Breitbart’s Ben Shapiro Makes Up Another Fake Story to Smear Hagel, GOP Runs With It

A pro-Hamas group that doesn’t exist
Wingnuts • Views: 21,267

Breitbrat Ben Shapiro apparently just made up a story about Chuck Hagel receiving donations from a group called “Friends of Hamas,” because as Dave Weigel reports, the group does not actually exist.

As with all these fake stories from the Breitbart crew, it immediately spread throughout the right wing echo chamber, repeated by Mike Huckabee, redstate.com, the National Review, Fox News, etc. — none of whom ever bothered to check on the group’s existence.

Here’s the problem: There’s no proof that “Friends of Hamas” actually exists. At best, it’s an organization so secret that nobody in government has thought to mention its existence. At worst, it’s as fake as Manti Te’o’s girlfriend. The Treasury Department, which designates sponsors of terror, has done so to many charities tied to Hamas. “Friends of Hamas” is not among them. The State Department doesn’t designate it, either. And a bit less holistically, a Lexis search for the group reveals absolutely nothing.

I’ve been unable to find any Senate staffer who knows where the “Friends” rumor came from, and Dave Reaboi, communications director for the (generally conservative) Center for Security Policy, shared my confusion about the alleged group. “Looking back to the 1990s, there were several groups (some affiliated with Holy Land Foundation, some not) that functioned as fund-raisers,” he said in an email. “I wouldn’t put it past these people to refer to it this way in private, but I doubt highly that they’d actually call a legit group ‘Friends of Hamas.’”

[…]

This morning I wrote Shapiro to clear up the accusation. “Have you found any more proof that this group exists?” I asked. “Is it just shorthand for some people who might support Hagel, or a real group?”

“The original story is the entirety of the information I have,” he said.

Jump to bottom

192 comments
1 Sol Berdinowitz  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 11:46:51am

Truthiness prevails

2 Bulworth  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 11:49:24am
“The original story is the entirety of the information I have,” he said.

Hey we’re just asking questions here!

“Senator Hagel, when did you stop receiving donations from the terrorist hate group Friends of Hamas?”

“Senator Hagel, have you stopped receiving donations from Friends of Hamas?”

3 Bulworth  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 11:50:23am

Wingnut logic: if Hagel can’t prove he didn’t receive donations from them, then it’s Hagel’s fault and he should be presumed guilty.

4 Kragar (Antichrist )  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 11:52:15am

I am shocked at my lack of shock.

5 simoom  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 11:52:39am

The Decline of the Senate Armed Services Committee

Charles Stevenson, “a long-time Senate staffer, former professor at the National War College, and author of a standard text on the job of the secretary of defense”:

I despair. I worked on the Senate Armed Services Committee for ten years and have followed it closely ever since. We had big fights - over Vietnam, ending the draft, the B-1 bomber and MX missile - but members always recognized that they needed to compromise in order to pass a defense authorization bill, which the committee has now done for an amazing 51 years in a row.

My bosses sometimes put holds on nominations in order to get more information from the executive branch, and we even threatened filibusters a couple of times. But nobody abused those tactics. Sometimes the committee even voted against a presidential nominee, but still reported the nomination to let the full Senate decide - by simple majority vote. SASC members always put the institution ahead of party or politics.

The behavior of some of the new members on the Hagel nomination is way over the line - disgraceful! They show no respect for the institution and are likely to poison its ability to work in a collaborative way. They are also hurting the institution of the office of Secretary of Defense and thus undermining our system of civilian control.

6 jaunte  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 11:53:56am

re: #3 Bulworth

Wingnut logic: if Hagel can’t prove he didn’t receive donations from them, then it’s Hagel’s fault and he should be presumed guilty.

“The point of the accusation is that Hagel has criticized Israel, so it’s only natural to ask if he’s receiving laundered terror money.”

7 Sol Berdinowitz  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 11:55:49am

re: #6 jaunte

“The point of the accusation is that Hagel has criticized Israel been nominated by Obama, so it’s only natural to ask if he’s receiving laundered terror moneythe devil incarnate.”

8 EPR-radar  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 11:55:54am

re: #5 simoom

Where has Stevenson been for the past 4 years? This crop of wing nuts poisons everything they touch.

9 simoom  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 11:56:24am

re: #3 Bulworth

Wingnut logic: if Hagel can’t prove he didn’t receive donations from them, then it’s Hagel’s fault and he should be presumed guilty.

That’s exactly what Sen. Cruz implied at the SASC the other day:

[Link: www.nytimes.com…]

Saying that he had serious doubts about the source of payments that Mr. Hagel had accepted for speaking engagements, Mr. Cruz declared, “It is at a minimum relevant to know if that $200,000 that he deposited in his bank account came directly from Saudi Arabia, came directly from North Korea.”

Essentially, “we just can’t be sure whether or not fmr. Senator Hagel is not an agent of a foreign gov’t!”

10 Kragar (Antichrist )  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 11:57:11am

Beck: The Government and Media Will Work Together to Drive Me Out of Business

Because Cthulhu knows it couldn’t be the utter failure of Beck’s bullshit to attract an audience large enough to be capable of paying for the shit he comes up with.

11 Glenn Beck's Grand Unifying Theory of Obdicut  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 11:58:16am

re: #9 simoom

But it was totally fine for Romney not to release his tax returns, because he’s just a swell guy.

12 Targetpractice  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 11:58:24am

re: #9 simoom

That’s exactly what Sen. Cruz implied at the SASC the other day:

[Link: www.nytimes.com…]

Essentially, “we just can’t be sure whether or not fmr. Senator Hagel is not an agent of a foreign gov’t!”

Pretty much. Listening to Vitter and Cruz Tuesday was likely stepping back into the McCarthy hearings. “Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?”

13 Dr Lizardo  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 11:58:28am

re: #10 Kragar (Antichrist )

Beck: The Government and Media Will Work Together to Drive Me Out of Business

Because Cthulhu knows it couldn’t be the utter failure of Beck’s bullshit to attract an audience large enough to be capable of paying for the shit he comes up with.

No, that couldn’t possibly be it.

It must be a conspiracy. Obviously.

Iä, Iä, Cthulhu fhtagn!

14 lawhawk  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 11:58:36am

The original story is the entire fabrication of what is going on with Hagel. Plain and simple, Shapiro simply went and made up the entire thing.

It’s a lie. A huge one at that.

Normally, that kind of lie and journalistic misrepresentation would be grounds for firing, but Breitbart apparently has no problem keeping him on board.

At the same time, none of the others who linked to the report questioned the veracity of his astounding claims. None of these usual suspects are backing away from Shapiro because it doesn’t fit their worldview. They’re hanging on to it despite logic or facts. It’s laziness on their part as well as active malfeasance. They’re purposefully hoping people wont notice that they’re running a completely bogus story and hope that if it’s repeated enough times in enough outlets someone might take it seriously despite the fact that the original report has no actual facts involved and can’t actually produce evidence that the Friends of Hamas group exists.

Put simply, it’s a group that doesn’t exist.

It doesn’t pass the smell test. Everyone knows, or should know Hamas is a terrorist group on the State Department terror list. Who in their right mind would create a “Friends of.. Hamas” group?

