I officially declare Saturday, March 25, 2006 to be “Write Like Ben Domenech Day”. If you’ve got an original, new and exciting piece of writing you’d like to share with everyone… now is the time to do it! Here is my original and new piece of writing I am proud to share with you:
When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
I thought of that all by myself, I just don’t hope any “editors” get ahold of it and insert things I didn’t write. How about you? Share!
Related
How Cons Deal With Information They Don’t Like
The Fall of “Red America”
Little Ben’s Pathetic Excuse
In that universe, not just civilization, but all life on Terra, came to a very
hideous end in 1984, because the President was constipated one day and made the
wrong decision. Their technology was so advanced that half the solar system went
nova along with the Earth.
In the next universe Simon explored, we were saved because a red-haired Tantric
Engineer named Babs Lashtal gave the Prez a first-class Grade-A blow job in the
Oval Office at 10 a.m., relaxed his tense muscles, pacified his glands, soothed his
frustrations, and inspired him to act relatively sane for the rest of the day. He
did not push the button, thereby preserving millions of species of living forms on
Earth and thousands of microscopic species on Venus.
Babs Lashtal, of course, was regarded with contempt by all right-thinking people,
who had no idea that they owed their lives to her skillful extraction of
presidential spermatazoa by means of tender, gentle, gracefully rhythmic kissing,
licking, and sucking of the presidential wand.
Even if they had known about it, the right-thinking people would still say Babs
should be ashamed of herself.
The whole novel was rather didactic, Simon decided. It was written only to prove a
point: Never underestimate the importance of a blow job.
OW: I was thinking. Maybe you could have a Write Like Ben Domenech Day .
You could ask your readers to submit original, new and exciting pieces of writing they d like to share with everyone.
Now is the time to do it!
I thought of this all by myself, I just don t hope any editors get ahold of it and insert things I didn t write.
In the past 30 hours you’ve had 10 posts, 7 of which are about Domenech. Do you dream about this guy too?
In case any of you were looking for an apology (I know how important that is to you Democrat / liberal / progressive types:
http//www.redstate.com/story/2006/3/24/231559/931
Caution: some people pay him compliments on the same page, so avoid reading those.
Here’s mine:
Matt 18:23 -27
Therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants.
24 And when he had begun to settle accounts, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents.
25 But as he was not able to pay, his master commanded that he be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and that payment be made.
26 The servant therefore fell down before him, saying, `Master, have patience with me, and I will pay you all.’
27 Then the master of that servant was moved with compassion, released him, and forgave him the debt.
Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer by this sun of York;
And all the clouds that lour’d upon our house
In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.
Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths;
Our bruised arms hung up for monuments;
Our stern alarums chang’d to merry meetings,
Our dreadful marches to delightful measures.
Grim-visag’d war hath smooth’d his wrinkled front;
And now,–instead of mounting barbed steeds
To fright the souls of fearful adversaries,–
He capers nimbly in a lady’s chamber
To the lascivious pleasing of a lute.
Got a nice rhythm to it, huh? I call that “iambic pentameter” (which doesn’t actually mean anything, I just made it up).
It seems that Mr. Domenech has seriously limited his future career choices; he’s apparently going to have to run for the Senate from Delaware.
Now, while I have not yet actually seen anyone else say that, I’ll bet someone else already has. But at least Mr Domenech apologized and had the decency to resign — though possibly just ahead of getting canned.
Ok Ollie, the train wreck is over….and THIS won’t get bush impeached either….
Nothing to see here, move along…..
Wagners’ ‘…Valkyries’ played through
a 10 megawatt McIntosh Amp and
Altec Lansing ‘Voice of the Theatre’
drivers and woofers cascading, and
not competing with the rotor clap
of the Hugheys as FitzZorro, cigar
clenched in his ivory keys; shouts
orders to his men “Nail that endo-
morph!”
