jump to navigation

BBB: Boys push back. Links and whatever else… Updates and a Whupdate. 24 June 2006

Posted by marisacat in Big Box Blogs, DC Politics.
trackback

 smile smile smile

 Well, how old are the Zengerle pieces in The Plank?  Mid week?  Earlier?… due to Fog of Blog Wars, I must check… (Zengerle's first piece appeared the 21st).

 In the mean time, some links to the push back.  The fake phrase.  Or was it used elsewhere. But still, Zengerle is on the spot here.  Where did he get that phrase *AND* where did Gilliard use it, if he did, since he does not fully refute the phrase – or something similar. To be clear, neither Greenwald nor Mike Stark are refuting the email extracts that Zengerle quoted. 

To refresh, here is the phrase at issue:

I dont see how this can be ignored. We should all write in defense of this once we know the facts. Jerome?

Feeling clear on this?

 Read the whole of the Gilliard post, the convoluted, stern! refutation… and see what you think.

 A snip:

Only problem: I have no record of sending such an e-mail to the Townhouse list, Kos, Armstrong, who did not participate in any of the discussions, or anyone else. I didn't send any e-mail with that phrase at all. There's a similar phrase sent to Hubris Sonic a month before on an entirely different topic, and the Greenwald e-mail

To be fair, I told Glenn I disagreed with the characterization of it being false, because I may have express some kind of sentiment close to that. The issue to me is not that Zengerle created it out of whole cloth, but if he got it from a source that he was too lazy and sloppy to confirm it with me. Let me be clear, I didn't deny writing the e-mail. I said that I had no record of writing such an e-mail with that phrase, to the list on that day.

I told Zengerle the same thing and that he needs to provide the provenance of the e-mail so I can confirm or deny it. If it turns out I didn't write those words, I'm going to write Franklin Foer, the editor of the New Republic and demand a retraction and an apology.

 Greenwald (previous MCat post has a couple comments from his piece extracted),  Gilliard lui-meme and —  I hear Hunter has a piece up over at BlogSon, Daily Kos.  Found it, it is meta meta meta. Everything and a navel to contemplate TOO!

  I am still calling for meta-morphosis! 

  His piece responds to this from Peretz. 

A MESSAGE FROM TNR'S LIEBERMAN-LOVING NEOCON OWNER:

Forgive me. But I never read Daily Kos until today. Well, now that I've read it, the first thought that came to me is how illiterate Kos is, just plain illiterate. There has been other not-with-a-pick-axe-but-with-a-bludgeon left-wing journalism in the English speaking world, the American PM, for example, or the British Tribune. If you look them up (they must be some place on the Web), you'll see how elegant surgical argument can be. OK, that's not what the Daily Kos is. Daily Kos is actually a rant, Kos's own rant and then his comrades.

And his rant against us, well, borders on a nut case's.

 I am calling Blog Swarm, Blog War and TNR as mag stand in for Greater MSM.  And I think everyone needs crisis management and media lessons, lessons that don't include hair gel.

 And really, in the big world, who cares.  The real political story is what is happening slightly off stage.  A part of that is Warner, the earnest and very nervous Southern White Male, ''Dem in a Red State'' pol – dragging Mudcat Saunders with him for "color commentary", and when he decides to, just how loudly he cashiers the West Coast Astrologer.  That is the real story – or a part of it…

 Til we hear of that one, snips from Greater, but ever lesser, Blog World for weekend amusement.

 Here is a snip from the Hunter (made it to the Rec List, call mother!) close:

In short, Peretz writes two paragraphs of personal attack blasting the shabby illiteracy of personal attacks, ignores the issues raised as to his magazine's own "reporting", and considers himself smugly vindicated.

Perhaps he is. And perhaps that demonstrates, as much as anything, the tattered shreds of that old and once-proud banner, one that many of us will no longer pretend at propping into relevance.

 Well snap! honey. Take that.  Zowie Pow!  Marty is shaking. His is also briefer.  Hunter reminds of weeks of his pieces on IBM Selectrics, circa 1972.  Or whatever it was.  The RW still got Rather, they'd only been gunning for him for decades….  Leftischer Blogs (but they are not Left, we all know that – nor do they wish to be "left out") ''got'' Bob Domenech.  Oh well, not to worry!, before that they "got" Gannon, nee Guckert.  Big Whup.  Some thought it would be "Watergate again!".  Anything here sound like Fitzmas?? … and "Fitzmas" was a froth-built, 2005 edition Dem Party diversion to energise the base – as Roberts and Alito ascended to the court - it is separate from the real issues in the war, the lying to go to war – and the retaliatory outing of a NOC whose area of expertise was WMD.    And some, I do believe, saw a movie in that one.  And still did at opening comments at Spasm in the Desert.

