The Curse of the Kos is about to be broken.

Until Lieberman runs as an independent and beats him in the general election, at least.

Retraction, For Now: I have been told that no such article appears on the Rasmussen site, which isn't that alarming, because I think the piece is about a poll that will be released.

However, the guy posting it just signed up for FreeRepublic today, making it a genuine possibility this is a troll or hoaxster.

At this point, this story should be dismissed as unreliable.

I apologize for my sloppiness and credulity.

Thanks to mm17 for pointing this out.

Posted by: Ace at 09:32 AM | Comments (18)
Post contains 124 words, total size 1 kb.

Can't they both lose?

Okay, I know, here it comes. All the cultish fans shouting at me.

All of those rabid, "he can do nothing wrong" Joel Siegel fans calling me an idiot.

Well, it's time to take a stand. Joel Siegel is very, very overrated.

Posted by: Ace at 09:20 AM | Comments (28)
Post contains 58 words, total size 1 kb.

So, if all these allegations are true, at the very worst Glenn Greenwald (a) posted comments on right-wing blogs defending himself using an alias; and (b) subsequently lied about doing so.

And, if true, this supposedly discredits every substantive argument he makes and renders him nothing more than a "douchebag" who speaks nothing but lies.

"t is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. ... Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country."

— General Herman Goering, President of German Reichstag and Nazi Party, Commander of Luftwaffe during World War II, April 18, 1946.

Unfortunatelty, you all are proving Goering is still correct to this day. I'd love to see you spend half as much energy devoted to rebutting the merits of Greenwald's arguments rather than attempting to destroy him personally.

But wait -- bogocial didn't mean that to sound so harsh!

I do not mean to imply that you are the moral equivalent of a Nazi war criminal, but you should be aware that all this energy spent on personally attacking a person that fundamentally disagrees with you and your worldview, rather than rebutting the substance of what he says, is reminiscent of how Nazi war criminals were able to manipulate their country.

-- by bgocial, who will call people Hitler for food

Couple of points. Glenn Greenwald's cultists used to mention his resume at every turn to buttress his "substantive" points (which are basically "Bush sucks" and "Chrixxxtian Exxxtremists Are Going To Round You Up And Put You Into Camps" in 10,000 word essays, six times a week). In other words, they used to be quite keen on offering his personal credibility as a proof his "substantive" points were correct.

Now that his credibility is in grave dispute, they claim they want to keep this strictly on the "substance," and they've abandoned the appeal to authority. (H/t a commenter, John, I think.)

Furthermore, as is noted in the thread, Greenwald's jackass points have been challenged, and refuted, many times. Just not by me. "Rick Ellenburg," for example, appears in a post at Right Wing Nut House which attacks Greenwald's "substance." Maguire, LGF, NRO, etc., have all gotten their licks in on the "substance" of Greenwald's One Post, Rewritten Six Thousand Times.

I'm not challenging his "substance" because, frankly, I think he's beneath me.

And lastly: The sock-puppetry was, as I've said, a fairly minor thing. An embarrassing thing showing preening vanity and an comfort with dishonesty, but yet, still pretty minor. If on Day One of this, when I first nailed him for sock-puppetry, he had said, "Yes, I used other psuedonyms; I didn't want to post in hostile territory under my own name," or whatever, where would this have gone from there? No where, that's where. He would have been caught doing something underhanded and immature, but he would have been honest about it, and that would have been it. End of story.

But he didn't do that. He escalated it. He lied, consciously and deliberately and premeditatedly, not just to me, but to all of his cultists as well. And he has maintained that lie.

He made a fool out of all of you lefties, bgocials. Ya been had. Bamboozled. Glenn Greenwald chumped ya, son.

Since you're so fond of Hitler analogies, bgocial, I'll just note that Hitler came to power through lying.

And also, I suspect, sock-puppets, but I can't quite prove that. Yet.

Posted by: Ace at 08:49 AM | Comments (33)
Post contains 639 words, total size 4 kb.