Almost instantaneously, rocket pods
explode around the rotund Rove,
too absorbed in masticating his
T-Bone on a stick, to react to the
lightning attack. Nevertheless,
he scrambles, thinning hair
a’smolderin’, to shelter under a side-
walk Bistro table, which conceals
little of his ample frame. Fitz
pulls the dogrocket out of his mouth,
and almost imperceptibly whispers;
“I love the smell of bacon in the
morning.”
“For what profit is it to a man if he gains the world and loses his own soul?”
-Leroy 16:36
“Jesus wept.”
buma 11:35
This is a blog for the majority of Americans.
Since the election of 1992, the extreme political right has fought a losing battle. Their views on the economy, marriage, abortion, guns, the death penalty, health care, welfare, taxes, and a dozen other major domestic policy issues have been exposed as unpopular, unmarketable and unquestioned losers at the ballot box.
Republicans who have won major elections since 1992 have, with very few exceptions, been the ones who distanced themselves from the shrieking denizens of their increasingly extreme base, soft-pedaled their positions on divisive issues and adopted the rhetoric and positions of the left — pro-free market, pro-business, pro-faith, tough on crime and strongly in favor of family values.
Write like BenDo day is so much fun!! And it’s easy too. And to read the rest of this, go to my blog
OK Pedro. That actually made me laugh. You’re a genuinely funny guy. It won’t get Bush impeached. But it’s one more nail in the right wing coffin.
Dr P: It might get Brit Hume to resign.
NursePam: That coffin must be huge, or the nails are tiny!
Ok Ollie, the train wreck is over& .and THIS won t get bush impeached either& .
Nothing to see here, move along& ..
Actually, there’s a lot to see and I think “Dr” P knows it.
First, there’s the spectacle of the WaPo bending to rightwing whining and putting a plainly racist and extremist conservative blogger on the payroll. Then more fun ensues when it is found Domenech is a serial plagiarist and liar.
Second, still more interesting is the rightwing response to this sorry affair. Take a look at Red State–anybody who dares suggest Domenech made his own bed is banned. Meanwhile, the regulars assert Domenech did nothing wrong or offer up rationalizations as to why what Box Turtle Ben did was ok.
Third, there are certain similarities between AWOL George and Box Turtle Ben. Both grew up in privilege and used family connections to get into the best schools, obtain employment, etc. Despite being handed such advantages, neither could actually follow through on commitments and more often than not resorted to cheating, lying and stealing to gain what they wanted. Both pretend to represent “Red Staters” despite the living lives of privilege and access and nepotism.
Right wingers have been using the line “nothing to see here, move along” line a lot lately (nice bit of Domenech-writing, pedro!).
Of course, whenever they say it, you know it’s because there actually is quite a bit to see.
Jade I have no idea or opinion about your first two paragraphs…
but you last one is pretty amusing. Old Ben has a lot more in common with Biden and Kerry than bush….but don’t let that spoil your use of the talking points…
Oh and Pammie….I, like Frank, have been waiting for it seems like years (no, wait, it HAS been years) for that pesky lid to get nailed down. Yet every election we just gain more seats….whats up with that?
First, there s the spectacle of the WaPo bending to rightwing whining and putting a plainly racist and extremist conservative blogger on the payroll.
Isn’t that redundant? To those like youself who have read “Liberalism For Dummies”, being a conservative automatically makes one a racist.
Then more fun ensues when it is found Domenech is a serial plagiarist and liar.
There was fun. Seeing Oliver accept trackbacks from the Agonist, the author of which is a serial plagiarist was pretty funny. Knowing that Oliver works for David Brock, a serial liar, is even funnier.
Jay thanks for the Brock reference….I guess I have been under a rock or something and had not connected Brock-Media Matters.
Reading stuff on brock sure makes OW’s world view a lot clearer…
Isn t that redundant?
Pretty much, Jay C.
Let’s face it, though; Box Turtle Ben liked to write racist tracts for consumption by conservatives.
Isn’t it interesting that to date we haven’t had any of the usual rightwingers around these parts aver that what Benny-boy did might have been wrong? Instead, we get the usual “So-and-so did it, too.”
