’)Ann Coulter, in an interview with Rush Limbaugh (sort of like Vader kneeling before the Emperor), accuses Markos of Daily Kos of having an unintelligible accent. Not that it matters, but Markos doesn’t have an accent. I’m sure that’s just the surface of the lies, but these are two of the leading “thinkers” on the right. So… enjoy life in the minority.
No, Kos doesn’t have much of an accent. (I’ll leave it up to speech specialists to make the determination if he has any kind of regional accent or not.) But he does have an odd tone/pitch/rhythm that I personally find annoying.
I’m hardly one to criticize, as I’m not that fond of my own spoken voice either, so I never made a point of it before.
To call it an “accent” is technically inaccurate, but it’s a shorthand description for Kos’ speech patterns.
I’m not surprised that you’d call it a “lie,” though. That’s part and parcel of your political methodology — any statement that turns out to be less than 100% accurate is a “lie,” and is used as a cudgel to discredit everything the speaker has ever said and ever will said.
I’m still trying to reconcile this absolutism when it’s applied to those on your side of the ideological spectrum, though. First, of course, is Bill Clinton who LIED!!!!!!! under oath in federal court. That required a new codicil — “it’s OK to lie under oath if it’s about sex, as long as you haven’t ever taken any kind of moral position regarding sex in the past.” Or Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in their last Senate elections pledging to serve out their full terms.
Looks like it’s another example of IOKIYAR — It’s OK If You’re Attacking Republicans.
Oh, and Kos — with or without an accent — is an asshole.
J.
“…and is used as a cudgel to discredit everything the speaker has ever said and
ever will said.”
Yeah, like there aren’t about 100,000 other things that Coulter has said that could be used to discredit her.
Kos is the asshole who drank your milkshake in 2006 and 2008, Jay. Get used to it for 2010 and 2012 as well.
And no, he doesn’t have an accent. Just Ann Coulter trying to make weird racial comments again while she tries to sell a book that nobody wants to read.
But Jay, one thing Kos also is is a veteran. Remind us all again which branch of the armed forces you served in? Navy? Marines? I keep forgetting. My bad.
Woo hoo. Kos is a veteran. Big whoopty shit. And no, I never served. About four health issues each would have disqualified me from being accepted. Again, big whoopty shit.
He’s still a demagogue whose site is a carbuncle on the ass of the internet. Back during the campaign, Kos was ground zero for the most vile attacks on Palin — especially the ones that were utter lies. (Palin wasn’t Trig’s birth mother, Palin slashed funding for pregnant teens, Palin had an affair with her husband’s business partner, Palin cut funding for special needs students.) In each case, the charges were provably wrong, but that didn’t stop the Kossacks from starting those lies and pushing them all over the internet, even after they were disproven.
And Kos did nothing to stop it being done on the site that he owns and bears his name. Neither he nor anyone he empowered to regulate his site stepped in and put a stop to it.
They do kill articles and diaries, though — but only when it embarrasses Kos and the community. Spreading libelous lies is perfectly acceptable, and often encouraged. Embarrassing Kos, though, is a capital offense.
What was your point about bringing up Kos’ military record, anyway? So he served. So did John McCain, Timothy McVeigh, Jimmy Carter, Richard Nixon, Lyndon Johnson, and Benedict Arnold. I didn’t. Neither did Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, or Dick Cheney.
Did you? No, don’t answer. I don’t care.
Oh, and Oliver, if Rush and Coulter are such big liars, why was the takeaway lie of this one that “OMG! They said Kos had an accent!!!!!!” THAT was your money quote? That you needed to back up with a YouTube video?
Wow.
J.
I’m not surprised that you’d call it a “lie,” though.
I’m not surprised you were the first idiot here defending this shit:
I’ll tell you what this is, Jay Tea, it’s a lie as prelude to an anti-American racist rant.
And you’re defending her with weak ass crap like this: “To call it an “accent” is technically inaccurate, but it’s a shorthand description for Kos’ speech patterns.”?
Dude. She didn’t just say he had an “accent”, she said “they all speak in foreign accents of their foreign upbringings.”