 I recall many a shrieked for, begged for, cry for battle from the boys (and the girls), they wanted to, oh, go to battle against or with MSM, with TNR, with the DLC (til they did not)… I am remembering the piece that Kos lui-meme FPed – but did not write, in February of 2005, for a ''DNCer in the know" and thus posted an anonymous hit piece on Donna Brazile.  He says he apologised to her… but the apology needed to be FPed at Dkos.  That I do not recall.

 Boys wanted rumbles badly – I'm a Jet all the way til my last dying day!… they begged and begged for it.  So, be happy. Sing a song.  Call your mothers.  You can now wear long pants. Or push-up bras.  Enjoy. 

 Days of our Lives.  Sands in the Hourglass.  As the Blogs Squirm. 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

UPDATE,  9:25 am, PT

Sean Paul at Agonist says Zengerle must burn his sources or …

He either needs to a.) apologize for lying about what Steve Gilliard did not write or b.) burn the sources that sent him the fictitious email. I can personally vouch for Steve that he did not write said email and that I did not receive any email from him that even remotely resembled the one Zengerle cites. It's really quite simple: 'fess up, Zengerle.

Think I am going with Punk Ass, from the comments: 

Armstrong Still Not A Male Prostitute, Technically

That Kos is even giving the story time of day is fucking diabolical, considering the only interesting thing about the whole armstrong thingie is not that Armstrong actually shilled stocks for cash, the interesting thing is that

A) It wasn’t a huge fucking shock (”Major democratic party blogger used to be a con man for big business” should be a scandal of some kind, if you think about it, but isn’t because it’s armstrong, who is an already proudly out member of the paid-for-dem-hack community), and of course  B) That Kos apparently thinks that there is nothing wrong with doing this, like Armstrong is being called on smoking pot in college or something actually minor, this man lied to trusting internet denizens so that they’d basically pump money into his bank account.

This puts him on the same level as nigerian scam artists (so if armstrong ever starts a fundraiser to get a trapped Kossack astronaut down from a secret Democratic Party manned satellite, don’t believe him).

Jedmunds at Pandagon on what I am now calling:

 The Condo Owners Association List. 

 BTW, I recall one expostion that stated upwards of 300 were on that list.  hmmm I can guess some.  But a listing would be interesting.  And there was media, oh, sympathetic media bien sur! on it… as well.

Well, somebody broke ranks.  The Democratic Elections Process Blog – Adjuncts, Cohorts Too! - Army of America, breaking apart… ;)  

Iocaste of Lawyers Guns and Money enters.  Jerome and legal issues … tho iocaste wonder if anyone cares.  This is an Iocaste comment, outside the body of the main text..

Well, it really is illegal, what he did. And it really is payola, in the sense of being paid to promote something, except that as I understand it, at the time he hadn't set himself up as a promoter in the same way he promotes candidates today. He was just some guy who posted about stocks and you could believe him or not.

Blodget was a closer case legally, because he didn't come within the text of the statute. But 1/1000th as bad would be overstating the gravity of Armstrong's conduct. The analysts — Grubman, Meeker, Blodget — these were people who were viewed as having significant authority and the voice to reach millions of people. The damage they did was far, far more severe.

Greenwald updates with an extended comment to his thread. 

[Addenda:  I am sorry:  Greenwald's must be called a WHUPDATE.  I suggest people read the posting Iocaste of Lawyers Guns and Money made, the cool measured tone - and the narrow focus..  The lack of fevered defense.  And then read the Greenwald entry. And the thread.

 It is my guess, an educated one however, that some of the tied-in blogs --- sorry to prick the Hindenberg here:  but it is not a Movement, it is a Democratic party booster society with a certain type of mega-phone and tied, quite closely, to political campaigns for specific candidates --- that some of the tied-in blogs, are considering what they are involved in.  How simple or how complex it may be.  I will leave it at that, except to add that I have received an interesting email.  Looking it over and may post some of it ....

BTW, it is Marisacat on plain old vanilla AOL.]

 AND the thread comments that follow are very interesting. Koserei are out in force.  I see a trusty, a minion of a former (but they never leave) front pager.  The standard slam is that if one questions Kos, one is aiding the Republicans. The movement is all!   AND:  All evil comes from Rove – or Lieberman, I suppose in some editions of the gospels…  And as Kos and others gained influence, dark forces massed to take them down.  Well Ben Nelson dials Dobson (wapo, March 27) I suppose Kos could be calling the La Hayes.

The godamedest funniest that is being pushed, is that MSM misunderstands that Kos and Jerome are not the "The Blogs" and by this critical misunderstanding, they make them the story and thus miss the greatness of the movement.