Opensecrets.org has no such group and no one with Hamas in the name donated to Hagel.

15 Kragar (Antichrist )  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 11:59:17am

re: #9 simoom

That’s exactly what Sen. Cruz implied at the SASC the other day:

[Link: www.nytimes.com…]

Essentially, “we just can’t be sure whether or not fmr. Senator Hagel is not an agent of a foreign gov’t!”

I want to know how much money Cruz got from the terrorist organization known as the Koch Foundation.

16 Ghost of Tom Joad  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 11:59:57am

Ahh…they have so little to attack Hagel with that they’ve stooped to inventing organizations with scary-sounding terrorist names and linked them maliciously to him.

Our failed media experiment indeed. I’ve seen plenty of half-truths and convoluted facts, but this?

17 A Mom Anon  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 11:59:58am

re: #8 EPR-radar

I don’t know why anyone is surprised. These people hate the government they work for, are not the least bit informed about what their job actually is, and a fair number of them simply have no concept about how the government works because they’ve either not read a civics book or simply don’t give a shit. They are there to enrich themselves and get a gig at some lobby shop or think tank once they’re out of office, collect a government paycheck and benefits while they can and to hell with actual governance.

18 EPR-radar  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:00:59pm

re: #14 lawhawk

This kind of stuff can work. That is why such lies are used by the cynical and contemptible when dealing with truth is too inconvenient.

E.g., WMD in Iraq.

19 Targetpractice  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:01:59pm

re: #14 lawhawk

And the Shapiros of America go “So, what if it isn’t ‘officially’ listed? Hagel got some money, we need to know where it came from! If not from Hamas, then who?!”

20 EPR-radar  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:02:49pm

re: #17 A Mom Anon

I don’t know why anyone is surprised. These people hate the government they work for, are not the least bit informed about what their job actually is, and a fair number of them simply have no concept about how the government works because they’ve either not read a civics book or simply don’t give a shit. They are there to enrich themselves and get a gig at some lobby shop or think tank once they’re out of office, collect a government paycheck and benefits while they can and to hell with actual governance.

An excellent summary of the present-day GOP platform. The only thing that may be missing is the underlying mission to further enrich their fat cat backers at everyone else’s expense.

21 First As Tragedy, Then As Farce  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:03:45pm

re: #18 EPR-radar

Exactly. You only have to convince one idiot, and next thing you know it becomes a permanent part of the chain email bullshit bibliography forever.

22 Vicious Babushka  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:03:57pm

DERP

23 Kragar (Antichrist )  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:04:42pm

re: #22 Vicious Babushka

DERP

Image: 30377181.jpg

24 EPR-radar  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:05:51pm

re: #6 jaunte

“The point of the accusation is that Hagel has criticized Israel, so it’s only natural to ask if he’s receiving laundered terror money.”

I’d like to see this stuff turned back the other way —- e.g., Ben Shapiro is a wing nut, so it is only natural to ask if he was raised in a barn and had sex with the other inhabitants thereof.

25 Bulworth  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:06:23pm

re: #11 Glenn Beck’s Grand Unifying Theory of Obdicut

Good gosh almost forgot about this. Something nearly all if not very candidate has always done in releasing their taxes. But no, to withhold that information suddenly became a matter of superduper high integrity that could not even be considered. But for Hagel, obviously, it’s a much different matter. I wonder why….

26 Sol Berdinowitz  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:06:28pm

re: #10 Kragar (Antichrist )

Beck: The Government and Media Will Work Together to Drive Me Out of Business

Because Cthulhu knows it couldn’t be the utter failure of Beck’s bullshit to attract an audience large enough to be capable of paying for the shit he comes up with.

Because the free market has nothing to do with your failure

27 Ghost of Tom Joad  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:06:50pm

...

28 Bulworth  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:07:20pm

re: #26 Sol Berdinowitz

Conservative wingnut has never failed. It has only been failed, or tyrannized by dirty hippy librulz.

29 Kragar (Antichrist )  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:07:38pm

re: #24 EPR-radar

I’d like to see this stuff turned back the other way —- e.g., Ben Shapiro is a wing nut, so it is only natural to ask if he was raised in a barn and had sex with the other inhabitants thereof.

Ben Shapiro is a necrophiliac.

He’s been humping the corpse of Breitbart for months now.

30 Ghost of Tom Joad  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:08:06pm

re: #24 EPR-radar

I’d like to see this stuff turned back the other way —- e.g., Ben Shapiro is a wing nut, so it is only natural to ask if he was raised in a barn and had sex with the other inhabitants thereof.

“Is it irresponsible to speculate? It’s irresponsible not to.”

(Edited out something from another blog.)

31 brennant  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:08:57pm

re: #29 Kragar (Antichrist )

Ben Shapiro is a necrophiliac.

He’s been humping the corpse of Breitbart for months now.

Whoa!

32 geoffm33  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:09:30pm
Ben Shapiro is a necrophiliac.

He’s been humping the corpse of Breitbart for months now.

Source

It’s on the internet, here’s my source, must be true.

33 EPR-radar  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:09:45pm

re: #25 Bulworth

Good gosh almost forgot about this. Something nearly all if not very candidate has always done in releasing their taxes. But no, to withhold that information suddenly became a matter of superduper high integrity that could not even be considered. But for Hagel, obviously, it’s a much different matter. I wonder why….

At the very least, it seems likely that Romney took advantage of a foreign tax shelter amnesty in 2009, which would have looked ugly politically.

34 Targetpractice  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:10:13pm

re: #29 Kragar (Antichrist )

Ben Shapiro is a necrophiliac.

He’s been humping the corpse of Breitbart for months now.

‘scuse me, gonna go guzzle some brain bleach now.

35 simoom  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:11:26pm
36 simoom  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:13:06pm

re: #35 simoom

Of course, after the recess, Graham will just claim there’s been a bombshell of some sort:

37 Targetpractice  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:15:02pm

re: #36 simoom

Of course, after the recess, Graham will just claim there’s been a bombshell of some sort:

I’m beginning to wonder if demanding a cloture vote, and holding out until after the recess, is just the GOP trying to “prove” to Obama who’s in charge of the Senate. That the possibility that cloture will not be passed tomorrow has more to do with the GOP’s little fee-fees being hurt over Reid refusing to abide by their holds than any real disagreement with Hagel’s nomination.

38 Lidane  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:15:12pm

Cory Booker’s day = made:

39 klys  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:15:27pm

re: #35 simoom

Man, I’m sure glad that McCain isn’t in a job that sometimes will require quick decision making. Like after that 3am phone call.

40 Bulworth  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:15:34pm

re: #33 EPR-radar

Well, for all I know Romney’s taxes and investments and whatnot were completely legit. It’s just that there’s a much different standard now for Hagel.

41 EPR-radar  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:15:38pm

re: #36 simoom

Of course, after the recess, Graham will just claim there’s been a bombshell of some sort:

Of course. The bombshell could simply be that Graham is still an R, and has oxygen-thief tea partier constituents to appease with public displays of nuttiness.

42 simoom  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:15:50pm

I’m listening to the ADC speech video now, with an ear for wingnut outrage. I’ll post if I see/hear anything.

