The American Spectator

Pete| 3.30.09 @ 10:49AM

Arrange a phony Star Trek convention and the attacks should stop for a while. Sorry, couldn't resist.

jharp| 3.30.09 @ 11:07AM

"Remember this the next time a liberal tells you he's all in favor of an open, honest, debate about the issues. They're totalitarian thugs."

Good grief. The stupid takes one's breath away.

And good luck with the tea parties. Very funny to watch the toothless hillbillies standing on the street not having any idea of what they are protesting.

Dave C| 3.30.09 @ 11:35AM

jharp -- Projections from your last family reunion?

Interested Conservative| 3.30.09 @ 11:40AM

"toothless hillbillies"?

"THE COUNTRY’S IN THE VERY BEST OF HANDS"

MT| 3.30.09 @ 11:43AM

Ease up on that meth, JHerpes; it's tough on the teeth.

Iris| 3.30.09 @ 11:56AM

jharp - Your true colors are in full view. Why? In "defense" of your leftist ideologies the only thing you conjure up is an ad hominem attack. This sir is the modus operandi of a coward.

Jeremiah| 3.30.09 @ 11:57AM

McCain --

Do you really believe all liberals are "totalitarian thugs"?

Really?

Sounds like you don't want to do the work of thinking.

Why are you so uncomfortable with the possibility that people will have opinions different from your own?

As for calling me a totalitarian: go fuck yourself.

charlene| 3.30.09 @ 12:23PM

As for calling me a totalitarian: go fuck yourself.

Who does one need to talk to about this website implementing tools to prevent the above referenced ignorant, uneducated trash from being displayed to the civilized people that read these comments?

WendyG| 3.30.09 @ 12:24PM

>>Very funny to watch the toothless hillbillies standing on the street not having any idea of what they are protesting.

Hillbillies, like people in places like Arkansas, Bill Clinton's home state?

Jeremiah| 3.30.09 @ 12:32PM

Hey, if it's good enough for Dick Cheney.

Besides, disagreeing with people is one thing. Calling them "totalitarian goons" or whatever is uncivil.

Reap what you so.

Pete| 3.30.09 @ 12:43PM

Seriously?

"Reap what you so?"

Chicago public schooling?

sestamibi| 3.30.09 @ 1:02PM

Jeremiah--

Ease up on that mighty fine wine, OK?

MT| 3.30.09 @ 1:15PM

Wow, Jeremiah--you're slipping. "Reap what you so?" Pathetic. All of your Nobama fascist/communist/tyrannical power grabs have made you drunk with power. Foul mouthed little swine. Baby killer.

Deborah| 3.30.09 @ 1:49PM

Well, hip-hip-hooray!! This means the Tea Party movement is scaring the bejezzus out of our betters on the left. You see, we don't have to pay folks to come and protest as they do. Regular Americans are catching on, and the more the leftists try to silence our speech, the stronger the movement will grow.

jharp| 3.30.09 @ 1:50PM

charlene| 3.30.09 @ 12:23PM

"Who does one need to talk to about this website implementing tools to prevent the above referenced ignorant, uneducated trash from being displayed to the civilized people that read these comments?"

Charlene,

You had better have a talk with Jesus and get your priorities straightened out.

Every day, all day TAS publishes lies and hackery in support of a group whose policies have and continue to destroy peoples lives.

In one case in support of a needless war that has killed hundreds of thousands.

And you are offended by a four letter word?

You are a twisted freak and sicken me.

lynnrockets| 3.30.09 @ 1:56PM

jherpes needs a sedative, and a rabies shot.

Bobbi| 3.30.09 @ 2:06PM

Don't feed the trolls. See Breitbart's Washington Times column.

Teleprompter Messiah| 3.30.09 @ 2:09PM

To a liberal, "open minded" means "agreeing with my opinions".

jharp, like all the Digital Brownshirts that inhabit this site has drunk deep from the Axelrod Kool-Aid. It is every liberal's self opinion that he is among those sad few who possess an enlightened humanity and conscience. That is why they are so darned offended all the time. It has nothing to do with manners, it has everything to do with smug sanctimony in calling out a lesser soul. A powerful elixir drunk often on the Left.

Well, jharp, sir, I am offended by your coarse reference to "toothless hillbilliies". I believe the more appropriate moniker is "dentally deprived Appalachian-Americans".

You are today's "Worst Person in the World".

Teleprompter Messiah| 3.30.09 @ 2:11PM

Jeremiah, if the jackboot fits...

Teleprompter Messiah| 3.30.09 @ 2:24PM

Bobbi: The kryptonite for all statists is mockery. They are so danged earnest and boring, it is deflating to them to be pilloried, jeered, and mocked. Besides, its fun.

To be a conservative requires a sense of humor because humor is a recognition of how far we fall from divine perfection. Conservatives know that men are not angels and that human nature is not perfect or perfectable.

Jokes helped bring down Communism and will bring down Lightworker too.

Laugh at our puny brained troll friends as our ancestors laughed at Neanderthals. It will make them apoplectic.

