Okay, how many people just had a heart attack?

Relax, I'm fuckin' with you. How many times do I have to tell you he did it? If you're still doubting that, that's on you.

The headline is accurate. It's also deeply misleading.

WeinerÂ’s Office Calls The Police After CBS 2′s Marcia Kramer Asks For An Interview

...

So CBS 2 political reporter Marcia Kramer decided to go to his office on Capitol Hill to try to get you some answers.

YouÂ’ll never believe what happened.

Kramer tried to get an interview with the six-term New York Democrat and as a result had the cops called on her.

Kramer walked in to WeinerÂ’s office, announced herself as being from CBS 2 in New York City and said sheÂ’d like to see the congressman. Those few words created quite the stir. Doors slammed and people pretended she wasnÂ’t there.

Finally, brave press secretary David Arnold arrived. The following is the exchange Kramer had with him:

Kramer: “All I want is for him to say something to his constituents, the people who have to vote for him.”

Arnold: “I don’t think you can say he hasn’t said anything to his constituents. He spoke for nine hours yesterday.

Kramer: “But not to anyone in New York. You know, this is the sort of in-the-bunker in the capitol, not to anyone in New York.”

After Kramer left WeinerÂ’s office, his staff called the Capitol Police.

Ohhhhhh... So this pitiful strutting bantam of a semi-man does know the number of the Capitol Police....?

Gee, I thought he didn't have it.

Why didn't he just hire a "private security firm" to take care of the desperado Marcia Kramer of CBSTV?

And I thought... he was avoiding calling the police in order to spare the hackers the glare of the media spotlight?

And yet he just put poor Marcia Kramer in that glare.

I don't know... this is awfully confusing...

OH! Do note, there's video at that link.

Thanks for Patrick, who asked "Can't you embed the vid?" And I said no, no I can't. Then I see at Hot Air that Allah has embedded it. So I realize, Gee, maybe I should have clicked those buttons on the thing, huh?

Yeah. I'm like that.

I think people are freaking out because he's so obviously guilty that people are starting to think, "No one can be this guilty. Even Charles Manson is less guilty than this. I'm being set up. This is some big master scheme to draw us all in."

Relax. He's not that smart, either.

He looks guilty because he's guilty.

He acts guilty because he's guilty.

He talks guilty because he's guilty.

He doesn't call the cops on the hackers because he's guilty.

He calls the cops on reporters because he's guilty.

He doesn't deny the picture is his because he's guilty.

This is not complicated. This is not Twin Peaks.

Oh, And Here's Something: Bret Baier noted NBCNews embargoed the whole story, despite their own little-kid boy reporter Luke Russert making Weiner look bad, and despite their own Chris Cilizza saying in TheFix that Weiner had the "worst week in Washington." But apparently NBC Nightly News didn't think it was a story.

They did think that Chris Christie's helicopter nontroversy was a story, though.

Giggle. The Make Believe Media thinks it's 1997 again, I guess.

And, Surprise! Look at who joined the NBC Team!

Yeah, that's not too obvious.

And Oh! George Gooding awoke from his eternal blog slumber to debunk the already pretty well debunked "Yfrog hack" silliness that gripped the left these last 24 hours. But do read.

I skipped that because, see, at this point I am beyond technical details.

He's guilty. Period.

But yeah, for Lee Stranahan and "Cannonfire" and even ABC News, which, shockingly enough, republished a bogus claim they found on a left-wing blog: Do see George's post.

The Left Turns? Skip down to the end of Allah's post to read TNR calling Weiner skeezy.

JackStraw and JeffB. say they take the blowtorch to him.

It's time: It is time.

Ehhh... Having read that Chait piece, I think it's off the mark.

Presumably he was single at that point, yes? So he's allowed to pick up on pretty young things. We do not demand that Congressmen live as monks. I guess he had a kind of sleazy charm and young girls responded. Eh. It's not like anyone was forced to do anything they didn't want to.

In reality, every single pick-up/hook-up looks sleazy, and is sleazy, really, except to the people involved. And oftentimes, to them too.

So I'm in the odd position of having to tell someone on the left to chill out on the moral scolding of a Democratic Congressmen. Yes, the anecdote report is... ugghhh... but that's what these things tend to be. That's why we euphemize them with some kind of telephone metaphor. Few people say, "I had sex with a near-stranger."

