***update ii: exclusive photos from the operating room at Bagram added below***

***update iii: i’ve been notified by military officials that DVIDS should not have released the photos. i’ve taken them down***

The Vice President of the United States was reportedly targeted by Taliban jihadists in Afghanistan. Jonathan Karl of ABC News reported from the scene:

A suicide bomber struck at the main entrance to Bagram air base in Afghanistan today, as Vice President Dick Cheney was visiting.

Immediately after the attack, a red alert traveled throughout the base — a red alert that we heard saying that the base was under direct attack.

At least nine people were killed, officials tell ABC News. Associated Press reporters at the scene said that they had seen the bodies of at least 12 people, and that they had been carried in black body bags and wooden coffins from near the base into a market area where hundreds of Afghans had gathered to mourn.

A Taliban spokesperson has claimed responsibility, saying the intended target was in fact Cheney. The bomber never got near Cheney.

Maj. William Mitchell said it did not appear the explosion was intended as a threat to the vice president. “He wasn’t near the site of the explosion,” Mitchell said. “He was safely within the base at the time of the explosion.”

However, Qari Yousef Ahmadi, a purported Taliban spokesman, said Cheney was the target of the attack.

“We knew that Dick Cheney would be staying inside the base,” Ahmadi told AP telephone from an undisclosed location. “The attacker was trying to reach Cheney.”

Whatever your partisan leanings, an attack planned on the Vice President of the United States is an attack on America.

Some of our fellow Americans, however, can’t put their sneering hatred of the White House aside.

The Huffington Post headlines the story this way–with sneer quotes:

The very first comment at HuffPo that set tone:

Plenty more where that came from:

AJ Strata finds more left-wing patriotism and compassion at the Daily Kos:

Well gosh (18+ / 0-)
As long as Dick is “safely inside” we can all heave a huge sigh of relief. Big Time’s safety is of utmost importance, of course. To hell with anyone else who died in order to save his pasty hide.

My local news just lead with his safety…as if we were all waiting for that particular news. No, I thought of the young man I know is over there as a medic. I sure hope HE is safe. This time.

…

should have called [the post] (2+ / 0-)
damn, they missed!

…

So unnecessary (0 / 0)

Cheney must know that he is a magnet for attack. Unfortunately, other people (U.S. troops and Afghanis) are the collateral damage.

He should go to a permanent undisclosed location, preferably one with iron bars that allows one hour per day of exercise or interaction with others. The other 23 hours should be in solitary confinement so he will have time to think about the death and destruction he’s created.

…

Good point (13+ / 0-)
I want him to rot in jail not die in a way that could in any way be construed as bravery, honor or decency.

More from the Democratic Underground. And more.

Which side are they on? Don’t ask.

***

Update: Ken Noland of the Digital Video and Imagery Distribution System, Supporting Operations Iraqi and Enduring Freedom with U.S. Army Central, sends photos of Task Force Med at Bagram. Keep them and the victims of the terrorist attack in your prayers.

[PHOTOS REMOVED AT THE REQUEST OF US MILITARY]

Dean Barnett commends the Kossacks for being less unhinged than the Huffpostians.

Charles Johnson: “This kind of sick, twisted thinking is everywhere in the “progressive” blogosphere…And it’s even sicker than it appears at first glance, because many of these freaks want to see Cheney dead so that he can’t become president if someone assassinates President Bush.”

***

Previous episodes of Cheney Derangement Syndrome:

Moonbat watch: Wishing Cheney ill
On the hunt: media feeding frenzy

Related: Assassination chic

It’s unconfirmed, but word is that U.S. Senator Tim Johnson (D-S.D.) has suffered a stroke. First and foremost, keep him and his family in your thoughts and prayers. There’s already a rush to calculate the political consequences in the Senate. Left-wing blog Raw Story has details:

MSNBC is currently reporting that Senator Tim Johnson (D-SD) has suffered a stroke.

There is no word, currently, on the Senator’s condition.

A call from RAW STORY to Johnson’s office has not yet been returned.

If Johnson were to pass away, or be forced to retire, the US Constitution delegates the task of appointing a replacement to South Dakota lawmakers, who in turn, often turn that task over to the Governor. The Governor of that state, Mike Rounds, is a Republican, and both houses of the state legislature are dominated by Republicans.

In the case of South Dakota, the decision would fall to Rounds, whose appointment would serve as senator until 2008 at which point the seat would be up for election.

Sen. Johnson is reportedly under observation at George Washington University Hospital in D.C.

A few more details:

“Senator Tim Johnson was taken to George Washington University Hospital this afternoon suffering from a possible stroke,” read a statement from his Senate office. “At this stage, he is undergoing a comprehensive evaluation by the stroke team.”

Johnson had become disoriented during a call with reporters, stuttering in response to a question. He appeared to recover, asking if there were any additional questions and then signing off.

The Democratic Underground thread is here.

Today, a pause from regularly scheduled blogging.

I love what I do. I count my blessings every day that I can make a living as a writer. I have been privileged to meet and work with and befriend some of the most brilliant, funny, engaging, talented people through the Internet. I’ve derived immense inspiration, stimulation, entertainment, and courage from fellow bloggers and readers over the last two years.

There are many unhinged people who would like me to shut up. There are those who engage routinely in active defamation and empty ad hominem attacks. There are also those who enable, excuse, and snicker at these attacks.

When I ignore them, lies are perpetuated and assumed to be true. When I respond, I am belittled as a self-promoter, whiner, humorless scold, and opportunist. Trolls at places like the Democratic Underground and obscure far-left blogs don’t warrant responses. But when the attacks come from a publicly subsidized UNC law professor and the largest blog conglomerate (valued at $76 million in 2005), they cannot go unanswered.