I wish I could claim credit for it, but John Emerson put it best:
Conservatives have a similar outlook when it comes to ethics. They believe ethics only apply to other folks–not themselves.
Isn t that redundant? To those like youself who have read Liberalism For Dummies , being a conservative automatically makes one a racist.
No, calling Coretta Scott King a Communist automatically makes one a racist.
Now go steal someone else’s outraged reaction so you can write back, Nipplechips.
“Old Ben has a lot more in common with Biden and Kerry than bush …”
Now poor Ben isn’t a real conservative? Hilarious. It’s fascinating to watch the bizarre contortions of the true believers as they go to any lengths to keep the light of reality from peeking in. “It burns, it burns.”
You’re too much, Pedro. Just you argued that it’s better to be killed by a suicide bomber than a government agent (forgetting that people are being killed by both in Iraq) you were earlier arguing (with your de rigeur Clinton reference in relation to poor Ben) that a thief is still better than a liar. I love it. What must it be like to live in your world?
Well, gee pedro I certainly didn’t mean to impugn the awesome ninja moves you would use to “avoid criminals and suicide bombers,” such as the ancient martial skill of Not Going Outside Ever.
You also seem to have missed the news that the new Iraqi army is plagued by Shiite militia groups who are killing Sunnis with “impunity.” From today’s NY Times:
“In the last month, hundreds of men have been kidnapped, tortured and executed in Baghdad. As Iraqi and American leaders struggle to avert a civil war, the bodies keep piling up. The city’s homicide rate has tripled from 11 to 33 a day, military officials said. The period from March 7 to March 21 was typically brutal: at least 191 bodies, many mutilated, surfaced in garbage bins, drainage ditches, minibuses and pickup trucks.
There were the four Duleimi brothers, Khalid, Tarek, Taleb and Salaam, seized from their home in front of their wives. And Achmed Abdulsalam, last seen at a checkpoint in his freshly painted BMW and found dead under a bridge two days later. And Mushtak al-Nidawi, a law student nicknamed Titanic for his Leonardo DiCaprio good looks, whose body was returned to his family with his skull chopped in half.
What frightens Iraqis most about these gangland-style killings is the impunity. According to reports filed by family members and more than a dozen interviews, many men were taken in daylight, in public, with witnesses all around. Few cases, if any, have been investigated.
Part of the reason may be that most victims are Sunnis, and there is growing suspicion that they were killed by Shiite death squads backed by government forces in a cycle of sectarian revenge.”
I guess that endeth your always meaningless distinction between death by terrorist and death by government agents.
Actually my world must be a great deal clearer than yours based on your convoluted understanding of what I have written…..
My statement has little to do with whether he is a “real conservative” and more to do with your ridiculous assumptions about his upbringing and education and current mishaps, which have more to do with Biden and Kerry than Bush…clear so far?
I argued that I can do things to avoid criminals and suicide bombers, but I can do precious little agaisnt the governement (as a single individual at least), ergo, I would much rather take my chances with terrorists than my government agents…still with me?
Finally, a better analogy is it is better to live with a thief that returns your goods and denies taking them than a thief who steals your stuff, admits it, but doesn’t give it back…
Thus endeth the (most recent) lesson….
And as for this bit of nuttery:
“Finally, a better analogy is it is better to live with a thief that returns your goods and denies taking them than a thief who steals your stuff, admits it, but doesn t give it back& ”
Um, okay. I can only that assume, however, that you value material possions over the honesty and integrity of your friends and associates. How else could you live with someone who steals from you but denies doing it? Can I come over and steal your car for a month? I swear I’ll tell you that I borrowed it when I bring it back.
Also, Ben was clearly a serial plagiarist who stole the work of others to advance his career and reputation. Please explain how someone “returns” plagarized words?
post awaiting moderation above
My contribution to BTB day-
Should the entire American Right fall over dead tomorrow, I would rejoice, and order pizza to celebrate. They are not my countrymen; they are animals who happen to walk upright and make noises that approximate speech. They are below human. I look forward to seeing each and every one in Hell.
factcheck: If you were quoting someone else, I’d really like to know who it was.