This is it. This is the Rosetta Stone.

Dan Riehl sent me this link, in which he demonstrates "Rick Ellensburg" making the same points as Glenn Greenwald, using much the same language, only hours after Greenwald posted.

"Do Greenwald's fans have his posts tattooed on his arms?" he wonders.

It's a little worse than that, Dan.

Because "Rick Ellensburg," Certified Greenwald Fan, actually makes one of Greenwald's statements, in near-identical laguage, BEFORE Glenn Greenwald does on his own post.

Dans' post led me to realize I myself had witnessed a case of what I will call "Nostradamus Magic Boyfriend." "Rick Ellensworth" had made a Glenn Greenwald point-- before Glenn Greenwald did!

Not only does the Magic Boyfriend obsessively defend Glenn Greenwald, post his CV with loving exactitude, and regurgitate all of his posts with the fluency and command of a, oh, let's say, of a Glenn Greenwald -- he actually writes some of Glenn Greenwald's postings before Glenn Greenwald can get around to doing so himself!

It has already been proven that "Rick Ellensburg," Certified Greenwald Defender, blogs from the same area of Brazil that Glenn Greenwald does. And is active on the internet at the same time as Greenwald. And favors the same "to recap" construction and use of hyphens that Greenwald does.

But now Rick Ellensburg goes one step into the future, precognitively channelling Greenwald's postings for the next day.

Now first of all, the circumstances are damning enough. Because while no one calling himself "Glenn Greenwald" responded to Right Wing Nut House's criticism of him on the RWNH blog -- "Rick Ellensburg" did -- we know that, once again, Glenn Greenwald read the blog and objected to the post strenuously.

How do we know this? Why, he addresses Right Wing Nut House in his own little section in this post. Right Wing Nut House gets his very own section for rebuttal, right next to Little Green Footballs and NRO.

So right away we have another case where the thin-skinned, defensive Greenwald reads a post that attacks him but does not respond to it... at least not in his own name.

But it gets worse. A lot worse.

I'm sorry, I have to say it. This is so good I want to dip my balls in it.

Nay-- I MUST dip my balls in it. And I shall.

To recap, as "Rick Ellensburg" and Glenn Greenwald are both fond of saying, every three sentences. We know for a fact that Glenn Greenwald read the RWNH post in question, because he later addresses it on his blog. But he did not respond, at least in his own name, in the post itself.

Now, Rick Moran of Right Wing Nut House chose a particular quote of Greenwald's previous day's post to criticize.

Check out what "Rick Ellensburg" says about that quote, at 7:12 Central Time, on February 12th:

Even funnier – looks like Andrew Sullivan agrees with Greenwald, since he took the paragraphs you quoted and called it the “Quote of the Day,” saying Greenwald “diagnosed the situation accurately”:

http://time.blogs.com/daily_dish/2006/02/quote_for_the_d_20.html

Got that? He thinks it's "funn[y]" that Sullivan agrees with Greenwald, and that AS took Greenwald's quote as "Quote of the Day" and said it "diagnosed the situation accurately." And provided a link to AS, of course.

You don't have to remember that long, because you're about to see it again:

Glenn Greenwald, writing at his own blog, at 9:43 AM Brazilian time, on February 13th, the next day:

Ironically, Sullivan, shortly after Moran posted this, took the precise paragraphs quoted above [Greenwald's quotes, the ones Moran had attacked] and made them the "Quote of the Day" on his site, concluding that my post "diagnos[es] the situation accurately."

Hyperlink in orignal post. Bolding added.

So what have we?

Rick Ellensburg calls it "funn[y];" the next day, Greenwald finds it "ironic[]."

Rick Ellensburg notes Sullivan used the disparaged quote as the "Quote of the Day;" so does Greenwald. The next day.

Rick Ellensburg notes that Sullivan said the quote "diagnosed the situation accurately;" the next day, Glenn Greenwald notes Sullivan says the quote "diagnose the situation accurately."