That said, it does add to our picture of Weiner as a -- I can't believe I have to write this again -- ahem, ladies' man, and he might have found that marriage interfered unduly with his hobbies.

You know what else adds to our picture? The fact that someone accused, accurately, of sending a dic-pic to a 21 year old student not his wife, is making dick-jokes about it in interviews.

And even more dick jokes, to supporters and reporters.

Yes, that is the right Pantomime for someone supposedly criminally violated.

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Posted by: Ace at 02:49 PM | Comments (451)
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You tell me what other possible explanation for this article, stating that fossil fuels may be well-nigh inexhaustible and therefore there is no compelling reason to pursue alternative energy, appearing there.

Is it some very subtle kind of irony I'm missing? Does Salon do Opposite Day?

Update: Oh, I just got word back. @joanwalsh hit "@" when she meant to hit "d." It was a very private article, meant to be shared only between two consulting adults, but then... hackers.

Thanks to dri, from the sidebar.

Posted by: Ace at 01:10 PM | Comments (179)
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I don't think I'll actually be able to really take the days off -- I think there will still be news and stuff. I think I'll get sucked in.

But... I'm gonna try.

Anthony Weiner owes me a weekend.

So if anyone wants to flex their open blog muscles, and you've already got a pass, I'd appreciate any headline-churn you can manage during the day. Doesn't matter what you write -- you know the Andrew Breitbart Rule. No one reads this blog, including the people who actually write it.

If anyone has some article they'd like to post, let me know. People have done this a few times, threw an idea at me. I usually say yes.

Weiner vid added.

more...

Posted by: Ace at 12:41 PM | Comments (91)
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They got it.

Panic button. Battle stations.

Red alert.

They got it. I don't know how they got it, but they got it.

We are undone. We are undone.

Yes, what I've been struggling to push Politico and everyone else away from is...

Clarence Thomas is behind WeinerGate.

My God, you have no idea what a relief that is to confess. I've been carrying that weight around for a year and a half since we first started planning Operation: COCKTALON -- um, um, I mean since Sunday. Yeah, since Sunday, when I learned of it myself, when someone I don't even know tearfully confessed his guilt. Confessed his own guilt, mind you, and not, for the record, mine.

I'm just a patsy.

Wait, I don't think that's a good thing to say.

Oh well. #JackRuby'd!

These are the particulars of the latest event, but look at the big picture. We see a steady flow of similar crimes – illegal taping, attempts to tap a Senator’s phone, now intrusion into a Congressman’s social media profiles, and the one thing in common? Andrew Breitbart, who is operating a continuing criminal enterprise as defined by the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act aka RICO.

And now this gang, this conservative media mafia, has done a hit on a U.S. Congressman, and itÂ’s one carefully timed to protect corrupt Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas from scrutiny, and the timing of the delivery was flawless. Congressman Wiener would be all over accountability for Thomas, except that @DanaBashCNN and @RandiKayeCNN are all over Â… dare I say it? TheyÂ’re On. His. Dick.

This conservative crime wave isnÂ’t going to just go away. As weÂ’ve seen with Anthony Weiner, any individual who troubles them, even if that person by a United States Congressman, is going to get whacked.

We really need a way inside this thing...

I'll leave this blog going for a few more hours, for people to say final goodbyes to other professional political operatives and criminals they've come to know.

And then I'll turn out the lights.

It was fun sometimes, right?

Right. I thought so too.

Good bye.

Oh: Look for coverage of this breaking news on MSNBC, from 5-6, 7-8, 8-9, 9-10, and... well, just look for coverage of this on MSNBC. It'll be on every ten minutes.

And... Should this final post have a song for a send off? Why yes, I think it should.

Posted by: Ace at 12:33 PM | Comments (202)
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Above the post update:

He says he was told no costs and they had to log x number of hours anyway.

Now saying, it's the schedule thing. He works a lot, can't always get to things by car.

The family thing may play with some folks but a lot of people have the same pressures and not that kind of resource.

Pivots to the issues.

Original Post:
Yesterday the State Police said the trips cost nothing.

Today? Here's a check.

Gov. Chris Christie and the state Republican Party will repay the state for two trips on a State Police helicopter to get to his son's baseball games.

...The Republican State Committee has paid $1,232.29 for the flight from the Tuesday baseball game to Princeton, the Republican State Committee said today.

"The check has already been delivered," said party spokesman Rick Gorka.