There seem to be some very dense people who don’t understand that this is not just about a bikini Photoshop. It is about disseminating the fake photo to cast me in a false light and “prove” that I’m somehow a hypocrite.

Someone created a fake Flickr site by filching photos from an innocent college undergrad’s Webshots site without her permission or knowledge. That student is Ashley Herzog of Ohio University, whom I heard from yesterday. She is upset and embarrassed to see her photos manipulated, and I am sorry she was dragged into someone’s deranged scheme because she happened to have her photo taken with me at CPAC earlier this year. Whoever created the fake Flickr site intended to mislead viewers into believing that Herzog was a classmate of mine 14 years ago. Whoever created the fake Flickr site went to the trouble of posting a photo of a dorm from my alma mater to give it authenticity.

Nobody would fall for such obvious fakery, right?

A law school professor did. Major gossip sites took the bait. Some people still refuse to believe it’s all fake.

If one anonymous creep, still out there somewhere, can successfully dupe supposedly smart people into believing his/her dumb but relatively innocuous Photoshops of me are real, I can only imagine what far worse things may be done.

But I’m supposed to just laugh along.

I don’t consider it pointless to hold up a mirror to liberals who think racist ping-pong ball jokes are respectable discourse. The Wonkette editors slimed me with that in response to a light-hearted Vent episode I did on the lack of conservative speakers at commencement addresses. For not laughing along with their senseless abuse, I’m considered a prude.

I don’t consider it pointless to note that the hate-filled cowards at Gawker Media have a pattern of repeatedly smearing and attempting to humiliate me. I have ignored most of their petty, pointless jibes. But I would not let Friday’s attack go unanswered. For responding to their idiocy, Wonkette guest Ken Layne accuses me of being a publicity seeker.

You posted the picture. You engaged in gratuitous insults. You had nothing better to write about.

But how dare I respond.

I don’t consider it pointless to note that a professor with whom I cordially engaged in lengthy debates over profiling and WWII history has descended into madness. I invited Muller to appear with me on radio. I encouraged students to read our extensive blog exchanges and gave out his website address on C-SPAN and in countless other appearances. If you paid attention to his behavior over the course of those interactions, what he did on Friday was no surprise. He called on his readers to get my book banned. He helped organize a “Historians’ Committee for Fairness” that demanded that any media organization that had me on to talk about my book “formally apologize to the Japanese Americans who have been slandered by Ms. Malkin’s reckless presentation and invite a reputable historian to present a more even-handed view of the evidence.” He allied himself with a hate-filled nut who refers to me as “Me So Michelle.” Later, he creepily monitored me while I was traveling. He distorted my writing so grossly that even his own readers tired of it. He trolled around on some fake Flickr site and linked to a photo he falsely asserted was of me, without verifying it, in order to make a nonsensical point about my supposed hypocrisy–a blog item which was picked up several hours later by Wonkette after a “tipster” e-mailed the story. A reminder of what Muller wrote:

With no further ado, I give you: Michelle Malkin, Spring Break, March 27, 1992. Could that be an all-you-can-drink wristband?

Here, incidentally, is the flickr page where the photo appears. Somebody forwarded it to me a couple of months ago. I chortled. Then I forgot about it — until today, that is, when her vicious hatchet job on a “half-naked” twenty-year-old “skank” brought it to mind.

Mind you: there’s nothing wrong with trips to the beach during college, or all-you-can-drink wristbands, or bikinis.

Just with hypocrisy.

Apologists believe the whole thing was presented as a joke. That would be Nick Denton’s and Ken Layne’s legal defense, no doubt, for maliciously neglecting to pay me the courtesy of verifying the photo with me before illogically accusing me of “hypocrisy,” linking to unhinged UNC professor Eric Muller’s post falsely asserting as fact that it was me, and now disingenuously playing it all off as a parody.

Gawker Media may never acknowledge their errors and apologize, but Professor Muller, who did, probably no longer thinks his post was so funny. Some apologists for Gawker Media believe no harm was done since eeeeeeh-veryone knew the photos were fake. Yeah? Go look at Jossip, which initially ran the Wonkette item as true hours after I answered the smear on this blog (although the amended Jossip post states its item ran “like four minutes” after I responded to Wonkette on my blog, Bloglines shows that Jossip posted its item nearly seven hours after my post went up). Countless more took their cue from the Wonkette headline calling me an “ignorant slut” and the Gawker headline “Michelle Malkin gone wild”–no question mark, no qualifiers. I won’t post all the abusive e-mails from readers of those sites who took their posts as straight, not parody.

There is a time to be tolerant and there is a time to draw lines. If you don’t draw those lines, bullies will be emboldened. The smug Gawker smear machine is all about pushing those boundaries with the expectation that no one will push back. They project their own cynicism, recklessness with facts, intellectual laziness, and bad faith on everyone else.

But outside of Manhattan and Los Angeles, not all of us think blogging is a for-profit enterprise founded solely to tear people down with gossip, rumor-mongering, and damaging lies disguised as “satire.” Funny how some of the loudest voices decrying the lack of civility in the blogosphere are the biggest promoters of the bottom-feeders and debasers at Gawker Media.

That is not what my blogs are about. That is not what I am about.

Since mm.com came into existence, I’ve been attacked regularly as a whore and a c**t and a puppet and a dupe and a sellout, etc. etc. etc. It comes with the territory–particularly when you happen to be a woman, a minority, and a conservative. The extensive arguments and blog posts and columns and books I’ve written are reduced to bumper-sticker putdowns by critics and their fellow travelers who couldn’t be bothered to actually read what I’ve written day in and day out for the last two years on the blog and the past 14 years in my books and columns. I poked fun at this pathology in my last book. I think what drives a lot of the haters crazy is that despite their ceaseless sniping, they can’t shut me up.