Publius804| 3.30.09 @ 2:27PM

I agree with Bobbi. JHarp & Jeremiah are distractions and try to drive these discussion threads off a cliff. Ignore them and continue to talk with fellow adults not liberal fascist goons.

Andrew| 3.30.09 @ 2:34PM

Hey there, Robert Stacy McCain. Sorry to say this, but five or ten hackers trying to shut down a website does not make all liberals "totalitarian thugs." I have trouble believing that you actually believe what you wrote here.

Nor is calling conservatives "toothless hillbillies" in any way appropriate. I foolishly look forward to a future America where members of different political parties* can actually have a normal conversation with one another.

*Amazingly, Americans are divided into two nearly identically-sized political parties. While members of these two parties are generally polite to one another in real life, they are shockingly rude to one another in more anonymous forums, such as the internet. There remains the possibility that members of these two parties have had their differences exaggerated by certain "media pundits" on both sides, who attempt to inflame political passions in return for higher ratings (more web-clicks, say, or a higher share of the cable TV market).

Steve M.| 3.30.09 @ 2:43PM

They're totalitarian thugs.

Oh, yeah, right, Robert -- all of us.

Hey, why bother making the effort to distinguish the innocent from the guilty when group libel is much more fun?

Teleprompter Messiah| 3.30.09 @ 2:52PM

Steve M: Anyone who thinks its a swell idea that government should make "investments" instead of you for your own health care and education, is a totalitarian. You might not condone the thug behavior of fellow travellers, but you ain't exactly telling them to cut it out either.

Teleprompter Messiah| 3.30.09 @ 2:58PM

Andrew: Brother, where were you for the last eight years? Remember, Rush Limbaugh made us all brain dead automotons who voted lockstep for Chimpy McHalliburton and Darth Vader. Besides, Sarah Palin is a C&%t. All this call for civility and dignity is lost in our new Alinsky Rules age.

Axelrod Astroturfers and Chicago Rules are how Lightworker rolls. They killed the Marquess of Queensbury Rules, not us. We just have to adjust tactics and strategy to fight this new war.

Go watch the movie, Colonel Blimp and you'll see where we are in the battle.

jharp| 3.30.09 @ 3:04PM

Teleprompter Messiah| 3.30.09 @ 2:52PM

"Anyone who thinks its a swell idea that government should make "investments" instead of you for your own health care and education, is a totalitarian."

How about someone who think the government should make "investments" in an interstate highway system?

Is that totalitarianism?

An air traffic control system? National Parks? Beaches? The Great Lakes? Our rivers?

einstein| 3.30.09 @ 3:14PM

april 15th tea party---@ YOUR LOCAL POST OFFICE---THE ONE OPEN LATE----MEDIA WILL BE THERE-----4 PM TILL.......THE REVOLUTION WILL NOT BE TELEVISED............EVER.....

Teleprompter Messiah| 3.30.09 @ 3:16PM

jharp:

There you go again.

Public works are constitutional responsibilities. Don't conflate those with social engineering. Nazi.

Smaller government doesn't mean anarchy.

You are terrific at creating strawman arguments and distractions. Just like your tin Messiah.

Andrew| 3.30.09 @ 3:19PM

@Telepromp. M.

"We just have to adjust tactics and strategy to fight this new war." Nah, man, you don't. It's debatable whether liberals or conservatives started this current "war," but that's beside the point.

For political stuff, I read this site, Commentary Magazine, Salon, and Slate. That's a pretty good liberal/conversative balance that I sort of arrived at unconsciously. The thing that makes me sad is that conversatives get treated the same way on Salon as liberals get treated on this site. "Trolls," "Idiots," "Nazis," "Facists," blah blah blah. Not only is it sad, it's also kind of boring.

And hey, full disclosure, I used to leave angry comments on Salon about Sarah Palin, etc. And then I stopped. I'm a liberal who lives down here in New Orleans. During the last hurricane scare, I evacuated to rural Alabama. This was right before the last election. I went to a bar right near my hotel, and Fox News was playing. It was just a couple of dudes and me. There was a token local "liberal dude," and me, and I started talking about politics with him. Then the conservative dudes chimed in. Everyone was looking fully Alabama-fied, by the way: trucker hats, beer bellies. You know what? The conversative guys mildly teased the local liberal guy, and we teased them back. And then we all had a totally polite conversation where we politely disagreed with one another.

I'm originally from some big liberal city in the North (New York). If you had told me years ago that I would have a totally polite conversation in a "redneck" bar in Alabama about Sarah Palin, I would have fainted. But this happens all the time, everywhere. It's how we actually treat each other in real life. No one is going to call someone a "toothless hillbilly" in real life, and if you talk to the other guy for thirty seconds, you'll realize that he's nice, and you'll feel like an awful person for even thinking of him as a hillbilly.

That's what we do in real life. And after that, I stopped leaving angry comments on Salon. We can't be this angry. Liberals are in power now, but we'll be out of power some day, but if we're just angry all the time, we'll never enjoy any of it. Ditto for the Bush years. Sometimes I would watch O'Reilly frothing on Fox and think: "Dude, relax. You WON."