43 Lidane  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:16:09pm

re: #36 simoom

BOOM!

44 Bulworth  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:16:41pm

re: #38 Lidane

Lautenberg is like 110 years old. He shouldn’t run again.

*Actually I think he’s 89

45 First As Tragedy, Then As Farce  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:17:40pm

Very obliquely related (warning: story contains a disappointing lack of Tasers):
“Sovereign Citizen” Questions City Court’s Authority, But Judge Rules Him Guilty On All Counts

A man allied with the “Sovereign Citizen” movement told City Judge Sherry Paty on Wednesday that her court is invalid. Judge Paty told Eric Kiesche that he was free to appeal her decision, and she proceeded to hear the case.

Kiesche, who titles himself Spike and is the founder of the Order of the Constitution Defenders, said City Court is “not a court of record.” He said he had filed an appeal with Criminal Court and had asked for an investigation of the handling of his case.

He said he was denied “rule of law and due process.”

“This is a Bill of Rights violation like I’ve never seen,” he told the judge. At one point, he asked her, “Is this a commercial court or a court of justice? I know the answer.”

He said, “What you have basically done is railroad me.”

Judge Paty found Kiesche, who was the speaker for a meeting of the Catoosa County Tea Party in 2011, guilty on all counts.

He was fined $50 and ordered to pay court costs on charges of not having a driver’s license or proof of insurance and $25 and court costs on a light law violation.

That’s about 5% of what he would have paid for those offenses in Texas WITHOUT being a jackass to the arresting officer and again in court.

46 Vicious Babushka  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:18:18pm

In Wingnutland, Up is Down, Hot is Cold, Wet is Dry, and these fantasies are “facts”

47 EPR-radar  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:18:59pm

re: #40 Bulworth

Well, for all I know Romney’s taxes and investments and whatnot were completely legit. It’s just that there’s a much different standard now for Hagel.

IMO, it is more likely than not that Romney’s taxes were all legal. However, they would also have been politically damaging —- it simply would not do for the rubes to see how well the Romneys of the world can legally reduce their tax rates.

48 Lidane  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:19:09pm

OUTRAGE!

49 Targetpractice  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:19:27pm

re: #43 Lidane

BOOM!

HA! Reid basically saying “If you’re already on recording as voting for cloture, then do it now and get it over with.” Nice.

50 Sol Berdinowitz  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:21:16pm

re: #46 Vicious Babushka

In Wingnutland, Up is Down, Hot is Cold, Wet is Dry, and these fantasies are “facts”

Ohmigod, anticolonialist? How could anyone who believes in America be the son of an ANTICOLONIALIST!!!

51 Vicious Babushka  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:21:32pm

Just think how many more jobs would be created if people would just work FOR NOTHING!1!

52 Lidane  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:22:38pm

Cue the angry, hashtag filled tweets on TGDN and TCOT:

53 lawhawk  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:22:43pm

re: #44 Bulworth

Only reason that he’s even back in the US Senate is because of Bob Torricelli, who quit the race after improprieties came up and despite the fact that it was past the deadline to get someone else on the ballot, the NJ Supreme Court found that Lautenberg’s name could be proffered.

It stank to hell and back and it will be good to get some fresh blood into the Senate from NJ. Can’t particularly stand Bob Menendez either. Neither has done a particularly good job pushing for NJ interests and while Lautenberg claims that he’s a big mass transit supporter, the only thing he has to show for it is the Secaucus boondoggle named after him. Someone who can make sure NJ interests are represented in the Senate and who is on top of things would be a bonus. Booker definitely has the social media aspect covered - and that he’s got a good working relationship with Christie doesn’t hurt (unlike the horrific relationship between Christie and both Lautenberg and Menendez).

54 Targetpractice  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:23:08pm

re: #51 Vicious Babushka

Just think how many more jobs would be created if people would just work FOR NOTHING!1!

I keep wondering how many of those who oppose raising the minimum wage would be willing to work for it or less if it meant creating millions of new jobs?

55 Lidane  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:23:32pm

re: #50 Sol Berdinowitz

Ohmigod, anticolonialist? How could anyone who believes in America be the son of an ANTICOLONIALIST!!!

Black anti-colonialist = code for uppity ni-CLANG who doesn’t accept white rule

56 Bulworth  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:23:32pm

re: #46 Vicious Babushka

lnyhbt but Resist!

57 Vicious Babushka  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:23:57pm

re: #54 Targetpractice

I keep wondering how many of those who oppose raising the minimum wage would be willing to work for it or less if it meant creating millions of new jobs?

IGMFY

58 EPR-radar  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:24:23pm

re: #55 Lidane

Black anti-colonialist = code for uppity ni-CLANG who doesn’t accept white rule

Bonus wingnut points for the Kenyan Mau-mau uprising (black on white violence).

59 Sol Berdinowitz  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:24:26pm

re: #54 Targetpractice

I keep wondering how many of those who oppose raising the minimum wage would be willing to work for it or less if it meant creating millions of new jobs?

How many people will be off food stamps if they raise the minumum wage?

60 Bulworth  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:24:33pm

re: #53 lawhawk

totally agree. it stank to high heaven. time for dems in NJ to move on. (i’m from NJ originally)

61 lawhawk  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:24:56pm

re: #46 Vicious Babushka

Wait a sec. He’s arming jihadists? Is that before or after folks on the right demand that he arms the rebels in Syria. Or are we only going to focus on the fighter jet sales to Egypt - the same sales that GOPers are attacking because of the Muslim Brotherhood and Morsi are now heading the regime, but which they don’t want to completely sabotage the sales since it would hurt the districts where the planes are built (and the jobs that go along with them).

62 Sol Berdinowitz  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:25:31pm

re: #58 EPR-radar

Bonus wingnut points for the Kenyan Mau-mau uprising (black on white violence).

That is exactly the dog whistle Newt Gingrich was blowing when he mentioned Obama’s “Kenyan worldview”.

63 Lidane  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:25:36pm
64 Bulworth  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:25:47pm

re: #52 Lidane

Al Gore’s bullying us and trying to get us put into twitter gulag!!


///

65 Kragar (Antichrist )  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:26:12pm

re: #63 Lidane

TED NUGENT WAS ON THE CRUISE SHIP?!?!

66 Vicious Babushka  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:27:03pm

re: #61 lawhawk

Wait a sec. He’s arming jihadists? Is that before or after folks on the right demand that he arms the rebels in Syria. Or are we only going to focus on the fighter jet sales to Egypt - the same sales that GOPers are attacking because of the Muslim Brotherhood and Morsi are now heading the regime, but which they don’t want to completely sabotage the sales since it would hurt the districts where the planes are built (and the jobs that go along with them).

Wingnut fake “facts” don’t have to make sense.

67 Targetpractice  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:27:12pm

re: #63 Lidane

God bless the 24/7 news cycle.

////

68 First As Tragedy, Then As Farce  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:28:36pm

re: #63 Lidane

No, that’s a recap of the 2012 GOP primary debates.

69 Vicious Babushka  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:28:53pm

What Right-Wing racism? (click at own risk—TGDN is swarmed by outright white supremacists who are welcomed with open arms)

70 EPR-radar  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:30:01pm

re: #62 Sol Berdinowitz

That is exactly the dog whistle Newt Gingrich was blowing when he mentioned Obama’s “Kenyan worldview”.

