Political Commentary

It’s Not The Crime, It’s The Coverup

This was one of the first stupid political decisions that the Clinton White House made, in their ongoing interest of manufacturing a false image, and it’s reverberated right down to Hillary’s campaign. It seems particularly true in this case, because there doesn’t seem to have been a crime. Bill Dedman has read Hillary’s thesis, and it comes off as pretty weak tea to me. Pretty anti-climactic, after all the fevered speculation during the nineties, which (like many Clinton imbroglios) was fed by the secrecy.

[Via La Dynamist]

Political Commentary

A Thought On Ann Coulter

Not from me–I haven’t said anything about her latest fragging of her own troops, because I rarely say anything at all about her (and not being a conservative, I’m not as concerned as conservatives should be as to how she makes them look). It’s from a Freeper. In West Hollywood:

The other protest that I have seen already, on different threads, is as follows: Ann is a private citizen, she can say what she wants, only a fool would think that Mitt Romney or Duncan Hunter feels the same way. But I submit to you that this is what I call “insider thinking.” Of course, WE know whose stance is what… we are familiar with the nuances of conservative thought. We read up on politics every single day. But compare how an outsider such as Michael (and glittery Tony) views the conservative world: much like we view the muslim world. When a mad mullah or bomb-laden extremist foams at the mouth about decimating Israel and America, we look to the rest of the muslim world as if to say politely “And do you agree?” When all we hear are crickets chirping (and a few bombs going off prematurely because some Palestinian’s cell phone got pinged) we notice. And we think, ah. I see. You agree.

If we do not agree, we do indeed have the responsibility to say so, as conservatives.

In fact, at the end of the evening an incident occured that captures this second point nicely. A very intoxicated young man with a penchant for chanting hiphop lyrics in people’s faces, and flicking his lighter perilously close to women’s noses, tried to put his arm around me. I had already developed a dislike for this one, and gave him a slight elbow while I stepped away. Outraged, he pursued me and I gave him a good shove. My sister told the bouncer and the other guys gathered round and chimed in their outrage. Throw that guy out! The bouncer threw the guy out.

For the next ten minutes, gay men were coming up to me anxiously: Are you alright? He’s gone now, don’t worry. He was a jerk. I don’t like him either. I hope you aren’t upset. We aren’t all like that. Are you sure you’re alright?

They instinctively came to reassure me, knowing that as an outsider, I could not distinguish between them unless they made known their stances. And Tony said, “I may be gay, but I’m still a man. Woman are supposed to be protected, you know?”

Unfortunately, while many will agree with her, there are a lot of hateful people over there (though nothing like the denizens of DU).

Media Criticism

Major Man Of Straw

I’m listening to Wolf Blitzer talk to Senator Dodd. Wolf plays a tape of the president saying that if we leave Iraq before the job is done, that it will be a disaster in the war on terror. Dodd’s response? This isn’t a transcript, but it’s pretty close. “There are terrorist attacks all over the world. I don’t know how the president can think that by staying in Iraq, we will end them.” Wolf follows up, and he says something similar again.

In other words, President: “Leaving Iraq prematurely will worsen things.”

Dodd’s strawman version of President: “Staying in Iraq will solve the problem.”

I can see why he’d like to knock down a foolish statement that no one made, since it’s a lot easier to do that than to actually respond to the question of what will happen if we leave. I was disappointed (well, that’s not the right word, because it was, after all, Wolf Blitzer) that he wasn’t called on it. You know he would have if he’d been of a different party (speaking of which, Russert let Murtha get away with a disgusting amount of nonsense this morning–he never followed up, but just went on to his next sound clip each time).

[Update in the afternoon]

I will give credit to Murtha for having more class than Russert in this exchange. I was shocked, in fact, because it’s the first time I’ve seen a Democrat decline to cloak themselves in faux victimhood for their beliefs (they generally do it unprompted, but Russert couldn’t drag it out of Murtha today).

Administrative

Why Not Kill The Troll?

Mr. McGehee asks:

Why is Anonymoron still allowed to crap all over this blog?

At least two reasons. First, the trivial one. Because in his cowardice (and viciousness), he not only uses no name, but also changes his IP more often than he changes his underwear, there’s no obvious easy way to block him. I could delete his posts after the fact (and I suppose if I did that for long enough, he might eventually get discouraged and go away, but I’m afraid that the creature would just retaliate by spamming me or something when I was away from the computer). But there’s no way to preempt them that I’ve figured out, short of shutting down comments completely, a cure that I think (at least for now) worse than the disease.

Additionally, it would set a precedent. Though I’ve threatened to do it in the past in a couple cases, I’ve never banned anyone here. In general, there’s been no need, because usually the trolls get bored and go on to harass someone else. Anonymous Moron, unfortunately, seems to be quite persistent. I continue to hope that he is just a little more persistent than most, and will not become a permanent featurebug of this community. Unfortunately, he’s too stupid to realize that he convinces no one of anything except that he’s an idiot (I suspect that many people who might agree with him on the issues are tired of him as well, because he’s a caricature of their side, and makes it difficult for them to argue their own points, even when legitimate–I’d in fact be interested in feedback from that community on the subject).

However, I am getting more than a little tired of it myself (particularly since I’m generally on the receiving end of his vile attacks). If anyone has any ideas as to what to do about it, I’m receptive to hearing them.

Biting Commentary about Infinity…and Beyond!