Speech patterns don’t enter into it. She’s drawing attention to their foreigness as if that’s supposed to discredit them. “Can’t they wait a few generations?” she asks?
According to Coulter, Kos should have the decency not to try to shape the country his children will grow up in. He should just shut up and hope for the best while assholes like herself, Limbaugh and you push your bullhist and hope that this country is worth fucking living in by the time his kids are “approved” to speak.
Jay Tea, I don’t know if you’re drunk, on drugs, just had your credit card rejected by a porn site or all three, but you’ve just thrown up two of the most obnoxious, fucked up and seriously pathetic comments you’ve ever written.
And there’s a lot of freaking competition for that slot.
Could you please just go the fuck away, now?
THAT was your money quote? That you needed to back up with a YouTube video?
Okay. I had never heard Kos’ voice before and I just watched that Charlie Rose clip.
I only have one question for you Jay Tea. Leaving aside Coulter’s obvious lie, I’m wondering what its feels like for you to have to lie to yourself on a day-to-day, minute-to-minute basis?
Seriously. How do you do it?
Jay Tea, I want to thank you for informing me about that commie, pinko, faggot, “demagogue…” Kos “… whose site is a carbuncle on the ass of the internet.”
Gee, now that I know YOUR opinion I’ll never visit there again!
Face it Jay Tea…
Kos, Huff, and many others – including Oliver Willis, our humble host here, have all contributed on the “inter tubes” to help destroy the right’s propaganda monopoly on “talk radio.”
The Right’s ownership of radio talk shows is no longer relevant. Period. It only mattered when we had no counter, no response. When their lies and misinformation went unchallenged day after day, week after week, year after year.
Now we CRUSH them – every single day we nip their lies in the bud. Between the Internet and Maddow, Stewart, Olbermann, Colbert, Maher and others we tear their distortions to pieces.
Let Jay Tea and Rush sing whatever swan song they want. As a significant political force the right are a spent force.
Jay Tea keep on howling at the sky. While we control the next century.
He’s still a demagogue whose site is a carbuncle on the ass of the internet.
Someone’s been playing a bit too much Final Fantasy me thinks.
Oh, and Oliver, if Rush and Coulter are such big liars, why was the takeaway lie of this one that “OMG! They said Kos had an accent!!!!!!” THAT was your money quote? That you needed to back up with a YouTube video?
Give him a little slack, one man can only take so much bile at a time.
“Kos was ground zero for the most vile attacks on Palin”
Nope, that was Andrew Sullivan. Look, for ideological reasons and the fact that he’s been wildly succesful in his “netroots” organizing (we won’t ever have to hear from a Republican bigot like George Allen again, the guy who was _supposed_ to be the future of your damn party) I realize you have to hate him. And your tears of frustration are all the more sweet and delicious to me because what he’s managed to do is build a site that beats the Republican smear-machine at its own game.
The dude plays hardball and doesn’t back down. Perhaps more importantly, he raises the money needed for Democratic “longshots” to actually get elected.
But since you’ve got a boy genius like Patrick “Obama will never raise much money” Ruffini as your net leadership, I’m sure you sleep soundly thinking about the future of your doomed, regional party.
“spreading libelous lies is perfectly acceptable”
Thufferin’ thuckotash! Yeah, we should all learn from the great objectivity of Little Green Footballs and Free Republic.
Again, it’s a lib site. Of course you hate it. But what’s funny is that you try to dismiss it when in fact it gets more traffic than any conservative site could ever dream of, in addition to raising actual funds for progressive candidates at all levels. And he made over a million bucks last year on the site alone, allowing him to hire full-time staffers to make the place even more powerful.
(Mylegacy kind of beat me to some of these points, but it’s fun to see Jay spray spittle and gesticulate. Kind of like taunting the monkeys at the zoo.)
I spend all day doing my part to help expose the lies and distortions of Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh. Pardon me if I’m dealing with a surface issue here. It’s just part of a pattern, as is the emotional defense of your fellow ideological lie-peddlers.
If someone is going to lie and attack about something as simple as an accent, why would you believe them on economics, foreign policy, or national security?