So, I’ll be back here the next day and the next cheerfully doing what I do. And the haters will be back in their pigpens doing what they do.

The wonderful thing about the Internet is that there is room for both. The wonderful thing about this country is that you are free to choose.

See you in the morning. Thanks for your continued readership!

***

Funny comments over at Tim Blair’s.

Chris Muir smiles.

A reader sends a WSJ profile of Gawker Media smear machine founder Nick Denton:

Names to Know
A WALL STREET JOURNAL ONLINE NEWS ROUNDUP
December 29, 2004 11:02 a.m.

Online Journal editors have highlighted 15 people to watch in 2005 — men and women who are set to shape the course of business, politics and world affairs in the next year…

Nick Denton, online publisher

The 2004 election may have made stars out of once-obscure online commentators, and larger sites have dabbled in blogs as well. Mr. Denton is looking to prove that blogging can be a business, building a small but growing galaxy of publications. Mr. Denton, publisher of the Wonkette political gossip blog and others, has become the poster boy for blog start-ups, snagging big-name advertisers with help from his highly targeted audiences. Altogether, his eight blogs, which include Gawker (Manhattan gossip) and Gizmodo (gadgets), pull in a total of more than 29 million page views monthly. Mr. Denton’s next challenge will be to sustain Wonkette in the absence of election news while forging ahead at his other blogs and perhaps founding a new “it” site. Mr. Denton has also tried to assume a leading role, recently supporting calls for blog ethics standards and launching a service, called Kinja, to make it easier for readers to keep up with their favorite blogs.

He supports “calls for blog ethics standards?”

Now that’s funny.

***
Previous:

The Gawker smear machine
Malkin Derangement Syndrome
Do you think this is funny?

Seven people are in custody after a sweep by law enforcement authorities in connection with an alleged plot against targets that may have included the Sears Tower, officials told CNN on Thursday.

Officials said no weapons or bomb-making materials had been found in the searches in the Miami area by FBI and state and local law enforcement officials. The city is under no imminent threat, according to the FBI.

Law enforcement sources told CNN that the arrests disrupted what may have been the early stages of a domestic terrorist plot to attack the Sears Tower in Chicago, Illinois, the FBI building in Miami, and possibly other targets

Allah has all the late-breaking developments, video, and early blog reax. More coverage: ABC * Miami Herald.

Some of the suspects are black Muslim radicals.

Law enforcement sources told CNN that some of the suspects are members of a radical African-American Muslim group and that at least one had taken “an al Qaeda oath.” They had carried out surveillance on the Sears Tower and FBI building in Miami, the sources said.

Sources told CNN that the arrests culminated a monthslong undercover operation. The suspects believed they were dealing with an al Qaeda operative, but the person was actually a government informant, the sources said…The FBI said one search warrant was executed in a warehouse near a housing project in Liberty City, a predominantly black and low-income area of Miami.

There have been several black Muslim jihadi plots and prosecutions before and after 9/11.

In April 2003, James Ujaama pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy to provide goods and services to the Taliban.

The Portland 7 consisted of several black Muslim converts:

Most recently, black Muslim inmates at New Folsom State Prison in California who swore allegiance to Jam’iyyat Ul-Islam Is-Saheeh (Arabic for “Assembly of Authentic Islam” and known as JIS) were implicated in a jihadi plot to plan attacks on synagogues and a military recruiting center in Santa Monica, Calif.

Gates of Vienna and the Politics of CP have reported extensively on the homegrown black Muslim terrorist group, al Fuqra.

Black militant Muslim American Clement Rodney Hampton-El was convicted of 3 counts including seditious conspiracy, bombing conspiracy, and attempted bombing in the 1993 World Traade Center bomb plot.

And don’t forget freelancers like the Beltway snipers. And the old school black Muslim thugs (and Jesse Jackson pals) of the Chicago-based El Rukn. Ken Timmerman has the goods.

Like I say: It’s the jihad, stupid.

***

Bob Owens catches the Democratic Underground already playing the race card.

Reader Martin sends a reminder about this March 2006 story about Sears Tower casing that was pooh-poohed.

Debbie Schlussel: Life imitates art imitating life?

300pm EDT: The Peace Films site is now down.

“Jesse MacBeth” is currently the Number 2 search term at Technorati.

He’s the moonbat and purported Army Ranger featured here at “Peace Films” sliming the troops and weaving tales of Iraq war atrocities.

Don’t. Believe. The. Hype.

MacBeth’s costume:

Via Milblogs:

1. Special Forces Combat Patch (Wrong)
2. Two “Tabs” sewn above SF patch (Wrong- Only One)
3. No Ranger Tab
4. No Airborne Wings
5. No Unit Crest
6. No Sewn on Rank
7. No One in the Army rolls their sleeves like that.
Bonus:
8. Mustache is out of regulation by extending past the corner of the mouth.

A real soldier:

Thanks to my Hot Air colleagues and the milblogging Army of Debunkers for doing the job the mainstream media won’t do.

***

Now the Democratic Undergrounders, reporting that MacBeth has resigned from the left-wing Iraq Veterans against the War, are turning on him.

