Send Better Arguments

Ta Nehesi-Coates has a terrific headline - "Blue Lives Matter" but he strikes a false note here in discussing the politics of police reform in the aftermath of the execution of two NYPD officers:

It was only a matter of time before some criminal shot a police officer in New York. If that's all it takes to turn Americans away from police reform, the efforts were likely doomed from the start.

"Only a matter of time"? Per the NY Times, the last officer killed in the line of duty was three years ago. The last officers assassinated for political reason were back in the early 70's when the Black Liberation Army gunned down two officers in 1971 and another two in 1972.

The idea that what happened this weekend in NY was in some sense "a matter of time" is certainly accurate in a mathematical sense; probability theory tells us that with enough opportunities the improbable becomes inevitable, but this quickly? Or if the argument is that Garner/Brown demonstrations in New York were clearly going to lead to this sort of violence in the near future (And it's hard to believe Mr. Nehesi-Coates meant that), then the failure of our notional leaders to dial back their rhetoric is even more stark.

But speaking of rhetoric, Conor Friedersdorf explains that it has all ben responsibe anyway, and that criticism of deBlasio, Holder and Obama is just meant to "squelch legitimate political debate by irrationally associating it with the deeds of a suicidal murderer."

And Howard Safir, a former NYPD commissioner, wrote this in Time: "When Ismaaiyl Abdulah Brinsley brutally executed Officers Ramos and Liu he did so in an atmosphere of permissiveness and anti-police rhetoric unlike any that I have seen in 45 years in law enforcement. The rhetoric this time is not from the usual suspects, but from the Mayor of New York City, the Attorney General of the United States, and even the President. It emboldens criminals and sends a message that every encounter a black person has with a police officer is one to be feared."

Notably, none of these intellectually dishonest statements quote or link to any actual rhetoric spoken by Mayor de Blasio, Eric Holder, or President Obama. That is because none of them has uttered so much as a single word that even hints that violently attacking a police officer, let alone murdering one, would be justified. Suggesting that their words are responsible for this murder is discrediting. Even the weaker claim that their words "embolden criminals" is absurd, both as a matter of logic and as a statement made amid historically low crime rates.

With regard to the particular crime of killing police officers, "the number of law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty—that is, killed with felonious intent by a suspected criminal—plummeted to 27 in 2013, its lowest level in decades." That is the Obama/Holder record on this issue. We needn't speculate about whether their rhetoric has proved dangerous for police. We know that it has not.

So assaults on officers were low in 2013 and that proves that the post-Ferguson rhetoric of 2014 has not incited violence against the police? Let me write that down.

As to the notion that no professional politician has specifically called on his followers to gun down police officers, no kidding. But do our leaders have any impact at all on creating an atmosphere of distrust for the police? Here, for example, is Obama speaking to Black Entertainment Television, as summarized at the White House website:

While reiterating that the vast majority of America's law enforcement officers are doing their jobs well, the President also noted that some officers have received poor training, are in departments that tolerate sloppy police work, and have a subconscious fear of people that look different. All of this, he said, contributes to "a national problem that's going to require a national solution."

Now isn't the time for rhetoric, he said, but rather to figure out what works as far as police training, equipment, accountability measures, review systems, and prosecution practices. He also underlined the importance of changing people's hearts and minds, but noted that hearts and minds will catch up with the laws:

"Dr. King once said, when he was asked about anti-lynching legislation -- somebody said, "Well, you know, you can't change what's in the hearts and minds of the white folks in the South. You can't legislate what's in their hearts." He says, "Well, you can't legislate what's in their hearts, but I tell you what: If you can just stop them from lynching me, that's progress. That's a pretty good thing." And over time, hearts and minds catch up with laws. That's been the history of progress in this country."

Hmm. Normally quoting Dr. King is a safe play, but what is Obama saying here - that the police are the KKK and want to lynch black men? Or that even though some police will go on hating blacks, maybe we can prevent them from shooting blacks? Is that really helpful?

And if the police are the KKK, or hate blacks and want to kill them, is it really unreasonable for a black thug to engage in a bit of pre-emptive self-defense?

Conor Friedersdorf is a reasonable guy and would not hear Obama's words that way. But there is a known violent fringe on the radical left, so we ask - how do they hear these words?

Mr. Friedersdorf acknowldeges the existence of that fringe but may underestimate the reach of their message:

While the taboo against violent attacks on police officers is shared by literally every pundit I've come across, literally every elected official who has spoken on this subject, and the overwhelming majority of people who've taken to the streets to protest the killings of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, there are, in fact, documented examples of a tiny minority rejecting that norm, including the folks who took up the chant, "What do we want? Dead cops! When do we want it? Now!"

There's almost no chance that the chants in this unrepresentative protest motivated a killer from a different city to kill cops in New York. 