He said the governor is reimbursing the state $1,232.30 for the flight to the game.

In addition, Christie is also paying $919.20 for a flight on Friday to see his son play in another baseball game.

(Removed since I misread the story I quoted)

Obviously, this wasn't about money at any point. It's appearances. You can't be the guy who is cutting spending, then show up in a helicopter and get in a limo for a 100 yard ride to the game?

I'm going to guess that Christie probably gives up a lot of time with his kids for work and felt he needs to be at these games. Well, so do a lot of parents, especially ones working two jobs or more.

This was just an incredibly tone-deaf error from a guy who has made his name taking on tough issues in large part through the force of his image. Mr. Blue Collar Truth Teller was looking mighty imperial yesterday.

I doubt this will hurt Christie's national image. In NJ? It's already giving Democrats plenty of ammunition.

He's doing an even in Jersey shortly. CNN says they'll go live. We'll see what if anything he says.

Posted by: DrewM at 12:06 PM | Comments (96)
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I really want to work in the Make Believe Media.

They often say we bloggers are "jealous" of them.

Let me tell you something, and I'm only going to admit this once: You are correct.

This is my perfect job. This is my dream. Wake up at 10, check my email boxes, see a couple of "stories" planted to me by Obama or DNC communications people, I type them up (I can type), I hit "submit," I take a nap, I read leftwing blogs all day (I don't want to, but I could, if the job required, as it does), I knock off at the crack of four and go out drinking with Obama and DNC communications people who tell me stuff that I can put in tomorrow's, ahem, "news article."

And you accuse me of being jealous?

Holy F*** yes I am jealous. How could I not be jealous? They say there's no such thing as the perfect crime but, wait, that's you who say there's no such thing as the perfect crime.

This is the perfect crime. It's not even illegal, I don't think.

Are you kidding me with this? I am so jealous, I can't even explain to you how jealous I am. I am green with envy. I am vari-colored with envy. I am a diverse rainbow of possibilities with envy.

This is a job? You get paid to do this?

Holy Crap, and I whine about public-union schoolteachers.

I bet you have a pretty good health care plan, too.

What the Funk and Wagnall's are the rest of us doing? We're chumps.

You know when I call you dumb? I do not mean a word of it. You're brilliant. Who the hell else gets paid for a hard day of moving an email to an article queue and then hitting the snooze button?

Via Tim Graham's tweet feed, and retweeted by Jammie Wearing Fool's tweet feed.

No penises were exposed in this interaction. We kept it above board on this one. It was hard to resist public displays of erection, but we soldiered through.

Okay, Let Me Be Unlike The Make Believe Media... And be fair.

The first article didn't say that Obama was "barely paying attention." It reported that Jim Carney, who doesn't know what he's talking about, said that. And that article quoted him deadpan, without skepticism or context.

The media calls repudiating someone's quotes with facts "context" when they do it to a conservative. But they see no need for context when it's a Democrat.

And to be fair still further, that second bit, about the fundraisers, came not from Geraghty checking the schedule, but from the media, too. From the AP, if you can believe it.

Now if we can only get the guy who wrote the first article to have drinks once in a while with the guy who wrote the second article -- now we're cookin' with gas.

Oh: People want my twitter feed. It's here.

The thing is, gotta tell ya, I stopped Tweeting for a long time. It tended to suck me in, when I should be either 1, taking the night off, or 2, working on my actual blog or talking in the comments.

I have re-emerged on Twitter for this WeinerGate thing, because last Saturday, I was truly on fire, with a, may I say?, hilarious hectoring of @RepWeiner. Basically I pretended I believed him, and really wanted these nefarious hack3rz exposed. I was totally on Team Weiner.

That said, I think I'm about to mostly stop again, except for occasional blog-post pimping and exchanges and yelling at the media.

But it don't cost ya nothin' to follow, so might as well.

Posted by: Ace at 11:35 AM | Comments (136)
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Before that: Seattle coed's mom furious at Weiner for not settling this matter.

"I'm really upset. I feel like he's a person of power and influence, who can make a statement and make all this go away," Carol Mizuguchi said, blasting Rep. Anthony Weiner for his continued snarky sidestepping.

"As her mother, I'm really upset," Mizuguchi told The Post. "I'm pissed off at that."

Well, he has put out a statement. What he needs to do is bring in a 3rd party who he does not control, by virtue of being their client, like, oh, I don't know. The FBI IC3 unit.