This is a low quality dog whistle —- the mau mau uprising is obscure, and most who know of it are either ‘race realists’ or are familiar with white supremacist propaganda.

71 freetoken  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:30:13pm

It’s not a secret how Shapiro has found it profitable to just make up stories and sell them to the gullible.

For example, yesterday I linked to a story about the “Sasquatch DNA” “paper” that a supposed “journal” published. It’s quackery, but there are Americans out there buying it up as if it’s real.

Every generation has their version of these scam artists. Some have made it a form of entertainment (such as Art Bell did in the previous generation), others just rake in the dough and never break kayfabe.

It is sad we have national level politicians who jump on these bandwagons.

72 simoom  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:30:39pm

re: #42 simoom

Halfway through and this is about it so far:

“It is a time, in my opinion, and I have been in the minority on this point, to engage. I have never believed that engagement or diplomacy is appeasement. Part of a great power’s responsibility is to use all the instruments of power. To use them wisely. The military is one instrument of power but their are other instruments of power.”

Also maybe they’ll complain about “cultural relativism” or something as he started with a bit about no one religion having a monopoly on loving their children, etc and our commonalities can bridge divides.

Still listening.

73 Kragar (Antichrist )  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:31:07pm

When The Patriots Rise Up

When you talk to your more emphatic gun advocates about the proposition of regulating guns, a similar refrain always arises: we have guns to protect ourselves against tyrannical government. Guns, you see, have the ancillary benefits of being awesome for home defense and hunting (unless you shoot the wrong person or whatever, but that only happens once every vice-presidential hunting trip). But the overarching reason the drafters of the Constitution put the Second Amendment in place was so that you could ultimately shoot those drafters.

If need be.

I don’t want to litigate the meaning of the Second Amendment, and for the purposes of this post, I’ll accept that the above is, in fact, the purpose of the Second Amendment. In fact, I’ll even lay out the principles of the argument:

1) The Second Amendment is a constitutional guarantee against tyrannical government overreach.
2) The Second Amendment justifies armed, violent rebellion against the government when the government intrudes on the rights of its citizens.
3) Those who engage in that armed, violent rebellion will be justified by their opposition to the previously mentioned tyrannical overreach.

Let’s assume all of that’s true. The question, then, isn’t whether we should regulate guns…the question is how, when you start shooting, we determine whether you’re a constitutionally justified patriot or Chris Dorner.

74 Sol Berdinowitz  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:32:24pm

re: #70 EPR-radar

This is a low quality dog whistle —- the mau mau uprising is obscure, and most who know of it are either ‘race realists’ or are familiar with white supremacist propaganda.

The point was to imply that Obama would somehow like to see blacks massacreeing whites in America, remember Rush and his “open season on whites” routine a few years back? They are preying on these dark, xenophobic fears, and it is truly ugly.

75 CuriousLurker  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:33:05pm

re: #55 Lidane

Black anti-colonialist = code for uppity ni-CLANG who doesn’t accept white rule

Excuse my ignorance, but can someone please tell me where the “ni-CLANG” euphemism comes from? I tried to find out the other day, but got nowhere and the curiosity is driving me nuts…

76 A Mom Anon  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:34:03pm

re: #75 CuriousLurker

I think it’s from Blazing Saddles, the Mel Brooks movie.

77 CuriousLurker  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:34:27pm

re: #76 A Mom Anon

I think it’s from Blazing Saddles, the Mel Brooks movie.

Ah, okay. Thanks!

78 Targetpractice  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:34:49pm

re: #75 CuriousLurker

Excuse my ignorance, but can someone please tell me where the “ni-CLANG” euphemism comes from? I tried to find out the other day, but got nowhere and the curiosity is driving me nuts…

79 Lidane  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:34:59pm

Inflation? Real world economic factors? Fuck that. The real reason the cost of living has gone up? TEH YOONYUNZ!

80 Sol Berdinowitz  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:35:08pm

re: #73 Kragar (Antichrist )

When The Patriots Rise Up

Let’s assume all of that’s true. The question, then, isn’t whether we should regulate guns…the question is how, when you start shooting, we determine whether you’re a constitutionally justified patriot or Chris Dorner.

Let’s also assume that the government has been elected freely and fairly. Let us assume that it reflects the will of the majority of the people who participated in those free and fair elections.

Let us assume that anyone who calls the government tyrants or usurpers without a sound and justifiable reason is a seditious terrorist out to overthrow the government.

And I believe the government is empowered by law and the Constitution to deal with such people.

81 EPR-radar  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:35:36pm

re: #74 Sol Berdinowitz

The point was to imply that Obama would somehow like to see blacks massacreeing whites in America, remember Rush and his “open season on whites” routine a few years back? They are preying on these dark, xenophobic fears, and it is truly ugly.

I agree on the purpose of the exercise, and on its essential ugliness. However, few in the US will make the connection between Kenya and the mau mau uprising without being explicitly told about it, making it a bit lower quality as a dog whistle than old favorites such as ‘urban crime’ etc.

82 freetoken  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:35:42pm

re: #78 Targetpractice

You’re faster than me today…

83 CuriousLurker  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:35:51pm

re: #78 Targetpractice

[Embedded content]

LOL. thanks.

84 Kragar (Antichrist )  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:36:16pm

re: #75 CuriousLurker

Excuse my ignorance, but can someone please tell me where the “ni-CLANG” euphemism comes from? I tried to find out the other day, but got nowhere and the curiosity is driving me nuts…

85 leftynyc  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:37:39pm

re: #57 Vicious Babushka

IGMFY

How sad that I knew that acronym right away.

86 Sol Berdinowitz  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:38:09pm

re: #81 EPR-radar

I agree on the purpose of the exercise, and on its essential ugliness. However, few in the US will make the connection between Kenya and the mau mau uprising without being explicitly told about it, making it a bit lower quality as a dog whistle than old favorites such as ‘urban crime’ etc.

Kenya, Africa, Ruwanda, Somalia…they are able to fill in the blanks quite well based even on their Fox-based information level.

87 Ghost of Tom Joad  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:38:59pm

re: #76 A Mom Anon

I think it’s from Blazing Saddles, the Mel Brooks movie.

Yup.

NSFW possibly, language.
88 Targetpractice  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:39:29pm

re: #82 freetoken

You’re faster than me today…

Was already on Youtube, catching up a couple series I watch.

89 Lidane  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:40:09pm

*cough*

90 Charles Johnson  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:40:57pm

He rode a blazing saddle
He wore a shining star
His job to offer battle
To bad men near and far
He conquered fear
And he conquered hate
He turned our night into day
He made his blazing saddle
A torch to light our way

91 Targetpractice  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:41:31pm

re: #89 Lidane

*cough*

*facepalm*

92 Tigger2  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:42:31pm

re: #89 Lidane

*cough*

What a dumbass.

93 EPR-radar  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:43:56pm

re: #68 First As Tragedy, Then As Farce

No, that’s a recap of the 2012 GOP primary debates.

The 2016 GOP primaries will probably be even worse than they were in 2012.