Jay, all those false things about Palin that you mentioned don’t even compare to some of the swill that some fairly prominent people on the Right dished out at Clinton (example: Jerry Foulwell hawked a video on his TV show called “The Clinton Chronicles” that accused Bill Clinton of, among other things, murder).
Pardon me if I’m dealing with a surface issue here.
This is hardly a surface issue. It cuts to the corrupt core of who Coutler is, who Limbaugh is and who their idiot followers, such as Jay Tea, are.
Coulter is clearly stating that naturalized American citizens should just be grateful to be here and that they ought to have the decency to refrain from engaging in any kind of political speech that she finds unacceptable.
I don’t think even Jay Tea would dare suggest that she is not, in fact, saying this. Although, I wouldn’t be surprised if he tried. (Indeed, I wouldn’t put it past him to drag out his “outrage” over Limbaugh’s 16 year old Chelsea Clinton joke as proof that he’s nothing like Limbaugh. Please, Jay, would you dust that old chestnut off for us one more time?)
Anyway, Coulter knows Kos was born in Chicago. She knows he doesn’t speak with an accent. But fuck it. His parents were foreign born and he grew up in El Salvador. That’s enough for her to include him as a target for the manufactured outrage of the nativist, racist fucks who listen to her and Limbaugh.
She doesn’t have to lie about Kos to include him in this particular screed if she wants. For that matter, she doesn’t have to lie about Soros or Huffington, who do have accents, being unintelligible, which they most certainly aren’t.
But it doesn’t matter if she does.
The more foreign she can make all three of them appear, the more of a lather her audience are going to work themselves into. The more of a lather their in, the less likely it is that they’re going to check her facts.
Don’t rinse and repeat.
In other words, this isn’t just some small “mistake” or harmless “misstatement” on Coulter’s part. It’s the crux of her whole endeavor: Lie to stoke the outrage/stoke the outrage so you can lie.
If you want to see how effective this is, just look at Jay Tea’s comments in this thread. And Jay Tea couldn’t check a fact if you through the Encyclopedia Britannica, Vols A-Z at his head on a good day.
“through”
Yes, i know.
Has anyone else enjoyed watching Jay’s tantrums continue to arrive both faster and more insane as we get closer and closer to Inauguration Day?
August–
I’m trying feel for Jay Tea. It is burdensome to continue to defend the idiocy of someone like Ann Coulter. He puts up wonderfully sad arguments for the continued lunacy of the scared, delusional and xenophobic right. It has become his Greek Chorus (or is he frightened of the Greeks?) Never mind. I want to sympathize with him–but obviously my head would explode if I tried too hard.
(And wouldn’t Jay love for a liberal’s head to explode!)
And yes, as the clock ticks closer–it seems to me, indeed, Jay Tea has become slightly –undone.
OK, this is embarrassing. I actually needed to be reminded to not just go on Oliver’s summation and double-check the source material. The bit about Kos’ “accent” was only the tip of the iceberg.
Good fucking god, what a load of bullshit. What a teeming load of bullshit.
Kos, Huffington, and Soros are, indeed, emblematic about what is fundamentally wrong with the Democratic party today. Jaim sums up Kos’ value to the Democrats perfectly — he plays hardball, he doesn’t back down, and he raises tons of money. That he does so without a trace of principle or conscience or integrity doesn’t matter; he has bought his way into prominence, with the currencies of dollars and readers and sheer antagonism, so he has his place at the table.
Soros has chosen to use his incredibly vast fortune to reshape this country into his twisted ideal, and has poured literally billions into various front groups, foundations, non-profits, and other various and sundry factions — as much of it as he can out of public sight — to achieve those goals.
Huffington is the crassest form of political opportunist. She took her money and found a front to work behind, and pushed and bullied him into seeking power so she could use it through him. Then, when he renounced her (and all women to boot, admitting he was gay), she dumped him and all she’d pushed him to stand for and threw everything she had into the opposite party. I dunno if it was an unmasking or a rejection of everything about him (save his name and money), but she went from a Republican wife to a Democratic key player almost literally overnight.
But this bullshit about “foreign origins…”
Christ, I wish I’d followed the link instead of just reading Oliver’s “she said he has an accent!!!” hissiness. I wish Oliver had extrapolated more and said that it wasn’t just an accent, but a whole Nativist, Pat Buchanan-esque rant that Coulter went on.