Also attracting a lot of comments at Hot Air, where I cribbed it from.

And now, the silly Next Media Animation.

Content Warning, as with most things in this case. more...

Posted by: Ace at 10:46 AM | Comments (177)
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There are three main possible takes here.

1. The liberal/libertarian Civil Liberties take. Cops should not be permitted to ask for ID in this situation, or take any official notice of it. The man is free to do as he pleases. Back off, authoritarian police.

2. The half-in/half-out semi-conservative position. This is an outrage, but cops should ask "suspicious characters" and detain them as necessary, and often this will mean "Islamic looking," but that mostly full civil liberties should be preserved for everyone else. This is an example of "security theater."

3. The authoritarian/statist position, post 9/11. A little checking by cops is prudent and lawful, and if you want to insist on the right to not present ID, you can and should expect detention or hassle.

I know 1 and 3 make sense. Not to say they're right, but they make sense.

I do not believe 2 makes sense or is workable or constitutionally permissible. I do get, and believe, that some type of profiling is appropriate. But this guy, having attracted police attention, for whatever reason, can't just offer "but I'm white" as a defense. Not that he says that, but I mean, "I'm white and Christian" really can't be a Leave Me Alone, Copper card we can play.

Or at least it seems so to me.

Anyway, the video. The guy sounds both harmless and a little weird. But who knows.

I hate putting up these posts because I get screamed at by both the civil libertarians, who feel cops should have rather little power at all to ask questions of anyone not caught red-handed in a crime, and the half-in/half-outs, who insist I'm missing an important distinction.

I don't know. I think at some point you have to lay down a bright-line rule. Either we're going to be suspicious of videotapes taken at travel nodes or we're not. I don't think it's a consistent position to just say "Well, only when the guy is guilty."

Plus, I think the cops are pretty polite. They're arguing, discussing with the guy.

Update: From the jump, robtr has been all over me like Anthony Weiner on a hockey score. He notes that in fact it is not illegal to videotape trains at a train station, and further:

That isn't true, if you read the article the cheif of police said the cops made a mistake and needed more training. He said it's perfectly legal to video their trains.

Well, I don't read articles, Chief, so how does that help me?

However, in the comments, it remains an interesting question, despite my having gotten almost everything completely wrong.

Even if it's not illegal to videotape trains, it is also not illegal -- at all -- for cops to ask you why you're videotaping trains, same as it's not illegal for them to ask you why you are photographing the security cameras outside a bank.

Is that illegal? Photographing security cameras at a bank? No. There is no crime of "casing," I don't think.

But are cops supposed to ask why you are doing it? Yes, they are, unless you actually do want them just hanging out in the donut shop all day.

The error here might have been police escalation into an arrest, after the man seemed to be nothing but a slightly odd harmless guy. Cops can't arrest you for the Disrespecting the Authority of a Cop in the First Degree, though, as we all must admit, that often seems to be the "real law" cops base their arrests on.

In this case, they're polite. However, they also don't like being challenged or having "rights" tossed in their faces. And thus, Disrespecting the Badge, with Aggravating Circumstances.

Note to New Readers: I actually get virtually everything wrong. Just a head's up.

I just have entered some unconscious in-the-zone trance on Weiner.

But anything non-Weiner? Will be wrong. My theory of blogging is that if I tell you correct information, that's just feeding you. I want you to earn it, by realizing all the errors I've made.

See? It's interactive.

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Posted by: Ace at 10:06 AM | Comments (289)
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I never met Paul Ryan. I don't know how this happened. I can't say with certitude the picture isn't me, I can only say I did not send the picture I just sent.

Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) told reporters after the meeting that Ryan told Obama “we’re not going to make progress on reforming Medicare unless we cut through the demagoguery on the issue.”

In reply, Obama “spelled out his differences and responded with the thought that if everyone would follow that, certainly he would,” Goodlatte added. “Paul’s point was that as president of the United States, he can take the lead in cutting through that and having a serious discussion.”

In related scandal news, William Kristol just accidentally sent me a sext that was clearly intended for his beloved, Paul Ryan.

This article is bad, because it's from the Huffington Post and I can't find the original, and it's also six days old so it's not about the recent confrontation, but I'm going to but I'm going to link it as a defense as to why I sent that picture that I didn't send.

