Originally posted January 3, 2007. This was before Barack Obama even announced his intention to run, IIRC. However, progressive "journalists" were already smitten with him over his droning 2004 DNC speech.

Howard Fineman rarely has anything to say but he's paid good money to say it. This annoys me -- I also rarely have anything to say, but I'm not paid good money to say it.

I got very annoyed reading a column of his in which he regurgitated the most obvious bromides about what kind of candidate would win an election. Absolutely zero thought went into it, and absolutely zero insight came out of it.

So I imagined -- and I bet this is actually more true than false -- that these idiots just go to a bar, get drunk, start spouting nonsense, and then rush home to write that nonsense down when they remember they have a column due at noon the next day.

BTW: Don't go commenting in old posts; the system will read comments in dead posts as spam and ban you. That's why I'm publishing these in "new" posts.

Original post below. more...

Posted by: Ace at 12:43 PM | Comments (170)
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Originally published in May, 2011. As the site's ten year anniversary is coming up on December 28th, and because I sort of want to take off during these ambiguous off-days of Thursday and Friday after Christmas (and New Year's), I'm republishing some old stuff.

The background for this post is that French philosopher and journalist and public intellectual Bernard Henri-Levy rose to the fulsome defense of his friend Dominique Strauss-Kahn, after DSK was accused of raping a hotel maid in New York City. Despite another accuser coming forward to accuse him of attempted rape -- his own goddaughter! -- it actually turned out that Dominique Strauss-Kahn was innocent of the crime.

Although it then turned out that Dominique Strauss-Kahn was accused of being a client of an underaged-girl prostitution ring, arranging dozens of "orgies" for his high-ticket friends. This so-called "Carlton Affair" (named for the hotel in Lille, France where the "orgies" took place) is still an ongoing investigation, the last time I read about it.

However, at the time this post was written, it appeared to most, incorrectly, that Dominique Strauss-Kahn was indeed guilty of raping the maid in New York City. It certainly appeared that way to New York City prosecutors, who indicted him.

Bernard Henri-Levy's passionate defense of him turned out to be correct.

But at the time, his defense seemed very strange. Henri-Levy spoke about DSK as a man who lived life to the fullest, and who cut a sharp figure, and suchlike, as if these observations were proofs of his innocence (or worse, excuses for his rape). For example, he wrote a column called "The Dominique Strauss-Kahn I Know:"

: "And what I know even more is that the Strauss-Kahn I know, who has been my friend for 20 years and who will remain my friend, bears no resemblance to this monster, this caveman, this insatiable and malevolent beast now being described nearly everywhere. Charming, seductive, yes, certainly; a friend to women and, first of all, to his own woman, naturally, but this brutal and violent individual, this wild animal, this primate, obviously no, it's absurd."

I guess this post kind of illustrates the dangers of rushing to judgment. Whatever else DSK has done, or not done, it is now accepted as fact that raping a chambermaid was not among his sins. And however ridiculous and emotion Henri-Levy's defense of his friend seemed at the time, he was 100% right.

So this post was completely unfair.

Still, it was, I think, pretty funny. So pretend it's late winter 2011 and we're all still thinking that DSK is guilty and Bernard Henri-Levy is some kind of weird groupie justifying his hero's behavior.

BTW: Please don't comment on old posts, if you go looking back for other pieces. The system reads comments on long-dead posts as "Spam," and bans people for doing it. That's why I'm republishing these in a new, clean post.

Bernard Henri-Levy's "guest post" below.

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Posted by: Ace at 09:51 AM | Comments (123)
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The Obamacare contraception mandate cases are the most important religious freedom cases we've seen in years. They aren't going to bring down Obamacare. For that, look to the subsidy challenges, especially Pruitt v. Sebelius. But these contraception cases are going to shape the way government interacts with religious beliefs for decades to come.
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Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 09:37 AM | Comments (144)
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I was going to put some content here but Santa didn't bring me any yesterday.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 08:05 AM | Comments (224)
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The folks over at the Free Beacon were kind enough to put together a short clip of MSNBC's greatest hits of 2013.
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Posted by: Open Blogger at 05:51 AM | Comments (260)
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Happy Thursday.

Apparently programming code can be complicated. Who knew?

The Palestinians are getting restless.

The 61st annual reenactment of Washington's crossing of the Delaware River went off without a hitch yesterday. Sounds like a cool way to celebrate Christmas.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 02:49 AM | Comments (265)
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Merry Christmas All. Leftovers are on the table and the port-a-potty is next to the garage. I'm claiming this here bottle of cheap champagne sparkling wine and going back into my cave to keep working on Plans and Projects. I'll check back in later to make sure we won't be losing our deposit.

No One Is Beyond the Reach of the Comedy Police

Not even Steve Martin.

The storm started Friday when he invited people to ask him grammar questions on Twitter.

Someone wrote, "Is this how you spell lasonia?" to which Martin replied: "It depends. Are you in an African-American neighborhood or at an Italian restaurant."

The Perpetually Offended Humor Monitors were not amused and Martin quickly tried to explain:

"I knew of the name Lasonia. I did not make it up, nor do I find it funny. So to me the answer was either Lasonia (with a capital), or Lasagna, depending on what you meant. That they sounded alike in this rare and particular context struck me as funny. That was the joke," he wrote on his website.

But it was too late - he was already condemned as a hateful thought-criminal and the internet mob was summoned based on misquotes from Salon and TMZ. On the other hand Steve does know a lot of people so with a bit of groveling he'll probably still be allowed to keep working.

Posted by: Maetenloch at 06:17 PM | Comments (358)
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Just an empty open thread, except for a Peanuts video.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

I'm not sure if Maet or CDMR or Walt or TMI has something tonight. If they do, then I guess this will become a superfluous early open thread.

(I put up a thread for anyone watching the Doctor Who episode below.) more...

Posted by: Ace at 05:04 PM | Comments (108)
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The last Matt Smith episode is coming on in ten minutes. Figured some might be watching it.

It's on BBCAmerica.

Posted by: Ace at 04:51 PM | Comments (134)
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And so it goes.

Militants in Iraq targeted Christians in three separate Christmas Day bombings in Baghdad, killing at least 37 people, officials said Wednesday.

"Militants," AP says.

In one attack, a car bomb went off near a church in the capital's southern Dora neighborhood, killing at least 26 people and wounding 38, a police officer said.

Earlier, two bombs ripped through a nearby outdoor market simultaneously in the Christian section of Athorien, killing 11 people and wounding 21, the officer said.

441 people have been killed by "militant violence" in Iraq this month.

Posted by: Ace at 02:51 PM | Comments (128)
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