My bad. I knew Oliver is not a completely reliable source, that he often omits details and skips inconvenient elements, and I still took him at his word that the most offensive part of what Coulter said was that Kos had an accent — NOT that it was part and parcel of a larger, even more appalling tirade.
This is what Coulter does. This is what she lives for — to stir up trouble, to throw bombs. This is who she is.
In this case, there is a bit of an irony in that the “victim” of this particular bomb is Kos, who does shit like this (either personally or through his site) all the time, so I don’t feel a bit of sympathy for him. (Yes, Andrew Sullivan is probably the most consistent “Trig Troofer” out there, but it was all over Kos, too, along with all the other flat-out lies I cited — I had them handy because I wrote an article entitled “The Protocols Of The Daily Kos” that explored it all.)
I also have a great deal of trouble finding much sympathy for Soros and Huffington, either. Indeed, this attack of Coulter’s is very much in tune with their general tactics and methods. It’s really, really hard for me to not have just a hint of a Chris Matthews-esque “thrill up my leg” when these three worthies get the treatment they not only richly deserve, but cheerfully engage in on a regular basis.
But despite her good choice of targets, Coulter was flat-out wrong and did a despicable, loathsome thing here, and reaffirms what I wrote about her a long time ago: she’s a bomb-thrower, and she’s not about to stop. The only thing you do with them is keep an eye to see where those bombs are landing and keep them the fuck away from any sort of position of power or prominence or influence. Every now and then throw them a bone or two (speaking engagements, book contracts and the like) to keep them from throwing their bombs your way, but under no circumstances put them where they can exert any real authority.
Such as, say, trying to elect them Senator from Minnesota, to cite one of Coulter’s (considerably less competent and entertaining) counterparts.
Most of the time, I’m content to ignore Coulter and Limbaugh. And this shows me that I am right to do so.
J.
Have you all noticed that all the Righties are simply CRAZED trying to find something – anything – to stir up right now? Including the supposed accents of bloggers? Will it ever occur to them that the American public is scared shitless right now and doesn’t have the time or interest in their nonsense? Tens of thousands of jobs are going down the drain, homes are being abandoned, people are doing without healthcare because they can’t afford it and Ann, Rush, and our neighborhood Troll want to complain about how Kos sounds. Gee, wonder why they seem so irrelevant right now?
Sounds as close to an admission of defeat as we’ll ever see from JT.
Jay:
Read our lips.
Kiss our asses.
OW will prolly delete this, but it has to be said.
Anyone want to second this proposal?
In your dreams, Randy. In your homoerotic/homophobic dreams.
Oh, and Bruce, it was not an admission of defeat. It was an admission of error. There is a world of difference.
J.
What a load of steaming horsepoo from JT (again). This is where he distances himself from the polemicists like Coulter, while erroneously comparing them to Kos or Arianna Huffington.
Truth is, Coulter is one step above JT. At least Coulter is making a fortune from her rants. JT spouts his twisted ideology here for free. And Coulter can get a date.
“My bad. I knew Oliver is not a completely reliable source, that he often omits details and skips inconvenient elements, and I still took him at his word that the most offensive part of what Coulter said was that Kos had an accent — NOT that it was part and parcel of a larger, even more appalling tirade.”
Shorter JT: I’m too lazy to read the link, and that’s Oliver’s fault.
“That he does so without a trace of principle or conscience or integrity doesn’t matter”
Because Rush Limbaugh has never made any money being a partisan media figure.
G’night jay. Finish up your PB&J with the crusts cut off and go to bed. America made a decision in 2006 and this past November, and you are firmly on the side of epic fail.
Gotta admit, it’s been fun watching you pretty much explode into a fine red mist of useless talking points.
You should probably start your own blog so we can keep up with your basement adventures and wingnut fantasies. I think there’s about four or five people out there who might actually read it!
And in the fine JT tradition of “that’s-not-exactly-what-I-said” hair-splitting, I said it was “as close to” an admission of defeat as we’ll ever see from you, sir.
Hmmmm. Jay seems horrifically disturbed that Kos raises money, Soros has money,
and Arianna married money. . . Money issues Jay? Not to worry, the economy
is frightening many people.
