. Select January 10th, 2008 in the pulldown boxes).

[Update a couple minutes later]

Dr. Sanity has some additional thoughts on the Democrats denial and anger:

Just as Hillary had a neurotic and “forgetful” moment regarding the antics of her husband; what we are witnessing is a supremely neurotic moment on the part of the left, who willy-nilly have jumped the Clinton ship and climbed aboard the Obama “vessel of hope”. They are astounded that the antics of the Clintons (which for years they have rationalized and excused) are being used against them. Their idealization of the Clintons had worn thin and, just in the nick of time, along comes a younger, prettier face that can help them shore up those tired, old “progressive” ideas, and delude them into believing they actually are supporting something fresh and innovative.

I hate to tell them, but Obama is just another socialist hack. For sure, he’s fresh and young and articulate. But his ideas are no fresher than Hillary’s and quite a bit more rigid and uncompromising. Hillary and Bill never believed in anything but themselves. Obama comes across as selfless as Mother Theresa, promising to lead us to his utopian wonderland.

What we are witnessing is the neurosis and fickleness of the political left, who just a short time ago adored the Clintons and could bear nothing bad be said about their legacy in the White House.

I still see a lot of potential for a very ugly August in Denver.

[Update a couple minutes later]

Oh, man. I didn’t pop the corn soon enough. I didn’t expect this until March, at least. They’re eating their own:

Obama’s national campaign co-chairman, Jesse Jackson Jr., slammed Clinton’s now-famous misty-eyed moment by wondering aloud why she didn’t shed public tears for victims of Hurricane Katrina, for example.

“They have to be looked at very, very carefully in light of Katrina, in light of other things that Mrs. Clinton did not cry for,” Jackson told MSNBC.

And they think that Huckabee is going to split the Republicans? This could be the crackup that finally drives the blacks off the Democrats’ liberal plantation. The slave revolt may be finally beginning. The big tent may be falling down around their ears. And the destruction of that coalition that the Clintons started back in the nineties may be finally coming to completion. If so, let’s just hope that some new, and better parties arise from the ashes.

[Update a while later]

Dennis Wingo in comments links to Camille psychoanalyzing Hillary today. This may not be just a night, but a year of the long knives.

Emmett Tyrrell has some thoughts:

The reason for the dramatic decline in Hillary’s front-runner status is that Democratic voters increasingly are alarmed about a large hairy monster that has been roaming through their consciences for years, probably since they first heard of Gennifer Flowers and of Bill Clinton’s diplomatic negotiations with his draft board. The monster is the Clintons’ record of lawlessness and scandal. Already in this campaign cycle, Democratic voters have reminders of the Clintons’ unsavory practices, felons among their contributors, even shadowy Asians bundling checks, as in 1996, and, of course, the politics of personal destruction practiced against their opponents.

My guess is that a sizable number of Democrats have had enough of it. Obama represents a clean break with a troubled and mediocre past. As Hillary leaves New Hampshire, she challenges Obama on the question of experience. The junior senator from Illinois should take up her challenge. Hillary can chide him for his lack of experience, and he can remind us all of Hillary’s unique experiences, beginning with the Clintons’ “holiday from history,” and Travelgate, Filegate, missing billing records, lying under oath, her cattle-futures bonanza, the Riady family, Johnny Chung, John Huang, Charlie Trie — and suddenly, you see it, too, the large hairy monster that is the Clinton legacy.

Also, long-time cartoonist nemesis of Bill and Hill, Sean Delonas, is in high form in the wake of New Hampshire. (Note to visitors from the future, not a permalink. Select January 10th, 2008 in the pulldown boxes).

[Update a couple minutes later]

Dr. Sanity has some additional thoughts on the Democrats denial and anger:

Just as Hillary had a neurotic and “forgetful” moment regarding the antics of her husband; what we are witnessing is a supremely neurotic moment on the part of the left, who willy-nilly have jumped the Clinton ship and climbed aboard the Obama “vessel of hope”. They are astounded that the antics of the Clintons (which for years they have rationalized and excused) are being used against them. Their idealization of the Clintons had worn thin and, just in the nick of time, along comes a younger, prettier face that can help them shore up those tired, old “progressive” ideas, and delude them into believing they actually are supporting something fresh and innovative.