I can’t wait. ///

94 Dr Lizardo  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:44:00pm

re: #89 Lidane

*cough*

ConservativeUSA can FOAD. Imbecile.

95 Kragar (Antichrist )  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:45:27pm

What did you expect?

“Welcome, sonny”? “Make yourself at home”? “Marry my daughter”?

You’ve got to remember that these are just simple farmers.

These are people of the land.

The common clay of the new West.

You know…

morons.

96 Lidane  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:45:28pm

Constitutional conservatism in action:

97 engineer cat  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:46:43pm

re: #89 Lidane

*cough*

how can anybody with a job be called a ‘deadbeat’?

98 Kragar (Antichrist )  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:48:10pm

re: #97 engineer cat

how can anybody with a job be called a ‘deadbeat’?

Free market Jesus only loves you when you’re rich.

99 Dr Lizardo  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:48:19pm

re: #97 engineer cat

how can anybody with a job be called a ‘deadbeat’?

Because shut up, that’s why!

100 Targetpractice  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:48:55pm

re: #89 Lidane

*cough*

But really, the sentiment expressed here is what’s driving the argument against an increase in minimum wage than any concern over job lossess. Those folks right now think they’re highly paid because they earn $9/hr or less afraid that raising the minimum wage means they’re back at the bottom of the ladder, knowing there’s no way their bosses will raise their own pay to compensate.

101 Bulworth  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:49:10pm

re: #89 Lidane

And Obamaphones!

102 Sol Berdinowitz  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:49:17pm

re: #97 engineer cat

how can anybody with a job be called a ‘deadbeat’?

I believe the line of thinkig (I dare not call it “logic”) is that minimum-wage jobs are for people who did not try hard enough in school to get a decent education and a better-paying job.

103 Targetpractice  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:50:04pm

re: #102 Sol Berdinowitz

I believe the line of thinkig (I dare not call it “logic”) is that minimum-wage jobs are for people who did not try hard enough in school to get a decent education and a better-paying job.

Pretty much. If you’re working at Wal-Mart, then you’re an utter dumbass without the smarts or work ethic to have a “real job.”

104 EPR-radar  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:50:17pm

re: #96 Lidane

Well, it is true that judicial review is not explicitly in the constitution. Naturally, wing nuts will get the implications of this all wrong.

105 Sol Berdinowitz  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:50:37pm

re: #100 Targetpractice

But really, the sentiment expressed here is what’s driving the argument against an increase in minimum wage than any concern over job lossess. Those folks right now think they’re highly paid because they earn $9/hr or less afraid that raising the minimum wage means they’re back at the bottom of the ladder, knowing there’s no way their bosses will raise their own pay to compensate.

You mean the old stratgem of playing the poor whites off against the blacks?

106 EPR-radar  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:51:45pm

re: #105 Sol Berdinowitz

You mean the old stratgem of playing the poor whites off against the blacks?

If there is only one play in the play book, it gets run every time…

107 Sionainn  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:52:28pm

re: #89 Lidane

*cough*

WTF! Now minimum wage workers don’t really work?

108 Bulworth  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:52:52pm
Minimum wage isn’t so bade for these deadbeats when they get free healthcare and foodstamps While we the working middle class struggle with these super high tax rates killing the profits of the companies I own.
#TGDN
— Conservative USA (@steve0423)

fxd

109 Targetpractice  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:53:01pm

re: #105 Sol Berdinowitz

You mean the old stratgem of playing the poor whites off against the blacks?

Pretty much. Politicians and big business working together to convince the rubes that their piddly-ass wages are at stake. Gotta keep alive the myth that one rises in this country based upon their merits, rather than who they know.

110 Charles Johnson  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:53:45pm

In his original Breitbart post, Shapiro says “a Senate source told Breitbart News.”

Giving him the benefit of the doubt, and assuming he’s not simply lying about this, if it did happen that way it means there are Republicans who use Breitbart.com to deliberately spread false smear stories, because they know they can rely on hacks like Shapiro to uncritically repeat them.

111 NJDhockeyfan  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:54:22pm
112 Bulworth  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:54:38pm

re: #107 Sionainn

That’s right and the true blue American patriot teabaggers who don’t actually work are the producers and job creators. //

113 simoom  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:55:52pm

re: #72 simoom

He argues in favor of immigration reform. There’s a couple sentences at ~19:30 on the Peace Process, but they seem unobjectionable. He says near the end (~26:50) that the U.S. objected to Olmert wanting to begin some form of engagement w/ Assad’s gov’t, and wonders why we chose to do that. I think that’s about it for what they might latch on to.

114 erik_t  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:56:25pm

re: #111 NJDhockeyfan

If anyone thought the press of Carnival Cruise couldn’t get much worse we have this…

Boss of Carnival cruise ship adds insult to misery by going to basketball game as 4,000 suffer aboard ‘stinking stricken ship’ with urine-soaked carpets and sewage in cabins

Sucks for the people on the ship, but this is ridiculous.

I suppose he should be in the middle of the street flagellating himself?

115 Targetpractice  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:56:38pm

re: #111 NJDhockeyfan

If anyone thought the press of Carnival Cruise couldn’t get much worse we have this…

Boss of Carnival cruise ship adds insult to misery by going to basketball game as 4,000 suffer aboard ‘stinking stricken ship’ with urine-soaked carpets and sewage in cabins

Somehow I’m waiting for the ultimate insult to come when the company tries to charge passengers for damage to the ship. It seems like standard practice these days in the art of screwing over the unwashed masses.

116 CuriousLurker  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:56:41pm

re: #88 Targetpractice

Was already on Youtube, catching up a couple series I watch.

Speaking of YouTube, last night I watched an old BBC documentary from 2003 about neo-Nazis (Tom Metzger), skinheads, etc. I was struck by how much of their whiny “patriotic” rhetoric is identical to what we’ve been hearing from the RWNJs over the past few years. It’s really, really creepy how mainstream such a disgusting ideology has become.

The only slightly bright spot was an article about how the little girls who made up the Prussian Blue white power duo, who are now 20 years old, have (mostly) abandoned their mother’s twisted worldview (they’re still not 100% convinced that the Holocaust was real *sigh*).

117 Kragar (Antichrist )  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:56:41pm

OOPS: GOP Rep. Inadvertently Makes The Case For Nearly Doubling The Minimum Wage

Tennessee Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R) chose a different reason to oppose the proposal today. A stronger minimum wage, Blackburn said, would negatively affect the ability of young workers to enter the workforce as teenagers, and would prevent them from learning responsibility like she did when she was a teenage retail employee making a seemingly-measly $2.15 an hour in Mississippi:

BLACKBURN: What we’re hearing from moms and from school teachers is that there needs to be a lower entry level, so that you can get 16-, 17-, 18-year-olds into the process. Chuck, I remember my first job, when I was working in a retail store, down there, growing up in Laurel, Mississippi. I was making like $2.15 an hour. And I was taught how to responsibly handle those customer interactions. And I appreciated that opportunity.