And yes, provides the link in both instances.

Friends, we either have Greenwald sock-puppetting "Rick Ellensburg," or we have a case of Glenn Greenwald plagiarizing Rick Ellensburg.

So which is it? He read the thread, but does not acknowlege getting any points from Ellensburg; either he lifted from Ellensburg, or he did not owe Ellensburg a hat-tip, as Ellensburg was a made-up screenname with a two-hour lifetime spent entirely in RWNH's thread and was, in fact, Glenn Greenwald himself.

You usually hat-tip other people. You don't, however, hat-tip yourself.

And yes, Glenn Greenwald did read all the comments in that thread, because he takes the time to quote several of them and respond to them. He quotes one left-leaning commenter approvingly. He didn't merely read the thread; he read all the comments! And yet, as annoyed as he was with RWNH -- taking RWNH to task in a follow-up post the next day -- he somehow managed to restrain himself from commenting there... at least under the name "Glenn Greenwald."

Strangely, however, he does not praise the astuteness of his fearless defender Rick Ellensburg, the man who so vigorously defended him, and the man from whom he apparently lifted that business about the Sullivan quote. In fact, he doesn't even acknowlege him. He acknowleges "Dr. Biobrain" and a conservative he disagrees with; absolutely no mention of Rick Ellensburg.

Why is that? Why cite one liberal who agrees with you, one conservative who disagrees with you, and entirely ignore the guy you agree with most completely, who was most vigorously arguing your points?

Why not a quick mention? Why not say, "Rick Ellensburg also makes good points." Why not hat-tip the guy who apparently alerted you to Sullivan's linking of you as the Quote of the Day?

Duh-- because it was Glenn Greenwald.

By the way: If it matters Andrew Sullivan made this the Quote of the Day at 6:48 Eastern, or 5:48 Central.

Oh... And there's more there, too. I only focused on that one quote, but "Rick Ellensburg" makes several points in Greenwald's defense. I am curious to see if any of those magically made their way into Greenwald's rebuttal to RWNH the next day. But it's late, and I'm not quite curious enough.

Posted by: Ace at 11:04 PM | Comments (153)
Post contains 1070 words, total size 7 kb.

Anybody got some? If so, let me know. February 12 would be particularly tasty.

Not sock-puppet posts; the real deal, signed by the man himself. Please shoot me a line at aceofspadeshq -at- gmail.com.

A source thinks this might be important for reasons I'm not quite sure I understand. But he's really keen on it, and I'm a moron, so I'll go with his theory. Whatever it is.

Clarification: Posts on your own blog, I mean. Because I need the IP.

Posted by: Ace at 10:21 PM | Comments (9)
Post contains 95 words, total size 1 kb.

Thanks to Bill Whittle. Some real gems.

My favorite? Bill Brasky calls his penis "Ellison."

Posted by: Ace at 06:58 PM | Comments (20)
Post contains 23 words, total size 1 kb.

Brit mullah left for Lebanon after he was publicly chastised for inciting terrorism.
But now that he's living la vida loca, he wants to come back.
Maybe he should have thought of this before he started with the Jihad bullshit:

EXILED preacher of hate Omar Bakri has begged the Royal Navy to rescue him from war-torn Beirut.

The Muslim cleric who fled Britain last year, tried to board a ship full of women and children yesterday but was turned away.

He also wrote to the British embassy asking to be allowed back on “humanitarian grounds”.

In an email to officials, dole scrounger Bakri pleaded: “The current situation in Beirut left me without any choice but to appeal to you to grant me a visit visa to see my children for one month.”

But his bid to sneak on one of our ships was blocked at harbour gates by sharp-eyed officials.

He's a real piece of work.

I've been rough on Lebanon in the title to this post, and I apologize for taking some dramatic license. I've heard its a beautiful place, and used to be more so, before the 'militants' got their hands on it.

Thanks to Christopher Taylor, whose blog kicks ass.