But c’mon—blaming Oliver because he didn’t bottle feed you Ann’s poisonous tripe. Can’t you ever just say, simply, “my bad”?
To paraphrase Keith Olbermann, another one of those liberals you guys insist has no influence but drives you batshit insane: “MR. THAYER, SHUT… THE HELL… UP.”
And no, I never served.
Wow! Jay Tea’s a chickenhawk. Knock me over with a feather. Who’da thunk it?
First, of course, is Bill Clinton who LIED!!!!!!! under oath in federal court.
I’m sure you probably know this, but Clinton was never in Federal Court. That was a deposition.
Yeah, he lied about cheating on his wife and getting caught. You’d probably do the same.
Shorter Coulter: Kos, Huffington, same diff.
How dare they exercise-and let others exercise- their first amendment rights.
Wow she is delusional.
One side of her mouth: “Funny accents, ha ha, who can understand this goober?”
Other side: “Minorities and immigrants vote for Democrats just because they want free stuff. Yep, that’s it.”
Ever so slightly OT, there’s a pretty good editorial in this week’s Newsweek by the pastor whose church that Coulter/Limbaugh fan shot up over the summer.
Never mind all this justification and commentary. I say WTF if Kos DOES have an accent? and STFU if you have a problem with it.
JT,
Markos is the most successful political blogger — EVER. His site was the difference in a few razor-thin elections that gave the Democrats a Senate majority in 2006.
Imagine that. One powerful blogger gave his party a Senate majority. Is there a conservative equivalent? Probably not, because as soon as the blogosphere exploded, they started losing elections.
Although he was not born in the United States and has a very slight accent, he has a degree in journalism (AND law), and his written English is excellent.
Kos has something like 200,000 registered users, and my UID there is #206 because I signed up on Day One.
I hear you have a website too. How does your traffic compare to DKos? Really? Do you think the difference is the result of a conspiracy, or does Markos have something you don’t?
Ann Coulter will forever be etched in my memory as the person who, during a television panel interview, insisted to the Prime Minister of Canada that Canada had troops in Vietnam during the Vietnam Conflict.
So, on the one hand you have the Prime Minister of a country who should have some knowledge of the military conflicts his nation has been engaged in, and on the other hand you have Ann Coulter who has the perverse ability to never admit being wrong and never admit that someone outside of her political views is correct.
Which one do you believe? Well, the wingnuts cheered her for “standing up to foreign know-it-alls”.
Anything goes when you are “riling up the libs”, you know. That’s why the Right loves Coulter; she “drives the libs crazy”. As long as the Republicans think that pissing off Democrats is the same as winning elections and governing, then they are doomed to the wilderness.
Coulter is the carny geek of conservatism, what she says is utterly irrelevant – it’s just done to shock. But to my sorrow I clicked through to the Hotair site and scrolled down to the comments where my gorge was raised by the following:
If the concept of Coulter and Limbaugh doing it — and that there are people who would applaud — doesn’t send you into paroxysms of gibbering horror, they’re something deeply broken in you.
While I’m somewhat doubtful of the ability of either Rush Limbaugh or Ann Coulter to procreate with anyone, let alone each other, I would hope that any offspring would bring them the exact amount of joy they both deserve.
I’m content to ignore Coulter and Limbaugh. And this shows me that I am right to do so.
Amen to that, brother.
I’m just curious, Jay. Does Wizbang delete posts they don’t agree with? I know you have let some of us come over and hash it out, so I thank you for that, but does the site have a “beyond-the-pale” policy?
As long as the Republicans think that pissing off Democrats is the same as winning elections and governing, then they are doomed to the wilderness.
I’m cool with that. How about you guys?
If the concept of Coulter and Limbaugh doing it…
Eh. Talk about angry sex.
My bad.
Just go the fuck away.
I knew Oliver is not a completely reliable source, that he often omits details and skips inconvenient elements, and I still took him at his word that the most offensive part of what Coulter said was that Kos had an accent — NOT that it was part and parcel of a larger, even more appalling tirade.
In apologizing for being a complete douche — AGAIN! — you still try to spread the blame around.