Making $2.15 an hour certainly does sound worse than today’s minimum wage, which federal law mandates must be at least $7.25 an hour. But what Blackburn didn’t realize is that she accidentally undermined her own argument, since the value of the dollar has changed immensely since her teenage years. Blackburn was born in 1952, so she likely took that retail job at some point between 1968 and 1970. And according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ inflation calculator, the $2.15 an hour Blackburn made then is worth somewhere between $12.72 and $14.18 an hour in today’s dollars, depending on which year she started.

118 Lidane  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:56:43pm

OUTRAGE!

119 EPR-radar  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:58:31pm

re: #114 erik_t

Sucks for the people on the ship, but this is ridiculous.

I suppose he should be in the middle of the street flagellating himself?

No. But avoiding the occasion for further bad publicity at a time like this is only common sense.

120 Lidane  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:58:37pm

re: #117 Kragar (Antichrist )

OOPS: GOP Rep. Inadvertently Makes The Case For Nearly Doubling The Minimum Wage

Pfft. We have already established that the unions are to blame for the minimum wage not being enough to live on.

Get rid of the unions and voila! Living wage.

//////////

121 Sol Berdinowitz  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:58:40pm

re: #117 Kragar (Antichrist )

OOPS: GOP Rep. Inadvertently Makes The Case For Nearly Doubling The Minimum Wage

There are still lots of unpaid internships out there…

122 Charles Johnson  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:59:03pm

I think it’s more likely that Shapiro just made it up, though. This is the standard right wing journalistic method.

123 Bulworth  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:59:13pm

re: #121 Sol Berdinowitz

Are there no workhouses!!?!

/

124 Targetpractice  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:59:22pm

re: #122 Charles Johnson

I think it’s more likely that Shapiro just made it up, though. This is the standard right wing journalistic method.

“We’re just asking questions!”

125 Sol Berdinowitz  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:59:38pm

re: #120 Lidane

Pfft. We have already established that the unions are to blame for the minimum wage not being enough to live on.

Get rid of the unions and voila! Living wage.

//////////

GOP economic theory in a nutshell: as taxes and government regulation approach zero, job growth approaches infinity

126 Mattand  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 12:59:40pm

re: #110 Charles Johnson

In his original Breitbart post, Shapiro says “a Senate source told Breitbart News.”

Giving him the benefit of the doubt, and assuming he’s not simply lying about this, if it did happen that way it means there are Republicans who use Breitbart.com to deliberately spread false smear stories, because they know they can rely on hacks like Shapiro to uncritically repeat them.

So either Shapiro is a liar, or he’s too stupid/lazy to corroborate his sources.

127 simoom  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 1:00:03pm

re: #113 simoom

I think that’s about it for what they might latch on to.

Hah, apparently I missed one. Here’s Jennifer Rubin objecting to the very first sentence — Hagel thanking the previous speaker for introducing him:

128 Bulworth  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 1:00:06pm

re: #117 Kragar (Antichrist )

“If we raise the minimum wage the poors will keep sitting at home with their free food stamps and free Obamaphones.”

/

129 Lidane  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 1:00:07pm

Sounds boring:

130 Targetpractice  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 1:00:49pm

re: #120 Lidane

Pfft. We have already established that the unions are to blame for the minimum wage not being enough to live on.

Get rid of the unions and voila! Living wage.

//////////

The minimum wage/union train is always on time. Remember Rush bellowing about the minimum wage back when Democrats wanted it raised to $7.25, declaring it a play by the unions to raise their own pay due to union contracts.

131 EPR-radar  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 1:01:01pm

re: #125 Sol Berdinowitz

GOP economic theory in a nutshell: as taxes and government regulation approach zero, job growth approaches infinity

Which neatly explains why Somalia is the driver for global economic growth.

//dripping

132 Sionainn  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 1:01:18pm

re: #119 EPR-radar

No. But avoiding the occasion for further bad publicity at a time like this is only common sense.

He’s the owner of the team. Weird, the things that people choose to be outraged by.

133 Dr Lizardo  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 1:01:21pm

re: #115 Targetpractice

Somehow I’m waiting for the ultimate insult to come when the company tries to charge passengers for damage to the ship. It seems like standard practice these days in the art of screwing over the unwashed masses.

Now that would be the ultimate in adding insult to injury. I can’t imagine Carnival would be that stupid.

134 iossarian  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 1:01:22pm

re: #129 Lidane

FRANCE ONLY EXISTS BECAUSE OF AMERICAN LIBERALS

135 Targetpractice  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 1:01:48pm

re: #129 Lidane

Sounds boring:

So, basically, they want to imagine America still resembling itself, circa 1860.

136 stabby  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 1:01:49pm

I was just googling to see if anyone fact checked the BIG BIG lies in Rand Paul’s tea party response to the state of the union address.

No one seems to have bothered.

137 Charles Johnson  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 1:02:04pm

re: #129 Lidane

Just churches and guns and huge gas-guzzling automobiles cruising through a landscape of oil wells and strip mines. Sounds wonderful!

138 Kragar (Antichrist )  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 1:02:11pm

re: #129 Lidane

Sounds boring:

Also, no libraries, roads, consumer protections, civil rights ….

139 Bulworth  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 1:02:37pm

re: #127 simoom

Outrageous outrage!!


/

140 Kragar (Antichrist )  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 1:03:23pm

re: #134 iossarian

FRANCE ONLY EXISTS BECAUSE OF AMERICAN LIBERALS

Which is ironic because America only exists because of the French wanting to screw over the British.

141 stabby  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 1:03:54pm

re: #129 Lidane

They forgot Canada, the Netherlands, er all of Europe actually. Hell if socialized medicine makes you a liberal, then they’re talking about getting rid of the entire world, with the exception of the American south and Orange County.

142 Dr Lizardo  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 1:03:57pm

re: #131 EPR-radar

Which neatly explains why Somalia is the driver for global economic growth.

//dripping

Somalia is the way of the future! No taxes, no oppressive regulations and a God-fearing people!

143 NJDhockeyfan  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 1:04:07pm

re: #115 Targetpractice

Somehow I’m waiting for the ultimate insult to come when the company tries to charge passengers for damage to the ship. It seems like standard practice these days in the art of screwing over the unwashed masses.

They are getting their money back, another free trip, and $500. What do they have to complain about?
//

144 Lidane  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 1:04:09pm

re: #134 iossarian

FRANCE ONLY EXISTS BECAUSE OF AMERICAN LIBERALS

Shh. Don’t tell the nutters, but America had help from the French during the Revolutionary War.

145 Bulworth  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 1:04:27pm

re: #129 Lidane

No, no eliminationist, hateful comments there. //

146 Kragar (Antichrist )  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 1:05:14pm

re: #144 Lidane

Shh. Don’t tell the nutters, but America had help from the French during the Revolutionary War.

LIES! It was a bunch of untrained farmers firing muskets from the woods who fought the whole thing single-handedly!
/

147 Sol Berdinowitz  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 1:05:23pm

re: #129 Lidane

Sounds boring:

Imagine a law with no controls on air, water or food quality, just for starters…that is enough, because after three breaths of toxic air, a sip of contaminated water and a bite of e.coli tainted cheeseburger, you will be too busy coughing, puking and having the runs to consider anything else…

148 Targetpractice  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 1:05:26pm

re: #143 NJDhockeyfan

They are getting their money back, another free trip, and $500. What do they have to complain about?
//

And they get spend a week living in third world conditions. Celebrities have to pay thousands just to experience that!!