Chairman Paul Ryan's Medicare plan, Republican lawmakers are amplifying their message that it was President Barack Obama's health care law, not theirs, that pushed draconian cuts to the entitlement program.

The only problem: The Wisconsin Republican's plan incorporates the very same cuts to Medicare that were part of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

Well that's your claim and I don't believe it, but if that were true, then why should seniors prefer Obama's cuts to Ryan's equal cuts?

In fact, Obama simply stole money from Medicare to pay for health care for non-seniors. Ryan's cuts are designed to make Medicare itself sustainable, that is, his cuts actually "save Medicare" while Obama's simply gut it and put the government on the hook for further obligations it can't meet. Every dollar borrowed to finance Obama's unsustainable ObamaCare scam is a dollar that can't be borrowed to get Medicare through its rough patch.

And, in fact, another older story notes that Tea Partiers wish to spend more on Medicare than Obama. Just not so much as to bankrupt it.

Now comes Marco Rubio, who's lain low since I began Ewokstalking him (and did I get that tense right? No one knows for sure, do they?), but apparently misses me.

I have rectified that with a hockey tweet. And, to use the increasingly played "And when I say" joke, when I say "Hockey" I mean "Garbage" and when I say "tweet" I mean sex. Sex with his garbage.

How can you sit there as the President of the United States, in charge of this country, and say there is a major program like Medicare thatÂ’s this important and IÂ’m just going to criticize and demonize and lie about Paul RyanÂ’s plan but IÂ’m not going to offer one of my own?

Where is President ObamaÂ’s plan on Medicare? WhereÂ’s his plan?!

Vid at the link. Sweet, sweet "hockey-worthy" vid at the link.

Also weighing in: Noted archconservative and cryptofascist Lanny Davis. Davis, of course, was a key aid of Clinton's, and spun for him every night during MonicaGate, so I suspect he's Clinton's ventriloquist doll here. Recall that Clinton told Ryan that Democrats could not -- or at least should not -- demagogue this issue into inaction.

Democrats Must Have an Honest Conversation With America About Medicare

By Lanny Davis

Published June 02, 2011

As a liberal Democrat, I was happy with the results of the New York 26th congressional district special election, in which Democrat Kathy Hochul defeated Republican Jane Corwin by emphasizing her opposition to Rep. Paul RyanÂ’s (R-Wis.) budget proposal and her Republican opponentÂ’s support of that plan.

The fact is, Hochul received only 47 percent of the vote, and together, Corwin (43 percent) and the Tea Party candidate (9 percent) garnered 52 percent. That means Corwin’s victory wasn’t exactly a resounding triumph for Democrats and a clear mandate against Ryan’s proposal. But there is no doubt that this Republican district — famous for having elected and reelected many times conservative icon Jack Kemp — would have stayed Republican but for Ryan’s proposal.

So now what do the Democrats do? If you watch MSNBC and its hosts and guests, who are almost exclusively liberal Democrats, the answer is clear: pound the Republicans on Ryan and scare seniors into voting for Democratic candidates.

Part of me — the partisan Democratic part — agrees.

Note this is exactly what Clinton said to Ryan: As a partisan Democrat, I'm happy we won NY-26, but...

But, as usual, the progressive voice of the center-left who won two terms as president, Bill Clinton, the man who inherited a $300 million deficit and eight years later left George W. Bush a $1 trillion surplus, caused me to rethink my partisan instincts.

Clinton got it right when he said on May 24, in a whispered comment picked up by a backstage microphone, to the very same Paul Ryan:

“I’m glad that we won this race in New York, but I hope that the Dems don’t use it as an excuse to do nothing on Medicare.”

Oh, I just said that. I guess my "big catch" here about Lanny Davis parroting Clinton wasn't a catch, because Davis says as much. Oh well, I usually don't read the articles, much like Andrew Breitbart.

Anyway. When even Lanny Davis is calling for Democratic honesty, that's a pretty sure sign that Democrats are not demonstrating honesty.

Posted by: Ace at 09:50 AM | Comments (64)
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After hearing arguments from Debbie Wasserman Schultz on Medicare, I was at a total loss. Oh she is profoundly stupid, that is a given. But the core of her arguments have always seemed to have a special level of utter thoughtlessness. Sentences that scream "profound brain damage".
Then it dawned on me. I have heard her line of thinking before:

Anyone up for Starbucks?

Open Thread

Posted by: CAC at 09:24 AM | Comments (56)
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