Update: More on the Army statement regarding MacBeth from Just Citizens:

Today, the Army ran a check on Mr. MacBeth’s credentials. It turns out, not surprisingly to anybody with half a mind, that Mr. MacBeth has NO Army service record. Anywhere. Period. This is a direct quote given to me by Army spokesman John Boyce:

“Initial research by the U.S. Army Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg shows no Soldier with the name of Jesse Macbeth having ever been assigned to the Special Forces or the Army Rangers — which are, in fact, two separate disciplines. This appears to be some sort of hoax. No Soldier by that name at Fort Lewis to our knowledge, in the past, either. Of course, the line about “go into the Army or go to jail” is vintage TV script not heard since the 1960s. There are also numerous wear and appearance issues with the Soldier’s uniform — a mix of foreign uniforms with the sleeves rolled up like a Marine and a badly floppy tan beret worn like a pastry chef. Of course, the allegations of war crimes are vague, as are the awards the Soldier allegedly received.”

Q&O’s Dale Franks and The American Thinker’s Clarice Feldman note the speed of the info superhighway’s correction mechanisms.

***

Smash on Winter Soldiers, Revisited.

Peter Wehner debunks more anti-war lies.

***

Flashbacks:

Unmasking Micah Wright
Jimmy Massey: The media and the unhinged Marine

Meantime, the moonbat manipulation of Amazon.com’s reviews deserves a lot more attention than it’s getting. Kathryn Lopez shed light last week on the organized campaign against Kate O’Beirne’s book (published by Penguin/Sentinel).

Daniel Coppens at Crown Forum writes today that one of its books is now being subjected to the same abuse:

Rebel in Chief, the new book by Fred Barnes, has also been subjected to the Liberal smear campaign. The attached photo has appeared on our books’ Amazon page after each time we make Amazon take it down.

And check out the first page of bogus one-star reviews of Barnes’ book at Amazon.com. It’s a virtual Daily Kos/Democratic Underground playground:

28 of 42 people found the following review helpful:
Rebel in Chief? more like DRIBBLE in DISBELIEF, January 22, 2006
Reviewer: medaka (Nara, JP) – See all my reviews
American hero? Fearless leader? Naaaah. More like: Torturer. Liar. War Criminal. Dry Drunk. Immoral Christian. English-language Incompetent. Loser Businessman. Mediocre Human. Apocolypse Pox on American Politics. Bad book about a worse person. May both disappear from the face of the earth.

Was this review helpful to you? YesNo (Report this)

31 of 46 people found the following review helpful:
A Book to Chuck, January 22, 2006
Reviewer: Ann – See all my reviews
Honestly, how dumb does the publishing company think we are? Do they seriously expect us to believe this wasn’t ghost written by Karl Rove, or somebody who can string a decent sounding sentence together? They must think we are ALL Bush supporters. What is sadder is people actually wasted their money on this pile of dead tree stumps to put “morals and values” back in the White House. Unfortunately, the right wing Pat Robertson definition of this really means “Jingoism and Idiocy”. I feel for anyone who wasted their money on this. They could have better used it to buy the high price healthcare and gasoline which have skyrocketed under this bimbo. God save America.

Was this review helpful to you? YesNo (Report this)

29 of 43 people found the following review helpful:
They didn’t have a zero star rating., January 22, 2006
Reviewer: OGould – See all my reviews
I completely recommend this book if you like being underwhelmed, or if you want to be whipped into a catatonic stupor. If you must read it, get it from the library so you won’t feel like you did when you bought the Ding King from the TV commercial. (As for the writing style, I’m not sure our president can push a subject against a predicate, at gunpoint.) If this was written by a ghostwriter, he or she should be taken out and shot.

Was this review helpful to you? YesNo (Report this)

24 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
Correction of Title, January 22, 2006
Reviewer: EricD – See all my reviews
There was an error made in the title of the book. It is supposed to read
George W. Bush: Resus Monkey-in-Chief

Was this review helpful to you? YesNo (Report this)

30 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
A Love Letter presented as a Biography, January 22, 2006
Reviewer: Margie – See all my reviews
Fred has quite an obsession with the president. It seems a tad abnormal and not based in reality.

Was this review helpful to you? YesNo (Report this)

26 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
A very prolific author, November 3, 2005, January 22, 2006
Reviewer: ValerieH – See all my reviews
If you click the author’s name underneath the book title, you will be linked to about 130 articles written by him about Bush. Perhaps Mr. Barnes is in Love?

Was this review helpful to you? YesNo (Report this)

16 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
Delusional, January 22, 2006
Reviewer: TC – See all my reviews
This book doesn’t describe how a man so delusional can become so powerful. It doesn’t describe the nasty tactics that Republicans used to get him into office. It doesn’t tell you that many of his actions are close to the actions and thoughts of the “dry drunk.” It doesn’t tell you about his drug abuse. It doesn’t tell you about the various international acts he has violated in becoming a war criminal. It doesn’t tell you the specifics of the brain-washing he received to become evangelical. This is a man who claims divine right. (forget about the theocratic leanings) The separation of Church and State was put into the Constitution for a reason. Talking to God and having “him/her/it” speak back to you telling you to invade countries for no good reason is not quite the attribute of a leader (and is specifically illegal by the Constitution). The day that Iraqi’s tell of Bush being chosen by god will be the day that Bush vindicated.

Please. When telling the story of Bush Jr. please tell the whole unadulterated story, maybe then we can decide for ourselves if he is a leader.

Was this review helpful to you? YesNo (Report this)

14 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
Only for the radical right, January 22, 2006
Reviewer: Willow K – See all my reviews
This is bound to be a book that right-wing Republican supporters will love and one that non-Bush supporters will find hard to take. Sound bites and emotional photographs fail to come to grips with the facts and fallacies of the radical right, whose visible leader is President Bush. Oh – (and my bias will show here) – Bush probably thought “Brazilian” was a number-substitute, similiar to gazillian.