Seriously. Just go the fuck away.
30 mniute interview and all that you take away from it is that Coulter said Markos had an accent?
I’m sure Obama’s a nice guy personally, but, I watched my country get sold a bill of goods by a media that seems to be totally in the pocket of the Democratic Party as well as the left-wing of this country. Where is the attitude from our journalists that their job is to report the news, not embellish it with their personal bias?
No investigative reports on where Obama came from and what his associations past and present might mean to our country, just bromides and rhetoric about “Hope and Change”.
What we get is a front page story about an alleged affair about McCain, Please.
Opinions are like rectums, everyone has them. However, when I hear people crying about how people are attacking them personally, when all that was done was a disagreement with said person’s opinion, I would say the problem is with you rather than the person who disagreed with you.
Our country is in trouble right now, in my opinion, because of a mentality that says your troubles are all caused by other people, that you’re not responsible for your own actions and all you need is to elect people who will use the government to take care of you.
Nah, I don’t buy that and I’m sorry for you if you do.
Personally, I’d like the government to have as little influence on my life as possible.
BTW I am a Marine Corps veteran,0331 m-60 machinegunne 83-87, I wasn’t a REMF like Markos
Jay Tea: To call it an “accent” is technically inaccurate, but it’s a shorthand description for Kos’ speech patterns.
I’m not surprised that you’d call it a “lie,” though. That’s part and parcel of your political methodology — any statement that turns out to be less than 100% accurate is a “lie,”
Geez, do you ever get tired of making excuses for the right? She said he has an accent and is unintelligible. He doesn’t and he isn’t.
But rather than be a reasonable adult and admit “Yeah, she got that wrong.” you are compelled to declare that when someone on the right says something that isn’t true they are merely “technically inaccurate” and then try to change the subject by complaining about the left.
Shorter JT: My side is never, ever wrong in anything they say. Oh, and look over there!
Jay Tea, 12:46: To call it an “accent” is technically inaccurate
Jay Tea, 7:23: Coulter was flat-out wrong and did a despicable, loathsome thing here
Anybody else getting whiplash?
Jay Tea: It was an admission of error.
I call bullshit.
An admission of error would be something like “Yeah, she was wrong when she said that and I was mistaken to defend it.”
What you did was a rambling, “look, over there!”, self-contradictory attempt to distance yourself from Coulter and her ilk while praising them as better that those on the left.
Time for a VOTE, people:
Should we demand that Jay go far, far away and never soil our comment board again?
Yes, or no?
Randy Brown: Should we demand that Jay go far, far away and never soil our comment board again?
I, for one, would really like it if there was someone from the right commenting here who making reasonably valid points supporting their view*. I value someone who disagrees with me and makes me think enough about my views that I have to adequately defend them or reconsider them. Given many from the right who have commented here, JT has actually been closest to that at times. And is the only one of them I’ve ever seen actually say he’d gotten something wrong (and far better than he has on this thread).
But lately he’s slipped a lot. I think the several who have noted JT seems to be losing it more the closer we get to President Obama are onto something.
* Too many folks, from both sides, seem incapable of ever criticizing someone on their own side “of the aisle” or praising someone on the other.
Sorry randy I vote for Jay to stay, mostly because I love how his absurd his view of reality really is.
Has anyone else enjoyed watching Jay’s tantrums continue to arrive both faster and more insane as we get closer and closer to Inauguration Day?
I don’t share the feelings of those here who think Jay Tea represents some kind of reasonable, center-right voice whose come a little off the tracks since the election.
All that’s happened, as August points out, is that his idiot screeds are getting stupider and coming faster across a wider array of subject threads. I tremble at the thought of speculating on why.
I don’t think Jay Tea should be banned or “voted off the island,” as it were because the dude would only claim it as a badge of honor. This is a guy, after all, who is adept at both appeals to pity and massive self-deception.
But even beyond that, it really should be up to Jay Tea himself, whether he wants to keep coming back here to make an utter fool of himself.
Every time the guy is proven wrong and humiliated, he always choses to return. I would admire that if, on each new approach, he had shown a little improvement, displayed some sense of learning. But he never does. I find this fascinating.