Posted by: LauraW. at 04:38 PM | Comments (18)
Post contains 249 words, total size 2 kb.

"Rick Ellensburg" posts here at Right Wing Nut House, once again, I'm sure you'll be shocked to hear, defending Glenn Greenwald.

Right Wing Nut House checked the IP:

201.8.3.146
OrgName: Latin American and Caribbean IP address Regional Registry
OrgID: LACNIC
Address: Potosi 1517
City: Montevideo

Montevideo again. The same origin-city listed for the now-famous "Ellison" IP address. (Clarification at end of post.)

It gets better.

"Rick Ellensburg" (sounds similar to "Ellison" and "Thomas Ellers," don't it?) writes a post, on RWNH's site, at 7:03 Central Time, which is (if I haven't f'd up my math too much) 9:03 Brazil time.

Here, Glenn Greenwald himself posts at 8:43 Brazil time. (His blog is on Brazil time, one hour ahead of Eastern time. I checked.)

Correction: "Rick Ellensburg" first posted on RWNH at 6:52 Central Time, which is 8:52 Brazil time. So he actually posted there within 9 minutes of posting a (brief) comment on his own site. Thanks to dedicated Greenwald defender "Mantis" for pointing that out.

Within twenty nine minutes. Within twenty nine minutes of Glenn Greenwald posting on his own blog, someone fluent with all of Glenn Greenwald's arguments, re-making all of Glenn Greenwald's points, writing like Glenn Greenwald, defends Glenn Greenwald on a right wing blog, posting as "Rick Ellensburg," a pseudnym somewhat silmilar to "Ellison" and "Thomas Ellers."

Gee, Glenn Greenwald sure has a lot of rabid fans in Brazil, doesn't he? And they, once again, post during the same time frames he is known to be active on the Internet.

Like here, where Hot Air points out that sock-puppet "Ryan" posts on Dan Riehl's blog within 20 minutes of Glenn Greenwald posting on his own blog.

Another coincidence, Glenn? Your Magic Boyfriend just happens to always be posting on the internet -- about you, no less! -- at the same time you're active on your own blog, huh?

But there's more.

Read comments 5 and 6 on RWNH's blog, especially. Do these sound like a Magic Boyfriend merely defending his man? Or do they sound like Glenn Greenwald himself?

Does Glenn Greenwald's Magic Boyfriend just happen to be completely fluent with Greenwald's arguments and mode of thinking, such that, when pressed, he can argue Glenn Greenwald's points on his behalf at the drop of a hat?

But there's more.

Eric H. has taken the trouble to look at some of the tics that both Glenn Greenwald and "Rick Ellensburg" share. Apparently the Magic Boyfriend is also a stylistic mimc, capable of writing in Glenn Greenwald's voice at will.

This gets a little weedy (yeah, yeah, I was in the thick weeds since early yesterday morning), so I'll put it in the jump.

more...

Posted by: Ace at 03:48 PM | Comments (44)
Post contains 1765 words, total size 12 kb.

Well, yeah, another one.

I really am sorry.

Let me quote Nirvana's All Apologies:

What else can I write?
I don't have the right.

I'm sorry, but there is another sock-puppet. And he doesn't merely post Glenn Greenwald's resume. He writes just like Glenn Greenwald, he ably argues on behalf of Glenn Greenwald, making all of Glenn Greenwald's points.

So, the Magic Boyfriend Theory favored by the imbecile Paul from Wizbang! now requires that:

-- The Magic Boyfriend writes just like Glenn Greenwald.

-- The Magic Boyfriend thinks just like Glenn Greenwald.

Wow. They're truly soul-mates, aren't they?

I'm going to check to see if Glenn Greenwald was posting on his own blog at the time in question.

Could be fun.

Posted by: Ace at 03:09 PM | Comments (24)
Post contains 133 words, total size 1 kb.

A little glimpse.

Thanks to tipster "Ellison." Not really.

Posted by: Ace at 01:59 PM | Comments (27)
Post contains 19 words, total size 1 kb.