Was this review helpful to you? YesNo (Report this)

9 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
Good idea, but all filler, January 22, 2006
Reviewer: ESimon – See all my reviews
This book could be the memoirs George W. would have a crack team of political writers put together after his presidency. Not a critical or even neutral review of his first four years in the office, this book fails to make any impact on the reader at all. The author(s) try, and fail(s) to paint a portrait of a good old-fashioned, true-to-his-values president who stands up to the Enemy and fights the Righteous Cause. However, the totality of all these stories is fractured, like the man himself in times of stress. What I wanted from this book was a straight forward, upbeat and selective adoration of This Great Man. But after the last page, this book is just a bunch of cheap, cute filler.

Was this review helpful to you? YesNo (Report this)

19 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
Portrait of TOTAL CATASTROPHIC FAILURE!, January 22, 2006
Reviewer: Gretchen – See all my reviews
Apparently, there are still many with delusions about the “greatness” of our current president. However, after the drowning of a GREAT US CITY , NEW ORLEANS, millions of former luke-warm Bush & Co. supporters finally recognize this as the most INCOMPETENT, INEPT, AND IGNORANT ADMINISTRAITON in US history! Still, the reactionary ideologues continue to priase this “leader” to the skies. What did the hurricane reveal once and for all? Bush & Co. trashed/gutted FEMA, a fact which no reactionary ideologue can deny if he bothers to read the facts! And the “No one thought the levies would break” mindset makes crystal clear this fact..Or as Rice said “No one thought an airplane would be used to crash into a skyscraper!” The same level of brainpower! And the wonderful “Shock and Awe” War of revenge by Bush and Dad’s retreads has been , according to many military experts the #1 Strategic disaster in US history..And even C. Powell has admitted his UN War monologue was a pack of lies! So, we have now 15,000 dead and maimed US soldiers, ten of thousands of incinerated Iraqis, $200,000,000,000 spent down a gutter, Lousiana Guardsman in Iraq, not able to protect their own nation/city/state, not to mention amphibious vehicles stuck in Iraq as well! And a huge recruiting ground for BinLaden types,another fact agreed by all intelligence experts, but denied by the fervid reactionaries! As for all the comments on “Bush-Bashing”. These same ugly reactionaries always conveniently forget the huge hate, character assasination campaign of the Clinton years, indeed the nastiest in US History! And this past week the Commander in Chief says “Wow-Brazil is a big place!”after checking a map! The list is endless, but no doubt there is a huge “Buyer’s Remorse” within millions of hesitant 2004 Bush voters!

That’s just the first page. It goes on and on and on.

I had similar experiences with all three of my past books. For obvious reasons, I actually welcomed the crazies’ comments on my last book–many of which Amazon.com did eventually get around to deleting (though not at my request, as the projecting paranoiacs suspected). But every author deserves a fair shake, and conservative authors aren’t getting it.

Amazon.com’s cozy, exclusive business arrangements with liberal celebrities such as Bill Maher and Al Franken only exacerbate concerns that the online book-seller is soft on left-wing online vandals.

Bottom line: The Amazon.com review section has become a joke and a cesspool, and if the company cares about its credibility with a large segment of its book-buying audience, it better fix the problem.

***

Fortunately, there are many other ways to buy books online. Here are three:

Conservative Book Club
NR Book Service
American Compass

***

Stunningly, one of the left blogosphere’s crudest, unhinged haters who spearheaded the sabotage of O’Beirne’s Amazon.com page has been invited by the Washington Post to participate tomorrow in a “live online roundtable conversation on the issue of what the rules are/should be for major media in accepting free form comments, or indeed whether there should be rules at all.” This blogger refers to O’Beirne–please pardon the vulgarity–as “sandpaper snatch” and threatened that “The bitch is dead meat.”

Is that the kind of constructive dialogue the Post endorses?

***

Ed Morrissey:

The Left doesn’t want people to hear what conservatives have to say, perhaps knowing that they have been intellectually outclassed and proven disastrously wrong by history and current events. Instead, they issue mindless attacks, childish insults, and do everything possible to keep people from having access to conservative thought.

That’s not the actions of people who have confidence in themselves. Those are the actions of a fearful, small-minded, vulgar group of Neanderthals who have suddenly seen Homo sapiens and realized that their days are numbered. These mouthbreathers cannot offer any new ideas, so instead of trying to compete with conservatives, they’re busy with the electronic equivalent of sticking their fingers into their ears and shouting, “LA-LA-LA-LA, NO ONE CAN HEAR YOU!!” as loudly as possible.

In short, the Left consists of ill-educated, ill-mannered children. That they keep going to such lengths to prove it shows that they don’t have anything else to offer.

O’REILLY: No way that a terrorist that blows up women and children is going to be called a freedom fighter on my program. (applause)

LETTERMAN: I’m not smart enough to debate you point to point on this, but I have the feeling that about 60 percent of what you say is crap (laughter)…

O’REILLY: 60?

LETTERMAN: 60 percent…I’m just spitballing here.

O’REILLY: Listen, I respect your opinion. You should respect mine (applause.) Our analysis is based on the best evidence we can get.

LETTERMAN: This fair and balanced…I don’t think you represent an objective viewpoint.

O’REILLY: But you have to give me an example if you’re gonna make those–

LETTERMAN: Well I don’t watch your show, so that would be impossible. (laughter)

O’REILLY: Then why would you come to that conclusion if you don’t watch the program?