//

149 Kragar (Antichrist )  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 1:06:10pm

re: #143 NJDhockeyfan

They are getting their money back, another free trip, and $500. What do they have to complain about?
//

Can they sell off the free trip?

150 Bulworth  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 1:06:17pm

re: #146 Kragar (Antichrist )

And Jesus. /

151 Sol Berdinowitz  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 1:06:43pm

re: #137 Charles Johnson

Just churches and guns and huge gas-guzzling automobiles cruising through a landscape of oil wells and strip mines. Sounds wonderful!

Centerville….a real nice place to raise your kids up!

152 EPR-radar  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 1:07:14pm

re: #132 Sionainn

He’s the owner of the team. Weird, the things that people choose to be outraged by.

Nobody likes the fact that CEOs like this guy live in a completely different world than the rest of us.

If he had been on that ship, you can be sure he would have gotten himself evacuated from it by now. Rank hath its privileges.

Given that, a certain level of irritation at this news story is understandable.

153 simoom  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 1:07:33pm

re: #139 Bulworth

Outrageous outrage!!

She’s even getting her premise wrong though. He didn’t say he values “your thoughts and contributions” to “THAT GROUP,” by which I assume Rubin means the ADC. Here’s what he said:

“And to our head table, each of you, your valued leadership and contribututions …”

The head table included guests like Ralph Nader and Bob Barr :P.

154 CuriousLurker  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 1:07:37pm

re: #129 Lidane

Sounds boring:

Seconded. Can you imagine a world of endless rows of cookie cutter people who all think & behave the same? There would be no new ideas/inventions, no unique art, no surprises, no “salt”.

I can’t remember the exact quote or person, but there was a Japanese guy—someone involved in the creative field, maybe an artist—who said his worst nightmare was a never-ending field of gorgeous, blooming cherry trees. So true.

155 makeitstop  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 1:08:11pm

re: #111 NJDhockeyfan

If anyone thought the press of Carnival Cruise couldn’t get much worse we have this…

Boss of Carnival cruise ship adds insult to misery by going to basketball game as 4,000 suffer aboard ‘stinking stricken ship’ with urine-soaked carpets and sewage in cabins

He only owns the goddamned team.

156 Mattand  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 1:08:35pm

re: #129 Lidane

Sounds boring:

157 Lidane  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 1:09:33pm

ZOMG CALIPHATE!

158 Ghost of Tom Joad  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 1:10:02pm

re: #111 NJDhockeyfan

If anyone thought the press of Carnival Cruise couldn’t get much worse we have this…

Boss of Carnival cruise ship adds insult to misery by going to basketball game as 4,000 suffer aboard ‘stinking stricken ship’ with urine-soaked carpets and sewage in cabins

Reminds me of the BP CEO racing his yacht or some shit while crude spewed in the Gulf. Not like they can actually do anything about the current situation they’re in….but as with many rich folks, they’re just absolutely clueless or don’t give a shit what the rubes think of them. Optics don’t matter when you’re obscenely wealthy.

159 simoom  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 1:10:54pm

re: #153 simoom

160 Lidane  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 1:11:21pm
161 Targetpractice  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 1:12:12pm

Well, just a few minutes until the Senate’s supposed to have its cloture vote. Prediction: GOP will filibuster, whine that Reid’s “rushing” this vote despite their already declaring they’d vote for cloture after the recess.

162 lawhawk  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 1:12:42pm

re: #114 erik_t

A similar situation is happening out on Long Island. The Town Supervisor for Brookhaven was on vacation when the blizzard hit, and there are parts of town that are still being plowed out. It’s a total debacle on how the town handled the mess, but there are folks calling for his head.

There’s something to it when his underlings couldn’t get the job done and the plan to deal with the storm were wholly inadequate and couldn’t cope.

But to complain about Carnival Cruise’s CEO to be canned for going to a basketball game when a cruise ship has a shipwide poop deck? He should be canned for the failure to prepare for potential power loss (an all too frequent occurrence on cruise ships - and one that happens alongside fires no less), and that the ships he’s operating can’t handle basic sanitary conditions on backup power.

163 Interesting Times  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 1:14:18pm
164 Hercules Grytpype-Thynneghazi  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 1:14:49pm

re: #158 Ghost of Tom Joad

Reminds me of the BP CEO racing his yacht or some shit while crude spewed in the Gulf. Not like they can actually do anything about the current situation they’re in….but as with many rich folks, they’re just absolutely clueless or don’t give a shit what the rubes think of them. Optics don’t matter when you’re obscenely wealthy.

Which is one reason Romney is not President today.

165 First As Tragedy, Then As Farce  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 1:16:11pm

re: #137 Charles Johnson

Just churches and guns and huge gas-guzzling automobiles cruising through a landscape of oil wells and strip mines. Sounds wonderful!

And the suburban crudscape of cookie-cutter gated developments named after the things that were bulldozed to make room for them.

Welcome to The Oakwoods at Babbling Springs, a project of Netherpoostink Investments LLC

166 EPR-radar  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 1:16:30pm

re: #162 lawhawk

A similar situation is happening out on Long Island. The Town Supervisor for Brookhaven was on vacation when the blizzard hit, and there are parts of town that are still being plowed out. It’s a total debacle on how the town handled the mess, but there are folks calling for his head.

There’s something to it when his underlings couldn’t get the job done and the plan to deal with the storm were wholly inadequate and couldn’t cope.

But to complain about Carnival Cruise’s CEO to be canned for going to a basketball game when a cruise ship has a shipwide poop deck? He should be canned for the failure to prepare for potential power loss (an all too frequent occurrence on cruise ships - and one that happens alongside fires no less), and that the ships he’s sailing can’t handle basic sanitary conditions on backup power.

The CEO probably contributed to this problem one way or another (e.g., the above identified process issues). So, when disaster strikes, the least he can do is assume the fetal position and stay away from the media.

167 boredtechindenver  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 1:19:47pm

Man, I keep wanting to send out a #tgdn tweet as follows:

“Hey, all you hot #TGDN babes out there, if you are DTF tweet me back. I find that crazy chicks are the best in the sack”

I would be more afraid of getting tweets back saying yes, than losing my account.

168 Dr Lizardo  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 1:19:54pm

re: #157 Lidane

Well, crap. They’ve figured out The Plan. And I was so looking forward to my installation as Caliph of the United Islamic States of America.

169 Ghost of Tom Joad  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 1:20:11pm

re: #162 lawhawk

Yes, I know folks who didn’t get their street plowed until Monday of all things. That and their new “we’re just going to start by plowing 1 lane down the middle” masterplan. Apparently people bitched about having snow-burm barricades in front of their driveways, so instead they just plowed single-lanes down the middle on the first day. Which created havoc for little cars trying to pass each other trying to climb 30” of a snow/ice.

170 Dr Lizardo  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 1:21:04pm

re: #160 Lidane

It’s the Zombie Kangaroo Apocalypse!