If that was your own creation, I can promise you, you will get well after a while, with considerable effort on your part.
Never mind, I found your “source.” He’s a psycho, and you copied him. Swell…
Four score and seven years ago our forefathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. We are now engaged in a great civil war testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived, can long endure….
As I wrote in my rather lengthy comment on the previous thread, this asshole, despite having every damn thing in life handed to him on a silver platter (yes, just like our President and his soon-to-be-Senate-intern nephew Pierce), will happily tell all and sundry that he represents “real Americans”, that people who hold views differing from his own are “elitists” and “unpatriotic”. Yet he and his friends in this administration have done every damn thing possible to deny to those very same “real Americans”, the opportunities that they take completely and utterly for granted. My family has worked hard since the day it arrived on these shores, and because of that I am concerned about the plight of working families in this country today. Yet for these concerns I and people like me are derided by these entitled pricks as whacko left-wing bomb throwers, liberal elitists, and Communist and terrorist sympathizers.
I am not religious and so don’t believe in Hell in the first place, but think calling for Box Turtle to be damned is over the top. But I do hope that some day he and our President can put their supposed Christian faith they constantly remind us of into practice and do something to actually help people that really exist, not just theoretical constructs in their fevered imaginations.
Here’s something I thought up all by myself, with no help whatsoever from the New York Times:
He explained the passage that appeared to be copied from Mr. O’Rourke’s book by saying that Mr. O’Rourke gave him permission.
Contacted at his home in New Hampshire, Mr. O’Rourke said that he had never heard of Mr. Domenech and did not recall meeting him.
“I wouldn’t want to swear in a court of law that I never met the guy, Mr. O’Rourke said of Mr. Domenech, “but I didn’t give him permission to use my words under his byline, no.”
I even thought up this random set of letters and numbers:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/25/business/25post.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
This I believe (and I wrote it all by myself, I swear. And yes I am a physist who went to U of Penn).
“Mr Domenech did something stupid, and he got caught; his career is probably ruined.”
Ha! Would that it were so. As a commenter on another blog put it, I m sure Mr. Domenench will have to endure whole agonizing days of unemployment before being offered a nice six figure sinecure at AEI or Heritage. Hell, as far as I know he still has his editing gig at Regnery.
And that s really the thing which most pisses me off about this guy, and the others like him ( Pierce Bush ), which is going to be totally overlooked in the followup hand-wringing and whining on redstate.org about us cruel leftists.
This guy, like many right-wing bloviators, lectures us liberal elitists over and over about how real Americans feel about things. Yet the lives of guys like this in no way whatsover resemble those of real Americans , and I m convinced that this is a big part of why they have no empathy whatsover for the poor and working classes.
Box Turtle Boy got every single damn thing in his life handed to him courtesy of Daddy s money and political connections. He has never, for a single day, had to worry about where his next meal is coming from, whether he would be able to see a doctor if he got sick, whether he would get accepted into college, whether his parents could afford to pay for said college, or whether he d be able to find a good job when he graduated.
Not that he even bothered with the latter. I ve now read that it s confirmed that Box Turtle didn t even bother to graduate from William & Mary. Yet before even the 10th reunion of the class he would have been in had he gotten the diploma, he is writing speeches for Senators, playing editor at Regnery, being the youngest Bush appointee , and has a cushy writing gig at the Washington Post, one of the principal papers of record of our national discourse. Now, I agree with Atrios in that I think the importance of the college degree is overrated and it shouldn t in general be considered a barrier to entry to a lot of professions; however I m quite certain that there is no way on God s earth that any other person without a degree could have gotten a fraction as far as Domenench without Daddy s connections or something like.