LETTERMAN: Because of things that I have read, things that I know…

O’REILLY: Aw, come on. You’re going to take things that you have read knowing what they say about you? (Laughter).

Newsbuster’s Brent Baker has more.

Lorie Byrd writes:

Another thing Letterman did was talk about how our decision to invade Iraq was based on this president’s intelligence service. There was no mention of the entire previous decade of the Clinton administration’s intelligence gathering that led to making regime change in Iraq our national policy. There was no mention of intelligence services around the world that came to the same conclusions. Nor of the UN’s position that Saddam had not destroyed WMD they knew him to possess. It was a pretty sorry spectacle and what really bothers me is that programs like Letterman’s and Leno’s and Today and GMA and The View are where many Americans (possibly even the majority) get their “news.” It is truly a sad thing to see.

What is sad is to see is someone in the media so ignorant (or brainwashed) about things that everyone should know. That John Kerry and Bill Clinton and so many other Democrats believed, and stated on record, the same things that George Bush believed about WMD is something that anyone with even a mediocre memory should remember. I really hate to say this, but I think the things I heard from Letterman (and that I hear from others like him) go beyond ignorance and poor recollection and come closer to brainwashing territory….Emotions rule, don’t confuse him with the facts.

Ace of Spades:

My friend Steve actually was in an argument with a college hippychick one time, and she said, “Well, I may not know all the (finger quotes) ‘facts’ but I just feel that…” At least she was 19 and not 87, or however old Letterman is.

***

Before O’Reilly came on to the set, Letterman stirred a guest mug of water with his pencil…and then watched O’Reilly drink from it as the audience snickered. I really hope this was a planned joke that O’Reilly was in on. If not, I hope Letterman apologized for such a sophomoric little prank. Crikey.

The Democratic Underground gave Letterman two thumbs up.

2: PAPAL TRANSITION: John Paul II’s death marked the passing of the first non-Italian pope in 455 years and ended a 26-year pontificate, third-longest in history. In a remarkable show of affection, many millions attended services worldwide on the day of his funeral. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany, expected to continue a conservative doctrinal approach, became the new pope and promptly waived the normal waiting period so John Paul could swiftly be considered for sainthood.

3: IRAQ: As in 2004, news from Iraq ranged from the grim, including a devastating wave of suicide bombings, to the promising – Iraqis voting for new leaders and thrashing out differences on a new constitution. The U.S. military death toll surpassed 2,000, and President Bush estimated the Iraqi toll at 30,000, but he insisted U.S. forces would stay until Iraqi troops could contain insurgents on their own.

4: SUPREME COURT: Not since 1994 had a Supreme Court seat become vacant. Suddenly there were two openings due to Sandra Day O’Connor’s retirement and Chief Justice William Rehnquist’s death. John Roberts was smoothly confirmed to succeed Rehnquist, but President Bush’s next nominee, Harriet Miers, had to bow out amid conservative complaints. The right liked the next choice, Samuel Alito, but he could face tough Democratic opposition at confirmation hearings in January.

5: OIL PRICES: Crude oil prices hit an all-time peak of almost $71 a barrel in August before subsiding. Costly gasoline prompted some motorists to rethink their driving habits; the beleaguered U.S. airline industry had to spend $9 billion more on jet fuel in 2005 than in 2004.

6: LONDON BOMBINGS: Attacks on three rush-hour subway trains and a bus killed 56 people on July 7, including four bombers with ties to Islamic militants. Authorities said three of the alleged bombers were born in Britain to immigrant parents from Pakistan; the fourth was from Jamaica.

7: ASIAN QUAKE: A massive earthquake near the Pakistan-India border killed more than 87,000, and left more than 3 million homeless. Worried relief officials appealed for more emergency aid as winter arrived in the stricken region.

8: TERRI SCHIAVO: A family feud escalated into a wrenching national debate as the husband of brain-damaged Terri Schiavo struggled and finally succeeded in getting clearance to remove the feeding tube that had kept her alive for 15 years. President Bush, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and members of Congress joined Terri Schiavo’s parents in efforts to have the tube reinserted before she died.

9: CIA LEAK: Vice President Cheney’s chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby, was indicted and several prominent journalists were entangled in complex offshoots as a special prosecutor investigated the Bush administration’s leaking of Valerie Plame’s CIA status to the news media in 2003. Plame’s husband, a former U.S. diplomat, had accused the administration of manipulating prewar intelligence on Iraq.

10: BUSH’S STRUGGLES: Multiple factors, including public doubts about Iraq, a flawed response to Hurricane Katrina and a failed Supreme Court nomination, drove President Bush’s national approval ratings below 40 percent, the lowest of his presidency.

Bush’s struggles? What about the Democrat Party’s struggles? Multiple factors, including a flawed response to the War on Terror, a failed party chairman, and increasing unhingedness.

Another unacknowledged top story: the continuing crumbling of the MSM’s credibility, from the reckless rumor-mongering of top cable news executives to Newsweek’s Korangate to entrenched anti-war bias and Chicken Little journalism timed to sell books.

*Times Watch has the NY Times’ Worst Quotes of the Year.

*Stephen Spruiell has the top media-manufactured controversies.

*John Hawkins has the top 10 worst quotes from the Democratic Underground.

I am an American, Born and Raised, but I am NOT a citizen of BUSH’S America. I want nothing to do with the country these people have created.

And for those who support them, Let’s get Something Nice And Sparkling CLEAR:

Stay The [F***] Away From Me. Stay OUT of my personal space. I want NOTHING from you. I want NOTHING to do with you. I want NOTHING to do with your “vision” of what the world should be.

What DO I want from you?

Honestly?