I hate to tell them, but Obama is just another socialist hack. For sure, he’s fresh and young and articulate. But his ideas are no fresher than Hillary’s and quite a bit more rigid and uncompromising. Hillary and Bill never believed in anything but themselves. Obama comes across as selfless as Mother Theresa, promising to lead us to his utopian wonderland.

What we are witnessing is the neurosis and fickleness of the political left, who just a short time ago adored the Clintons and could bear nothing bad be said about their legacy in the White House.

I still see a lot of potential for a very ugly August in Denver.

[Update a couple minutes later]

Oh, man. I didn’t pop the corn soon enough. I didn’t expect this until March, at least. They’re eating their own:

Obama’s national campaign co-chairman, Jesse Jackson Jr., slammed Clinton’s now-famous misty-eyed moment by wondering aloud why she didn’t shed public tears for victims of Hurricane Katrina, for example.

“They have to be looked at very, very carefully in light of Katrina, in light of other things that Mrs. Clinton did not cry for,” Jackson told MSNBC.

And they think that Huckabee is going to split the Republicans? This could be the crackup that finally drives the blacks off the Democrats’ liberal plantation. The slave revolt may be finally beginning. The big tent may be falling down around their ears. And the destruction of that coalition that the Clintons started back in the nineties may be finally coming to completion. If so, let’s just hope that some new, and better parties arise from the ashes.

[Update a while later]

Dennis Wingo in comments links to Camille psychoanalyzing Hillary today. This may not be just a night, but a year of the long knives.

Chris Matthews says that Obama lost New Hampshire because they’re racists up there in the Granite State.

I expected this, but not quite so soon.

If Obama isn’t the next president, it will be because of America’s inherent racism. And if Hillary! isn’t, it will be because of America’s inherent sexism. It won’t, it goes without saying, be because of any inherent deficiencies in them as candidates that are independent of their melanin content or genital configuration.

And it’s guaranteed to be one or the other, because only one of them (if either) can win. And of course, if neither of them do, and another Rethuglican steals the election, it will be because we’re both racist and sexist. Because, you know, it’s always America’s fault.

Chris Matthews says that Obama lost New Hampshire because they’re racists up there in the Granite State.

I expected this, but not quite so soon.

If Obama isn’t the next president, it will be because of America’s inherent racism. And if Hillary! isn’t, it will be because of America’s inherent sexism. It won’t, it goes without saying, be because of any inherent deficiencies in them as candidates that are independent of their melanin content or genital configuration.

And it’s guaranteed to be one or the other, because only one of them (if either) can win. And of course, if neither of them do, and another Rethuglican steals the election, it will be because we’re both racist and sexist. Because, you know, it’s always America’s fault.

Chris Matthews says that Obama lost New Hampshire because they’re racists up there in the Granite State.

I expected this, but not quite so soon.

If Obama isn’t the next president, it will be because of America’s inherent racism. And if Hillary! isn’t, it will be because of America’s inherent sexism. It won’t, it goes without saying, be because of any inherent deficiencies in them as candidates that are independent of their melanin content or genital configuration.

And it’s guaranteed to be one or the other, because only one of them (if either) can win. And of course, if neither of them do, and another Rethuglican steals the election, it will be because we’re both racist and sexist. Because, you know, it’s always America’s fault.

Cynical Christian has a post about Huckappeal. But he misses (or at least doesn’t elaborate upon) a key point:

What grabbed me were some of Carter’s defenses of Mike Huckabee as the real full-spectrum conservative in the race.

A prime example of how “economic conservatives” are out of touch with the Reagan conservatives is the issue of executive compensation for poorly managed companies. On CNBC Governor Mike Huckabee expressed his disgust for corporate boards that award CEOs with $200 million bonuses while the workers are taking 40% pay cuts. As the Governor made clear he didn

All the one-stars at Amazon by people who haven’t read Jonah’s book are not only being pulled down, but they’re creating sales.

Plus the oftnever-told story of Teddy Roosevelt and Big Meat. You never heard this when you had to read The Jungle in school.

[Update Thursday night]

Since Glenn keeps bumping this link up to the top of Instapundit, some of the newcomers might want to look around at the rest of the blog. Lots of others fun stuff posted over the last couple days.

Continue reading Bad Reviews Get Results! →