Koserei are on something a LOT stronger than Kool Aid.  Check them for online purchases of bomb shelters and bunkers.  Stop them at the gates if they try to fly to a banana republic haven in Guyana.  For Kos to escape the controversy that refuses to understand ''he is not the story'' (oh yeah, look away, over there…) and is forced to off shore his Blog Kingdom.

Or this is just the summer season.  Have a g and t.

Breakthru.  Self-Whupdate.  Now, I've been good (relativism is all!)… I have not linked to any of the salacious (but really very delicious) writings, caches being found, snips being shared and so on… on Jerome the Astrologer.  But Mike Krempasky, Very Much the Red Operative and one of the RedState boys that [suppposed] Blue Boys (mix too many colors, get a mud color, you know) got to know rather well… MK's entry at RedState should not be missed (actually several posts there are good, as in bad! and they link to Riehl and others …).

 And then there is this comment.  How do they pick candidates?  Star gazing? 

Other than that, for a break and a change I put on RAI, for Italian news.  But scandalo.   Then Zambia, but, more scandals of government patronage and nepotism.

 Have a negroni.  Tall, chilled but no ice, a little light on the gin, big slice of blood orange.

Comments

1. Dankest Deepest Throat - 24 June 2006

A whupass whupdated link:

Armstrong Still Not A Male Prostitute, Technically

Now to add a twist to this little tale, Kos has donned the scary skin tight rubber suit of ToolMan by, first of all, switching on the Tool Signal to warn other tools in a secret bloggy cabal he’s apparently been running, telling each attendant tool to keep schtum about this armstrong business lest the rightwing is mean to one of Them (via), and then attempting, by the looks of things, to drape himself in the symbolic flag of, I fuck you not, “the progressive movement” as a way to get more people to keep the mystery in the left wing blogosphere (which Dawn Eden assures me is important).

This, from the man who declared that he was a democrat, not a liberal, in response to the marginal and very cheaty loss in 2004, and while all progressives are liberal, not all liberals are progressive, and a man who has routinely shown and stated out loud that electoral wins are more important to him and his politics than policy wins (because he’s a huge egomaniacal dork, basically) certainly does not get the right to start gibbering on about how attacks on him and his are attacks on progressive politics.

I’m sooo sorry kos, but progressives will gladly sell you out, fuck you over and urinate on you from on high if they’ve got any common sense what so ever, and you want to know why that is? Because it’s what you’ve said you’re willing to do, and what you’ve said you’re willing to encourage the dems to do as well, to us progressive types, you know, the “single issues” voters and “woman’s studies majors” you’ve so eloquently told to fuck off when you don’t think you need us, and sucked up to when you do.

You’ve made quite clear, time and time again that you’re much happier being a part of the problem rather than a solution, and that is why nothing, except of course the mutilated corpses of neo-centrist bastards being hung from rooftops by meathooks (I should probably put that on my amazon wishlist at some point), would make me happier to see you and armstrong drop out of the political arena because of one of the, no doubt plural, acts of fucked up self centredness from your past that you’ve engaged in.

Of course, all sarcasm and attempted wit aside for a second, the fact that scamming several thousand dollars out of stupid assholes is something that I wish I had been doing back in the mid 90’s (not because I was, as Kos calls Armstrong, “a poor grad student at the time”, I wasn’t a grad student, but because screwing over people rich enough to dabble in the stock market would have deeply amused me) doesn’t make it okay, it certainly doesn’t make doing so for a company from the People’s Republic of China (you know the PRC, home to torture, prison abuse, forced abortions, political repression, mass murder etc… etc… and make no mistake, thanks to those post-mao and remarkably neo-conservative style economic reforms, support for chinese business is support for the PRC’s regime and all its evils) okay, not by a long stretch.

Oh, and of course, to try to get out of any responsibility or sense of wrong doing for doing this shit, he starts talking about progressives, and the left wing, because when you’re covered in shit, you’ve just gotta hug the people you’ve most routinely screwed over so that we all end up covered in shit too, and you no longer stand out because you’re covered in shit. Yeah Kos, make everyone else look bad by association, thanks a fucking load. Oh and framing it like you’re the first person to come along and try to organize us disorganized progressives (even though the people you’re referring to are probably not actually progressive) is masterful, Autofellatio is always an impressive act to watch.