Uh huh. And what is the betting line on whether the "Hands Up" rap video by Uncle Murda, which called for the execution of cops and surely reached Philadelphia, also made it by way of the internet all the way to Baltimore? Or from a different angle, just why did the shooter seem to think people might care or approve his plan to kill some cops in revenge for Garner and Brown? Was that really just the pure, independent creation of a sick mind?

And what inspired this guy?

Federal prosecutors have charged a Kirkland man with making interstate threats against the life of former Ferguson, Mo., police officer Darren Wilson and his family.

Jaleel Tariq Abdul-Jabbaar, 46, is identified as a convicted felon with drug and firearms-related convictions who is accused to trying to purchase a firearm over Facebook, telling the seller that he was “going to Ferguson. Can you just sit back and do nothing. White motha (expletive) killing us like our lives ain’t (expletive).”

He was arrested Tuesday morning at his home, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Seattle.

All too often when our friends on the left stage a protest it turns violent. At which point, we hear explanations about how it was hijacked by a radical fringe and we are all supposed to be surprised.

Maybe one day these leaders on the left will achieve a better understanding of their base.

MORE: Collective guilt - in MediaWorld it's only for conservatives! Meanwhile, the left is all about group identity and group politics until there is blame to be assigned.

Comments

[Jim Eagle]

Time for bed. Chelsea won. The Highland Park nightcap was perfect and the comments on this thread are above anything on the net.

See you on GUS time tomorrow:)

Slaap Lekker.

[daddy]

Beckel's last comment before the break is "Get Your Facts Straight."

[Old Lurker]

Sandy "The parallels with the Islamic faith are striking."

Both, we are told, have vast majorities who are reasonable and moderate for whom the troublemakers do not speak. Trouble is, we never hear from either of those two vast majorities, and they do nothing to moderate the crazies within their groups. Jews berate Jews, Christians berate Christians, and Whites berate Whites pretty much all the time, but not Muslims, and not Blacks.

How's that for a parallel?

[Jim Miller]

hemry - I thought today's WSJ lead editorial was a pretty good summary of the Wisconsin GAB scandal.

But then I have not followed this scandal very closely.

Any thoughts? Anything the Journal got wrong or missed?

[PDinDetroit]

"Haters gonna hate"

TM - this is what I am concerned with. A few more dead cops will likely bring out haters on the other side and more shooting will start. If we do not have a race war within the next 2 years, I will truly be surprised. To some degree, we may already be past the point of no return - I certainly hope not. I hope that those who the media are giving a voice to the hate realize the gravity of the situation and put the brakes on fast.

While me and mine are well prepared, I do not want to watch anymore people killing each other in senseless hatred.

[Pagar]

" What can we do to make muslims happy?"

It's already being done.

http://faustasblog.com/2014/12/did-obama-give-in-on-cuba-so-uruguay-would-take-6-gitmo-alumni/

"EU Gives Hamas Green Light to Attack Israel

http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4971/eu-hamas-green-light

"Even if the EU court decision is reversed in the future, there's no doubt that it has already caused tremendous damage, especially to those Muslims who are opposed to radical Islam."

"Any victory for Hamas, albeit a small and symbolic one, is a victory for the Islamic State, Al-Qaeda, Islamic Jihad, the Muslim Brotherhood and other fundamentalist groups around the world."

[henry]

Jim, the WSJ was on target. They have gotten "leaks" all along. If anything, they understate the GAB delenda est faction in the legislature and the total denial of the GAB director Kennedy, the GAB staff, and the DAs. This is playing out behind the scenes, but is more intense and vicious than the Act 10 protests.

Other news, Holder will step in to "investigate" the Donte no charge and relight the race war.

[Extraneus]

I wish the right would not take the revenge they are taking.

Please. Rahm's only mistake was saying out loud what every lib knows without being told: do not waste a crisis.

DoT's quotes about Texan haters being responsible for Kennedy's assassination is just one of many examples of this, as are the more recent excuses to stir up the blacks re: Trayvon, the Gentle Giant and Gardner.

I hope this latest crisis doesn't go to waste. Obama, Holder, Sharpton, Wilhelm, LeBraun, Alcindor, all the hoodie wearers, the Hands Up Rams and many others should have their words and phony deeds shoved down their throats, if not elsewhere.

Giuliani had it right when he explained that cops wouldn't be in these neighborhoods if they weren't ridden with crime. I know how NYPD cops handled it in Dinkins' day, so let's see how it goes when cops back off and keep out of the high-crime areas in NYC.

[daddy]

Compare and contrast:

A)

B)

Interesting isn't it that when the Affordable Care Act was signed and Pelosi and the Congress-folk did their victory Parade, they all heard dozens if not hundreds of racial slurs hurled at them, from Conservatives, but astoundingly none of them were ever recorded on all the Audio/Video of the occasion so no one was ever able to win Breitbart's $100,000 challenge for evidence.