I will freely admit there are days, and they are becoming more than not, that the Alien at Area 51 in Independence Day and I share quite a common ground on the answer to that question.

And I am NOT apologizing for it.

In the words of the Late, Great Bill Hicks, about the most conciliatory thing I can say for those people at this point is simply this:

Kill Yourself.

Read the whole thing and the hundreds of comments, most of which endorse the diatribe. I have a feeling that the ranter and his supporters are going to end up in my mugshot collection sooner or later.

Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist died Saturday evening at his home in suburban Virginia, said Supreme Court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg.

A statement from the spokeswoman said he was surrounded by his three children when he died in Arlington.

“The Chief Justice battled thyroid cancer since being diagnosed last October and continued to perform his dues on the court until a precipitous decline in his health the last couple of days,” she said.

*Bush expresses sadness…Alan Dershowitz calls Rehnquist a “Republican thug”…SoCal Law blog tracks more unhinged Left reax
*Key dates in Rehnquist’s career…AP bio box…Key decisions
* Joan Biskupic/USA Today…Charles Lane/WaPo…Linda Greenhouse/NYT

***
Flashback: Rehnquist the Great? by Jeffrey Rosen, The Atlantic April 2005.

***
Blogger reax:

The Spoons Experience:

This changes everything. All hell’s about to break loose. Bush’s approval ratings are almost certainly taking a beating over New Orleans, and he just won’t have the political capital to fight for a good pick.

Paradoxically, New Orleans probably makes it all the more important that Bush make and fight for good picks — bec[au]se New Orleans makes it all the more likely that the GOP will lose the White House in ’08.

I predict bad things.

I think Spoons may be right.

Josh Trevino says the stakes are high, the timing is bad, and President Bush must keep faith with the faithful.

Ann Althouse: I am stunned.

Law student blogger Emily Zanotti reflects.

John Cole: My head is reeling.

Will Baude: Stop all the clocks.

See also Confirm Them.

Check in to the Supreme Court Nomination Blog and Volokh Conspiracy for reax.

The Coalition for a Fair Judiciary mourns Rehnquist’s passing. Kay Daly writes:

“Our deepest condolences to the Rehnquist family for their loss. And for the nation, it is the end of an era,” said Kay Daly, president of the Coalition for a Fair Judiciary. “Clearly, Justice Rehnquist will be remembered as a consensus builder, a tireless champion for a strong, independent judiciary and an advocate for federalism and the rule of law. This was a Chief who made the Court more efficient.”

Charmaine Yoest on Rehnquist’s honorable legacy.

The Political Teen has a round-up.

Law professor Keith Burgess-Jackson: “He was a good federalist. Unfortunately, he stayed on the Supreme Court too long. He should have stepped down years ago, or at least after a Republican assumed the presidency in January 2001.”

Ross Kaminsky: “While we mourn the passing of one of the great jurists in the history of our country, we should be strapping ourselves in for an intense political roller-coaster ride as we move through the unusual process of filling two Supreme Court vacancies.”

John Hinderaker at Power Line: ” I assume President Bush will want to wait until Roberts has been confirmed before naming his second nominee.”

Ed Morrissey’s forecast at Captain’s Quarters:

His death will set off a new round of guesswork on a new nominee to the Supreme Court, but will also put pressure on the Senate to expedite Roberts through the confirmation process. Having one opening on the first Monday in October would have created enough political embarrassment for the Senate, but allowing two will create too much blowback for the moderates, especially those in vulnerable states. A few Senators will have to let their few minutes of Judiciary Committee inquisition satisfy their need for a pound of conservative flesh.

My prediction: Bush will have a nominee by the end of September, and the Senate will have the confirmation hearings in late October or early November.

Paul Mirengoff at Power Line looks ahead: “Personally, I’d love to see the president nominate Michael Luttig.”

Update, 9/4, 10:01 am EDT:

Not surprisingly, Democratic Underground members are rejoicing. For those with a strong stomach, the threads here and here. (Hat tip: reader Kent O.)

According to Allahpundit, CNN is reporting that officials in Biloxi are spraypainting roofs black if there are corpses inside and red if there are injured inside.

Meanwhile, conditions in New Orleans continue to worsen. “We’re not even dealing with dead bodies,” Mayor Ray Nagin said. “They’re just pushing them on the side.”

***

One of Brendan Loy’s readers says the Mississippi coastline is “gone.”

***

Looting in New Orleans is taking place in view of the police and National Guard troops, AP reports:

Looters filled industrial-sized garbage cans with clothing and jewelry and floated them down the street on bits of plywood and insulation as National Guard lumbered by.

Mike Franklin stood on the trolley tracks and watched the spectacle unfold.

“To be honest with you, people who are oppressed all their lives, man, it’s an opportunity to get back at society,” he said.

A man walked down Canal Street with a pallet of food on his head. His wife, who refused to give her name, insisted they weren’t stealing from the nearby Winn-Dixie supermarket. “It’s about survival right now,” she said as she held a plastic bag full of purloined items. “We got to feed our children. I’ve got eight grandchildren to feed….”

The looting was taking place in full view of passing National Guard trucks and police cruisers.

One man with an armload of clothes even asked a policeman, “can I borrow your car?”

Some in the crowd splashed into the waist-deep water like giddy children at the beach.

Unconfirmed report from a reader that TV Station WWL in New Orleans “is reporting a Police Officer confronting a Looter was shot by a second looter in the back of the head.”

John Hawkins discovers a pro-looting thread at Democratic Underground.

***

WWLTV: “With conditions in the hurricane-ravaged city of New Orleans rapidly deteriorating, Gov. Kathleen Blanco said Tuesday that people now huddled in the Superdome and other rescue centers need to be evacuated.”