171 Varek Raith  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 1:21:05pm

Fox Suggests People Are Quitting Their Jobs To Receive Unemployment Benefits

What’s more, the notion that one could quit work in order to receive unemployment benefits is nonsensical — In order to be eligible for unemployment insurance (UI), the Labor Department makes clear, you must be “unemployed through no fault of your own (determined under State law).” And importantly, as CBO explained, “To maintain eligibility for benefits while unemployed, UI recipients must search for a new job and, in some states, must accept a reasonable job offer.”

Despite the facts, conservative media have a history of denying the realities of unemployment benefits.

172 Kragar (Antichrist )  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 1:23:02pm

re: #171 Varek Raith

Fox Suggests People Are Quitting Their Jobs To Receive Unemployment Benefits

Name one person doing this. Plus, last I heard, quitting didn’t make you eligible for unemployment because you walked out on your own.

173 Bulworth  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 1:23:18pm

re: #171 Varek Raith

The wingnut war on the poor will continue until forever.

174 erik_t  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 1:25:04pm

re: #171 Varek Raith

Despite the facts, conservative media have a history of denying the realities

Edited for brevity.

175 Bulworth  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 1:25:13pm

re: #157 Lidane

Either that or godless secular humanism atheism communism marxism. /

176 CuriousLurker  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 1:25:31pm

re: #168 Dr Lizardo

Well, crap. They’ve figured out The Plan. And I was so looking forward to my installation as Caliph of the United Islamic States of America.

Damn, we never get to have ANY fun. I was looking forward to you making me the first female Grand Wazir(a). *throws keyboard across room in frustration*

177 Mattand  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 1:26:18pm

My follow up to #156:

I’ve found one use to the #tgdn hashtag: if you put it in your tweet, RWNJs think you’re on their side.

God, some of these people are dumb.

178 Bulworth  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 1:26:25pm
Fox Suggests People Are Quitting Their Jobs To Receive Unemployment Benefits

OK, but enough about Sarah Palin…

179 Gus  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 1:26:53pm

Backgrounder on the Shapiro BS:

Recycling the “Friends of Hamas” Canard Against Chuck Hagel
by Marsha B. Cohen

Taking advantage of the delay in the vote on Chuck Hagel’s nomination to the Senate, the spinmeisters of the anti-Hagel propaganda machine have a new charge to hurl at the former Nebraska Senator. Ben Shapiro of Breitbart.com claims that “Senate sources” have told him that Hagel secretly accepted a campaign contribution from “Friends of Hamas.” The allegation has been picked up and promulgated by numerous right-wing websites and blogs, including Algemeiner and the Sheldon Adelson-owned news daily, Israel HaYom (Israel Today).

Putting aside the common sense realization that no real “friends of Hamas” would be dumb enough to actually form an organization in the US or anywhere else, with a bank account that writes checks to political candidates on behalf of an internationally recognized terrorist organization, we have to ask when and where we have heard that phrase ‘Friends of Hamas’ before”?

The first time was during President Bill Clinton’s re-election campaign in 1996, when it festooned an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal by Steve Emerson headlined Friends of Hamas in the White House.

Conintnues.

180 Dr Lizardo  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 1:27:52pm

re: #176 CuriousLurker

Damn, we never get to have ANY fun. I was looking forward to you making me the first female Grand Wazir(a). *throws keyboard across room in frustration*

And we’d have gotten away with it, too, if wasn’t for these meddling kids wingnuts!!

181 Kragar (Antichrist )  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 1:32:08pm

re: #177 Mattand

My follow up to #156:

I’ve found one use to the #tgdn hashtag: if you put it in your tweet, RWNJs think you’re on their side.

God, some of these people are dumb.

THEY’VE INFILTRATED THE NETWORK!

182 simoom  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 1:37:22pm


Hyperbole much, Graham?

183 Ghost of Tom Joad  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 1:38:05pm

re: #182 simoom

Hyperbole much, Graham?

He’ll be dead or in jail next to Ted Nugent, apparently.

184 RadicalModerate  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 1:38:08pm

re: #56 Bulworth

lnyhbt but Resist!

I had to look that one up.

I originally thought it meant “Look Now You Have Been Trolled”.

185 Varek Raith  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 1:38:17pm

re: #182 simoom

Hyperbole much, Graham?

YOU ALREADY KNOW, GRAHAM!!!!

186 makeitstop  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 1:38:19pm

re: #182 simoom

Lindsey Graham: “We’re going to find out who changed those talking points or die trying”

Is it wrong to root for one option over another?

187 Varek Raith  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 1:38:46pm

re: #185 Varek Raith

YOU ALREADY KNOW, GRAHAM!!!!

WE ALREADY KNOW!!!
*Rageface*

188 Tigger2  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 1:41:24pm

re: #129 Lidane

Sounds boring:

I hear Somalia is nice this time of the year, they could all move to that Liberal Free utopia.

189 darthstar  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 1:52:08pm

Looks like we’re only one Republican Senator away from breaking the filibuster and letting the Hagel confirmation vote take place. My guess is John McCain will be the deciding vote (for whatever reason people still see that addled old fucker as somehow relevant).

190 BroncD  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 2:12:02pm

“Now, can I prove Chuck Hagel donated to this group? No, but it’s still a question worth asking.”

- Glenn Beck

Some people say Chuck Hagel may have donated to a group called Friends of Hamas. Is this true? Who can say?”

- Fox and Friends

191 BeenHereAwhile  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 3:29:36pm

re: #162 lawhawk

But to complain about Carnival Cruise’s CEO to be canned for going to a basketball game when a cruise ship has a shipwide poop deck? He should be canned for the failure to prepare for potential power loss (an all too frequent occurrence on cruise ships - and one that happens alongside fires no less), and that the ships he’s operating can’t handle basic sanitary conditions on backup power.

Micky Arison, (CEO and Chairman of the Board of Carnival) and his father started Carnival Cruise Lines.

He’s also probably the majority stockholder in the corporation, so he isn’t going anywhere from Carnival except by choice. FWIW, he lives on a yacht. In the Miami-Dade community, Mickey is generally considered to be a nice guy, as opposed to some of the other billionaires who live in the South Florida area.

I have no love for cruise lines, being fully aware of how the parent companies operate them. I also tell anyone who is considering taking a cruise that if any emergencies (fire, loss of electrical power, sinking, etc) occur while on board, the first thing which typically happens is that the crew will forget how to speak English.

192 Ming  Thu, Feb 14, 2013 3:48:32pm

What timing, to delay or maybe block the confirmation of a Secretary of Defense, for no particular reason, two days after the North Korean nuclear test. This is really putting party before country.


This article has been archived.
Comments are closed.

Jump to top

Create a PageThis is the LGF Pages posting bookmarklet. To use it, drag this button to your browser's bookmark bar, and title it 'LGF Pages' (or whatever you like). Then browse to a site you want to post, select some text on the page to use for a quote, click the bookmarklet, and the Pages posting window will appear with the title, text, and any embedded video or audio files already filled in, ready to go.
Or... you can just click this button to open the Pages posting window right away.
Last updated: 2023-04-04 11:11 am PDT
LGF User's Guide RSS Feeds

Help support Little Green Footballs!

Subscribe now for ad-free access!Register and sign in to a free LGF account before subscribing, and your ad-free access will be automatically enabled.

Donate with
PayPal
Cash.app
Recent PagesClick to refresh