That Kos is even giving the story time of day is fucking diabolical, considering the only interesting thing about the whole armstrong thingie is not that Armstrong actually shilled stocks for cash, the interesting thing is that A) It wasn’t a huge fucking shock (”Major democratic party blogger used to be a con man for big business” should be a scandal of some kind, if you think about it, but isn’t because it’s armstrong, who is an already proudly out member of the paid-for-dem-hack community), and of course B) That Kos apparently thinks that there is nothing wrong with doing this, like Armstrong is being called on smoking pot in college or something actually minor, this man lied to trusting internet denizens so that they’d basically pump money into his bank account. This puts him on the same level as nigerian scam artists (so if armstrong ever starts a fundraiser to get a trapped Kossack astronaut down from a secret Democratic Party manned satellite, don’t believe him).

For someone connected with a major money funnel for the Democratic Party, that should be a fucking huge thing, and Kos should be either flipping out and making assurance to the dem supporters that everything is kosher with Dkos fund raising activities (think about it, DKos raised a few million during ‘04 for kerry, who exactly would realise if a few thousand here and there was diverted from a future campaign? A thought that wasn’t really thinkable until it turns out that we’re dealing with someone who was making a killing as a paid for liar in ‘03) or saying absolutely nothing until the case is over and armstrong can defend himself.

What did Kos actually do though? Pretends it isn’t a big deal, makes it into a big deal, states that armstrong cannot make a comment because the case is ongoing, poo-poos and flings insults left and right as though he’s john snow or something, and fianlly gets outraged that someone in his little E-masonic lodge leaked an email. This is a man who’s acting so much like a repug who’s covering for something that one cannot help but wonder if something else is really going on. Which of course is really fucking helped by an inexplicable seKret Kossian Kabal leaking all over the show.

I personally think it’s sad that he can’t summon up the common sense to not look like a kid with his hand in the cookie jar, even though he’s only really tangentially connected to the whole affair, but as Kos said:

Sad, perhaps. But this is apparently the price one pays for crashing the gate.

2. marisacat - 24 June 2006

Oh, and of course, to try to get out of any responsibility or sense of wrong doing for doing this shit, he starts talking about progressives, and the left wing, because when you’re covered in shit, you’ve just gotta hug the people you’ve most routinely screwed over so that we all end up covered in shit too, and you no longer stand out because you’re covered in shit. Yeah Kos, make everyone else look bad by association, thanks a fucking load

EXACTLY

LOL well it was not me who was Front Paged at the WaPo as the quintessential Angry Left (recalls the post war era of neo realism – decades ago the propaganda was set in place), nor any of the banned, some of whom she happily ran down as she thread thugged – a semi-official position at DKos – working with Delaware Dem (another of the tied-in attys) in the GE season of 2004.

A pox on their glass houses.

Thanks for Punk Ass I must head over there… ;)

3. aemd - 24 June 2006

“..they make them the story and thus miss the greatness of the movement.”

It is funny but also sad. (Yeah, yeah, I’m a softie.) The “blind” MSM
see this every election cycle. Candidates, at this point in the cycle,
woo “special interest” groups for their endorsement. These endorsements are valued for the money and volunteers they bring. The candidates flatter and show empathy for the true believers then go behind closed doors for some wheelin’ and dealin’ with the leaders, the brokers.

The true believers, the rank and file, who wonder what “special interest” groups have to do with their “special” movement should
google “netroots endorsed” (I wonder who has the copyright on that)
to see how that endorsement is being shopped around.

4. NYCO - 24 June 2006

How the heck do you get banned on Daily Kos anyway? It’s not like I’ve been trying to or anything, but I walked into a mass lynching of some fairly reasonable guy recently and came out without a scratch. Am I wearing Kevlar or am I just invisible now?

5. GreenSooner - 24 June 2006

I haven’t gotten banned, but I had my trusted user status abruptly terminated recently, just after a post in which I identified myself as a Green (hardly a secret, given my username and my posting habits), and without accumulating any negative mojo.

Just to make sure what had happened, I made a number of comments that would predictably get a lot of “4″s (don’t worry, authenticity heads, each of them reflected my honest opinions on the matters at hand). I got my “4″s. But I didn’t regain my trusted user status.

Needless to say, neither Kos nor any of his capos have said anything to me about this. And, to be honest, given where dKos is these days, I don’t really give a rat’s ass. But between its community dynamic and carefully disguised editorial policies (and I’d include the Nocturnal Council, er, Townhall list in that category), the “netroots” are looking more and more net-astroturfy with each passing week.

6. NYCO - 24 June 2006

What happens when you get TU status dropped? How do you know?

7. GreenSooner - 24 June 2006

What happens when you get TU status dropped? How do you know?

You can no longer see hidden comments nor troll rate people. (And FWIW, I neither trollrated visible comments nor untrollrated hidden comments very frequently, so there’s simply no way anyone could have accused me of abusing my fairly limited trusted user privileges).


Sorry comments are closed for this entry