So we should all aspire to treat each other the same way on the internet that we do in real life. It's a hopeless little pet cause of mine, and it's not actually going to work. So feel free to ignore me. But calling the other side names all the time isn't even EFFECTIVE. It discredits us to the point that no one outside of our little circle of identical believers will even listen to us.

For example... I had an original point. My point is that five or ten hackers being jerks does not make all liberals into "thugs." And I think it's kind of irresponsible for Robert McCain to write that. And that's my only point for the day. But man, it's hard to make even a simple, hopefully non-controversial assertion with all of the screaming going on these days.

heh| 3.30.09 @ 3:37PM

Foul mouthed little swine. Baby killer.

For serious? I was not aware that the term "baby killer" still had any oomph.

For the record, I like them over rice -- with a side of bacon.

lynnrockets| 3.30.09 @ 3:46PM

Is that why you love to kill babies--because you eat them? Makes sense considering demos are such monsters.

MT| 3.30.09 @ 3:48PM

It's not the screaming among folks that's worrying--it's Obama's fascist actions. Scary when the president fires the CEO of a major American company. That's thuggish behavior.

Teleprompter Messiah| 3.30.09 @ 4:03PM

Andrew:

I tip my hat to you.

However, there is a certain ideology out there that posits "the personal is political". Therefore, there can be no good faith arguments with others because they are beyond the pale.

That is where the provocation comes from. They really believe the talking points they are fed that they are the vanguard of some new day. Everyone else is a speed bump on the road to Utopia. Ergo, they need to be badgered into shutting up to hasten the Revolution.

It is the politics of bad faith and they are artful practitioners.

jharp| 3.30.09 @ 4:10PM

Teleprompter Messiah| 3.30.09 @ 3:16PM

jharp:

"Public works are constitutional responsibilities."

Do you mean like the Center for Disease Control, the SEC, Consumer Product Safety Commission, US Customs, and the like?

I agree. And I also agree that some sort of universal health care system is necessary and in our best interest. It does matter to me if my neighbor gets tuberculosis and goes untreated as it should matter to you to.

And the same for our public education. We all win.

Teleprompter Messiah| 3.30.09 @ 4:12PM

MT: Lightworker turned out to be a statist? Who knew (the 48% of this country who made due inquieries)?

Does this new New Deal come with cool uniforms and chrome plated shovels (carried like rifles) for the new national labor union like they had in 1936 Germany?

jharp can be the new Dr. Goebbels. He's had lots of practice at propaganda.

lynnrockets| 3.30.09 @ 4:13PM

Nah--TP; jherpies is too stupid and has no teeth. He'll never make it in public.

Teleprompter Messiah| 3.30.09 @ 4:20PM

jharp: Where does it stop? Over half of the healthcare in this Republic is paid for out of public money.

Of course, as the ever astute Friedman once observed, there's your money and there's my money. I am in favor of everything you want so long as we pay for it with your money. Alas, I fear that because that won't be enough and because these type of social welfare benefits are always chronically underfunded (just ask any public service union official), you will also demand my money too. Why not, its for the children and you're big hearted that way.

jharp| 3.30.09 @ 6:04PM

Teleprompter Messiah| 3.30.09 @ 4:20PM

"jharp: Where does it stop? "

A good question and my answer for now is with some sort of universal health care like the entire rest of the world uses for half of what we spend.

The biggest problem with our system isn't the quality of care. It's the cost.

No other country in the world has a system like ours. None. And they cover everyone for about half of what we do. And deliver the same quality of care.

Captain Ramen| 3.30.09 @ 7:17PM

Same quality huh? Like those patients forced to drink out of flower pots at an NHS hospital. Newsflash: Major Medical health insurance doesn't cost much of anything. But I digress.

I've encountered two kinds of liberals: the default kind (like I used to be) and the true believers. The former are liberal simply because they haven't been exposed to another viewpoint! I don't think mr stacey is talking about them. I've seen far too many of the latter type, the way they ostracize people from their social circles for having a different viewpoint, to think it's just a tiny minority. It may not be all liberals but the number is far larger than anyone cares to admit.

MT| 3.30.09 @ 7:49PM

I've always said that 'tolerant' liberals are the most intolerant people I've ever met. Case in point: JHerpes.

jharp| 3.30.09 @ 8:22PM

Captain Ramen| 3.30.09 @ 7:17PM

Same quality huh?

Yeah, same quality, dumbass.

ConservativeWanderer| 3.30.09 @ 10:53PM

jharp & Jeremiah:

What ever happened to lefty support for freedom of speech, not to mention freedom to assemble, and petition the government for a redress of grievances?

Please provide a reasonable answer, and not more ad hominem attacks.

lynn| 3.31.09 @ 12:34AM

Silly CW--Freedom of speech was only supposed to be for them--not us.

Dale DeHart| 3.31.09 @ 8:46AM

We're alive and well at www.teapartyteams.com. Come and get us, thugs!