Hell, the vast majority of people with fancy degrees couldn t get so far so fast without connections. I attended an Ivy League university (U. of Pennsylvania – Go Quakers!, though I know this makes me another elitist ), took up what most people would consider a somewhat rigorous field of study (physics), graduated with honors, and went on to post-graduate study in the same field. Nevertheless, upon graduation, I had some trouble finding a job and had some financial difficulties because of it (since resolved). There s certainly no way I could have walked into the Senate or the Oval Office and said OK, give me my gig now.
Further, the only reason I could afford to attend such an elitist school is because of a combination of (a) scholarship money, (b) financial aid including Pell grants and work-study programs, (c) student loans, and (d) the Penn Plan , allowing tuition and fees to be payed over longer terms in installments, rather than in a lump sum at the start of the semester. Without all these, there is no way my family could have sent me to this school. My grandparents all immigrated here in the 1920s, and struggled to make it in a foreign land. My father, an Army veteran, could never have afforded our house payments and my college tuition, even spread out over a number of years, without being able to work overtime almost every day for decades at his job as a tool & die maker (a blue collar job which he always felt needed a Union because of how the workers were frequently shat upon by management). The very financial aid programs I mentioned that allowed me to attend an elite university have been severely cut by Ben s patrons in this administration. Ben and his rich conservative friends insist they re more in tune with real America than progressives like me, yet I somehow doubt he had to take out a single dime in student loans.
I came to my progressive (but overall fairly moderate, IMO) views precisely because of thinking about and understanding the kinds of struggles my parents and grandparents had to face. Yet, in the heated rhetoric poisoning our national discourse every day thanks to Box Turtle and his apologists, I am a crazy, America-hating, barking leftist moonbat elitist who is out of touch with real Americans . I defy anyone to look at the lives of Box Turtle, or Pierce soon-to-be Senate intern Bush, or President George Connecticut raised but plays a cowboy on TV W. Bush, and explain to me how they are more American, or more in touch with heartland values , or anything, than I am or millions of people like me are.
Too Classic.
Ben on Dan Froomkin:
“If one spends any amount of time reading the columns of washingtonpost.com’s Dan Froomkin – whose status as leader of the hack is without compare – it’s easy to realize that, on any given day, the cut and paste function has to be a tiring chore.”
I guess Ben would know.
http://www.redstate.com/story/2006/3/2/16536/28064
and, finally, here:
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/
Washington Post’s Resigned Conservative Blogger Calls His Former Bosses “Fools” (UPDATED)
The Washington Post’s former conservative blogger Ben Domenech who resigned yesterday amid allegations that he plagiarized past work has ripped into his former editors, calling them “fools”.
His fiery retort comes in a story on the …
and also here:
http://www.al.com/unseen/
and here:
http://www.jimcrowhistory.org/
Speaking of realjournalism, OT, but well worth it:
http://www.al.com/unseen/unseen.pdf
Requires annoying, quick sign -in
All this stuff about working your way through college brought tears to my eyes — of laughter!
Jealous, much?
I don’t care where he got or how he got there… He s where he is, and that’s that.
I’m sure he doesn’t feel too “privileged” right now.
If he lands on his feet real soon, he’ll be doing what dozens of politicians, liberal and conservative, Democrat and Republican, have done in the past. It is by no means a partisan thing.
It’s an “Inside the Beltway thing, and comparing him to Bush makes it sound like he and Bush are the only two that have been in these circumstances.
It’s what’s wrong with American Politics. Pick out 10 names of formerly well known politicians Democrat, Republican, liberal, conservative — doesn’t matter) from, say 1980 to 1990, obviously still alive and able to work, and see where they are. I’ll bet they’re not “sales assistants” at Wal – Mart.
They’re all living high on the hog awaiting their life – long full pay pension and enjoying a lifetime of free medical care.
Now that’s something to be pissed off about.
“this asshole, despite having every damn thing in life handed to him on a silver platter” … still stole the words of others to pass them off as his own. Without giving a second thought to his own ethical and moral violations, he lectured liberals about intellectual honesty. Ben is a plagarist, a liar and a hypocrite, the trifecta of intellectual dishonesty. Naturally, the first instinct of conservative idiots like pedro is to defend him because pedro realizes: “Ben c’est moi.”