The guy has been utterly schooled on facts and analysis across the board all week long and what does he do on Friday? Does he resolve to check his facts before hitting submit next time? Does he take some time to actually think through the logic and consequences of his arguments? No. Of course not.
He doubles down on the stupid with a tirade against Oliver, Kos, Dems and others all in defense of Ann Coulter without even knowing what it is, exactly, Coulter even said. In deciding not to click the link to see what Coulter had actually said, Jay Tea choose to remain ignorant of the basic facts before reaching a conclusion about Oliver’s post and arguing for it.
What kind of a person does that? I know that if I’m going to call someone a huge douche, I make sure I have my facts straight first.
Jay Tea, not so much. Screed first, fact check later.
For anyone who thinks Jay Tea deserves credit for “correcting himself” and “apologizing” I have no idea which of his comments you read, but I read the one that included this:
Gimme a freaking break. As Enlightened Liberal responded:
So when I say I’d like Jay tea to just go away, I mean it. But he needs to realize why on his own. I don’t know how many drubbings it’s going to take before he understands that he needs to seriously rethink his whole approach, if not his life entirely, but I think i see a sign of progress.
Whether Jay Tea admitted defeat or admitted error doesn’t matter. The most interesting point was when Jay Tea admitted he was embarrassed. I thought that by this time, the guy was beyond embarrassment.
Maybe Jay Tea has taken his first step on the path to recovery. I guess we’ll see.
I’m not sure where the notion came from but Jay Tea isn’t getting banned. Look, he’s completely wrong on almost everything (he likes comic books, so I give him that) but he’s on topic and doesn’t always try to hijack and derail threads like some other cons who are no longer welcome here (and there are a couple lefties whose comments have been moderated into spam because all they were doing is linking back to their blogs – a linkback is no big deal but I kind of want it to be even slightly relevant).
But yeah, wrong on most everything.
I’m sure the next time he stubs his toe it will be my fault too for my dishonest linking policy or whatev.
P.S. Jay once insinuated that I disappeared a comment because I disagreed with it. Unless it contains an unwarranted personal attack or just cut and pastes talking points/entire articles, this doesn’t happen.
“Personally, I’d like the government to have as little influence on my life as possible.”
I couldn’t agree more. And that’s why I vote Democrat. I’m 34 years old. In my adult lifetime, there’s only been one president who managed to reign in Federal spending (especially with Welfare reform) and balance the budget, not to mention creating millions of new, middle-class and upper middle-class jobs (under Bush II, job growth was concentrated to service sector positions, i.e., eight bucks an hour with no benefits).
So here’s the thing — your unspoken assumption is that Republicans are the party of less government. But how is this the case for people my age? Under Bush II, the Federal government ballooned in size and expense, even if you take out military spending (which is certainly not a small amount). Sorry, but you don’t get to make the assumption any longer that Republicans are, by definition, for small government. The last eight years, and especially 2001-2006, demonstrate that the only thing worse than “tax and spend” Democrats are “create crippling deficits and spend” Republicans.
As for government intrusiveness, the Bush regime has done its damndest to limit our Constitutional rights, particularly the first and fourth amendments. An American citizen (Hamdi) has been denied his basic Constitutional rights to a fair trial. Bush’s lawyers have made it clear that they will not follow the law when it comes to getting permission to wire-tap American citizens.
So, small, less expensive government? Obviously, you should be voting Democrat. I hope you’ll consider doing so.
Jaim makes a good point but still can’t see the forest for the trees. The Republicans have done a horrible job of containing the size of the government. But Jaim is hopelessly naive if he thinks that the government would be smaller if Gore or Kerry had won.
The credit he gives the Clinton administration belongs to the Republican congress that forced those measures down Clinton’s throat.
Likewise his views on intrusiveness are quite selective. The Democrats have been solidly against the 2nd amendment for as long as I can remember. Gutting the 14th amendment has long been a plank of the Democrat party. Clinton’s watch made a mockery of the 4th amendment with deadly results.