- Its (sic) a war. My country’s army is killing civilians; am I a “fair target?”

- the root causes of terrorism are what needs to be addressed in order to get a handle on changing these circumstances. There are myriads (literally) of terrorists who have reasons for what they are doing and planning on doing? This is not insanity. Nor is it helpful to attach the term “evil” to these events. Shock and awe is perhaps the best description of what happened in London this morning, but that strikes a little to close to home doesn’t it? What do you think are the various reasons for their actions and how can we address them?

From Daily Kos:

- Bush and Blair – Blood Buddies

- Well…Can’t blow up ‘Murkins -

‘Murka would realize it’s NOT safer…
Where are there people who LOOK like ‘Murkins?
And how are we going to keep Karl Rove’s indictment off the front page?
And, do you think we can tie this to Iran or possibly Syria?
This gang of criminals was at least complicit in allowing this to happen.
My condolences to the people of Britain, this madman of ours is f**king up the entire world.

- I wish people would get some perspective

Okay, I know this is a lefty political blog, and I’m 99% in tune with that. But it just looks unseemly and petty to jump on a hideous terrorist incident like this and start posting about how Bush will spin it and how it reflects on Bush’s or Blair’s political fortunes. Over 40 innocent citizens are dead, people! Have some respect! Who gives a flying f**k about the political repercussions?

- Do you believe that Karl Rove isn’t plotting how to spin the London attacks at this very moment?

From Katie Couric, as reported by John Podhoretz:

Katic Couric who knows nothing about anything, including how to dress, just suggested to John McCain that Tony Blair might suffer politically because of the attacks. McCain replied calmly, as if speaking to a child, that he expected Blair’s popularity to grow as a result, which is, indeed, what always happens in the aftermath of a terrorist attack. (It was Jose Maria Aznar’s weird refusal to acknowledge for 24 hours that the Madrid 3/11 attack was Al Qaeda and not a Basque assault that helped do him in.) Katie Couric makes $16 million a year. Maybe she should spend some of it getting a clue.

More:

Debbie Schlussel deconstructs the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee’s condemnation of the London attacks.

Mark Coffey spots more tolerance-and-understanding pining. John Hawkins at Right Wing News has more here and here.

It’s titled, “Al Gore is still president.”

Here’s an excerpt from one commenter. This is not a parody:

…sometimes I go away to my happy place where al gore is president. Can you just imagine the world right now? the way that one factor (a certain president we all know) can just mess things up. I want to go to the parallel universe!

Hat tip: PJ Comix

For the people who were evacuated and the pilots who scrambled to protect the zone and the law enforcement officers who made sure things ran smoothly and the rest of us who live in the area, this alert was no joke.

But to the idiots at the Democratic Underground, it’s another opportunity to bash Bush, hate America, and laugh in the face of a potential terrorist attack.

Check out the very first reply and the upside-down flag. Then keep scrolling if you can stand it. These people are truly, truly sick.

Update: On a serious note, John Loftus thinks the handling of the situation was botched. (Thanks to the invaluable Johnny Dollar.)

Yesterday, Mrs. Edwards surfaced on a DU thread about conservative radio talk show hostess extraordinaire Laura Ingraham, who underwent surgery yesterday for breast cancer. (Hat tip: Reader Eddie.) When the DUers started spewing their usual bile and wishing ill on Ingraham, Mrs. Edwards (a breast cancer survivor herself) tried to intervene:

I have been a Democrat for a long time, and part of the Democratic principles that attracted me as a young person and kept me a Democrat all these years is our compassion. Democrats are simply good and decent people. And good and decent people want everyone to do well — those who agree with them and those who do not. We fight for the right of voices with which we disagree to speak out, for the right of people to say things we don’t believe to be true, even for the right to be malicious and mean-spirited. If we fight for the right for LI to say what she says, how in the world can we use our disagreement with those words as an excuse not to be compassionate in her fight with cancer. Being willing to have her voice muted by illness is the same thing as not wanting her voice to be heard. It is not Democratic or democratic.

It was an admirable attempt by Mrs. Edwards to stop the ugliness–though she then goes on to criticize conservatives for their lack of compassion. A few commenters applauded Mrs. Edwards. And then it was back to spewing as usual:

She probably gave it to herself…

I don’t pray for Nazis or other Totalitarian Scum

I hope she goes into remission and fucking chokes to death.

And those were the ones that didn’t get deleted.

Update: Wickedly funny as ever, Laura’s website has a new post following her surgery yesterday…

Laura’s breast cancer surgery yesterday “couldn’t have gone better,” in the words of her surgeon Dr. Katherine Alley. Initial sentinel node testing done during surgery showed no signs of cancer involvement in the lymph nodes, and we all hope that this good news is confirmed by more in-depth tissue testing done over the next 48 hours. “The outpouring of love and concern coast-to-coast in prayer, emails, telephone calls has left me feeling more blessed than I can possibly convey,” said Laura Thursday morning from home. “I really don’t know what I did to deserve such kindness but I will gladly wrap myself in it,” she chuckled. “It’s weird but getting cancer has made me feel more blessed than I ever felt before, and I will do everything I can to return the generosity 100-fold when I am feeling a bit better.” According to Laura and her friends who were there throughout, the entire staff at the Surburban Hospital Outpatient Medical Center in Bethesda, MD was amazing. Absolutely top-notch! According to one of Laura’s friends, as she was being taken into surgery, she joked about whether the hospital was running a “two-for-one” surgery special–”a lumpectomy and a lift together–20 percent off!”