“I m sure he doesn t feel too privileged right now.”
Boo fucking hoo. You’re right though. There are too many sons of priviledge in politics. What’s disgusting, however, is the lenghts to which assholes such as Bush and Domenech go to mask their priviledge while attacking the priviledge of people like Kerry and Kennedy. What’s astounding is just how many “regular” folks lap it up.
“It ain’t me, it ain’t me, I ain’t no senator’s son …”
Box Turtle Ben’s sliminess goes further.
Not content to be a ” plagarist, a liar and a hypocrite, the trifecta of intellectual dishonesty”–when he was finally exposed, what did he do? He blamed liberals and former editors and others.
Everyone except Benny-boy.
This is really funny
Regardless of whether he “feels” it, there is no doubt that he absolutely is. Because as you’ve stipulated, he is going to land on his feet and keep on going at some other high paying conservative gig.
Any “real American”, when found out that he had plagiarised half his work, would not only be fired, but would also find it very difficult to obtain any kind of new job in the same general field of endeavor. And that is why I say that Box Turtle, and Goerge W, do not and cannot understand the real concerns of the real Americans they pretend to represent. Their simplistic solutions to every problem, telling people that they shouldn’t need any kind of assistance in times of trouble, that everyone should just suck it up and move on, is born out of their experience that every time they got in trouble, there was always a monied hand there to bail them out. They have no conception whatsover that when a “real American” loses their job, they also usually lose their health insurance, and so may very rapidly go bankrupt. The “real American” doesn’t often have a billionaire to waltz in and save them if they’re on the verge of bankruptcy. So, to Box Turtle and W, people who are going bankrupt are just wastrel libertines, the unemployed are just lazy parasites, none deserving of any concern or assistance.
Sure, let’s pass more laws so that poor people can’t escape from debt, they deserve the consequences for “spending too much.” Why not slash assistance for higher education, since the top colleges are just turn out more brainwashed liberal elitists? The important thing is to keep the oil flowin’ and the homos from marryin’! We understand you, working class!
[yawn....]
Are you guys still talking about this?
Well, except for rheinhard, who has been shilling for a little more income redistribution….
Like I said, move along….
Is there some reason why you can’t include any other politician in your scenario?
I’ll bet you there isn’t one congressperson or senateperson who was making less than 100K per year when they were elected. They will never make less than again as long as they live. Why confine it to Domenech and Bush?
I’ve always said about all these power – hungry thieves, that “their feet never touch the ground,” because they walk on red carpets to and from limos. Figuratively, not one of them knows how the “teeming masses” live, and they never will.
Why can’t you admit that this is not a partisan thing?
Are you guys still talking about this?
Yes, and so are you. If you find it so yawn-making why don’t you … move along?
Maybe if you keep looking you can find somwhere people are discussing burning current issues like…. Aaron Burr, Robert Byrd’s moth-eaten Klan robes, Chappaquiddick, Ruby Ridge, Whitewater, filegate, fellatiogate, and Vince Foster.
Looks like the AP doesn’t mind a bit of plagiarism -
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/larisa-alexandrovna/msm-plagiarism-strikes-ag_b_17873.html
C’mon, Randy, you know the rule: It’s only wrong when conservatives / Republicans do it…
Frank –
The Huff Post article was written by a journalist complaining about the APs plagiarism. She is the managing editor of Raw Story. Do you even think anymore before you hit submit?
Do you even think when you stalk me around this blog with your unnecessary and nasty comments?
Do you think you were put on earth to bust my chops?
Maybe you should find someone else to annoy…
You’ve certainly gone way over your quota of nastiness for a lifetime.
You really are a vicious, narcissistic, sociopath, aren’t you, Paul?
Of course, if I’m right, and I’m sure I am, you’re just the type that would never know it about himself, or admit it, if he did.