Likewise Jaim’s championing of Hamdi is quite telling. His Constitutional rights would have relevence if he had been caught in the U.S. committing a crime but that is not the case. An enemy combatent captured in Afghanistan, a terrorist traitor. Execution in the field would have been an appropriate and legal way to deal with that man. Instead he is the poster child for Jaim of how Bush tramples the Constitution.
Jaim: Sorry, but you don’t get to make the assumption any longer that Republicans are, by definition, for small government. …
So, small, less expensive government? Obviously, you should be voting Democrat.
Somewhere on a another thread here I posted some stats on the size of the Federal budget during each presidential term o f the last 40 years or so. I can’t recall the specifics off the top of my head, but the basic truth was clear: By several different measures the budget and deficits grow far more under Republican Presidents than Democratic ones.
I’ve no doubt that if you listed the accomplishments of presidents without revealing the names and asked Republicans which presidents they liked best, they’d find themselves selecting the Democrats.
J. G. Thayer: “Christ, I wish I’d followed the link instead of just reading Oliver’s ’she said he has an accent!!!’ hissiness. I wish Oliver had extrapolated more and said that it wasn’t just an accent, but a whole Nativist, Pat Buchanan-esque rant that Coulter went on.”
So you made a mistake, and you are blaming Oliver for it.
Simply amazing.
Oh, and for the record. For all of your attacks on Kos, he’s a better blogger than you in every way imaginable. He’s smarter than you, he’s politically more powerful, and he has more readers than you could even dream about.
Face it, you are a jealous loser. Loser being the key word.
“…when I hear people crying about how others are attacking them personally, when all that was done was disagreement with said person’s opinion.”
You do realize, don’t you, that one can disagree with a person’s opinion by “attacking them personally?”
“No investigative reports on where Obama came from…”
Just like there were “no investigative reports” on where McCain “came from” (whatever that means, anyway).
“What we got is a front page story about an alleged affair about McCain…”
That story was not about “an alleged affair about McCain,” despite the continued whining of conservatives like you that it was.
“Personally, I’d like the government to have as little influence on my life as possible.”
Interesting choice of words with “my life” instead of “peoples’ lives.” You sound like an egocentric little twit.
Hamdi was a US citizen who was denied his rights of due process. How is it “championing” a fellow American citizen to say they should be treated according to the US Constitution? His rights don’t go away when he leaves the country, from the perspective of American law. If he committed a crime, he should have been punished. Thing is, the US couldn’t even put a case together against him.
But that’s Republicans for you — people who don’t care about the rule of law, even as it applies to their own fellow citizens.
And he’s by far the only case.
And really, you defend Bush and the Republican party’s addiction to massive Federal spending by saying “ZOMG GORE WUD HAVE 2″? You realize this is why nobody takes your party seriously any longer, correct? Republicans don’t have any principles — they make government bigger and more expensive, and they want to invade your personal life.
Welcome to the collapse of their party.
OK, OW. I see your point.
Besides, Jay makes an absolutely lovely pinata.
AO: The credit [Jaim] gives the Clinton administration belongs to the Republican congress that forced those measures down Clinton’s throat.
But they couldn’t do the same to Bush? Why not?
guynamedjoe: No investigative reports on where Obama came from and what his associations past and present might mean to our country, just bromides and rhetoric about “Hope and Change”.
Where the fuck have YOU been for the last year? Ayers. Wright. Rezko. ACORN. There have been plenty of stories about Obama’s associations. They tended to be full of false info and right-wing spin, but there were certainly there. But revisionary historian you are, of course all you’d clami there were were the “Hope and Change”.
guynamedjoe: However, when I hear people crying about how people are attacking them personally, when all that was done was a disagreement with said person’s opinion, I would say the problem is with you rather than the person who disagreed with you.
When someone responds to an opinion my insulting the speaker it shows that they don’t have a counter-argument. That’s why they need to change the subject. Coulter’s “Markos has a funny accent so we don’t need to pay attention to his opinion” is a prime example of this”. And it does make things personal in a way that the original statement of an opinion does not.
But, if you’d prefer, we can do things your way:
joe”, I disagree with your opinion. But you’re a stupid jerk who clearly has problems understanding basic facts but not much more could be expected from a retarded ignoramus like you.
There. If you’ve taken any offense at my insults then clearly “the problem is with you”.