Then on the other hand we have just a handful, just a very, very few bad apples causing problems at what DiBlasio calls a "very Peaceful Protest," and which the Press has irresponsibly focused upon in order to foment a false divisive meme against Liberals: What Do We Want? Dead Cops."

Funny how that works, no?

[Extraneus]

How's that for a parallel?

Libs never berate libs, either, no matter how extreme. Even the OWS defecators were handled gingerly by their Democrat sympathizers.

[Ben]

Five-eyes have it all wired. The Sony Hack just another false flag to gin up the population. I expect those NK servers are gonna charred quite soon..

"“The situation now is they are totally offline,” Madory said. “I don’t know that someone is launching a cyber-attack against North Korea, but this isn’t normal for them. Usually they are up solid. It is kind of out of the ordinary. This is not like anything I’ve seen before.”"

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-12-22/north-korea-undergoing-internet-outage-network-researcher-says.html

[NKvirusedand back]

"Haters gonna hate, and the "Off The Pigs" crowd has been around since the 60's."

Indeed, the 'same crowd'. It's Alinsky all the way down. 60s radical chic (kill the pigs, africa for the africans blah blah) became 'Three Mile Island', became 'no Pershing/cruise missles in Europe, became 80s 'unilaterally drop nukes, became 90s 'anti globalization', became 2000s 'Boosh Lied', became todays 'Black lives matter'. It's all the same bullshit and same Alinsky cast of characters, the headlines are merely the excuse de jour.

[Some Guy]

It is very important to distinguish that all of this is based on lies.

Not on misstatements, differences of opinion, varying perspectives, etc., but deliberate and intentional lies -- falsehoods repeated and amplified AFTER they were proven to be untrue.

Complete BS like 'Trayvon was ambushed and murdered by a cop wannabe with a Jewish sounding name'

'The gentle giant was a sweet kid innocently standing with his hands up'

"a cop chokes an unarmed man to death"

They were lies INTENDED to inflame and incite, for crass political gain.

Now the perpetrators and peddlers of those lies want to pretend they don't have blood on their hands or that this cause is righteous. DuDa, and everyone like him, are responsible not only those cops murders, but for the additional violence that is coming because they choose lies. They did it knowingly and willingly.

IF these idiots had a shred of humanity, they'd at a minimum crawl in a hole and hide. They wouldn't go on television or the internet and double down on the lies.

[Steve]

Public Education Update: Misspelling on Public School Sign cost principal her job

http://commoncts.blogspot.com/2014/12/public-education-update-misspelling-on.html

[daddy]

" What can we do to make muslims happy?"

Convert or die.

What do we Want? Dog Walk. When do we want it? Now! Arf, arf, arf!

[Skoot]

We are very lucky to have Giuliani speaking plainly to dolts like Chris Cuomo. Rudy's position is "You don't take 5th Ave, not in my city." It's as if DeCommio has never heard, "give them an inch, they'll take a mile."

And the SEIU 32BJ tool was charged with inciting to riot. Not too far along that vector to the mental loser pulling his pistol. This sort of connection used to be self evident - hence written into the criminal code.

[MarkO]

I have no interest in doing anything to make Mohamatans happy. In fact, I think it would be impossible.

[daddy]

Rahm's only mistake was saying out loud what every lib knows without being told: do not waste a crisis.

What did Rahm's son do to infuriate the African American who mugged him?

Does Rahm's son forgive the mugger?

Has Rahm's son made a public statement that centuries of Slavery and Jim Crow justified the Mugger's knocking out his teeth?

Why not? What's the matter with Rahm's son? Where the hell is his compassion?

[Iggy]

Concern trollery brought to new heights of artistry as Mama Cass Sunstein compliments W on his "graceful" silence as Barry burns the world down and blames W for it.
OTOH he has harsh words for Panetta and Gates for letting anyone know what a feckless idiot Barry is.
He tops it off with the most disingenuous hope that Barry will be equally graceful in his dotage.

[Sandy "I Stand with Walker 2016" Daze ن]

How's that for a parallel?

Posted by: Old Lurker | December 22, 2014 at 05:22 PM

Excellent, OL, excellent.

[Ben]

A raft of techies seriously doubt the cover story.

http://gawker.com/a-lot-of-smart-people-think-north-korea-didnt-hack-sony-1672899940

[rse]

So the Obama admin admits it does not see much in the way of good jobs over the next 10 years, but they want the low level jobs to pay better and have better benefits. http://www.aspenwsi.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/Build-Ladders-and-Raise-Floor-concept-brief.pdf

It's bad ideas all around.

[Ben]

NK and the Boogie man canard has a familiar smell.

OOOGA BOOGA!

"Hacker Grugq makes an excellent point that laying this on North Korea is incredibly convenient, Lets Blame Our Perennial Adversary! He points out that we know how North Korea does this kind of stuff, and this is very different. “This is a media blitz campaign by a group that is steeped in Internet culture and knows how to play to it. They can manipulate it to maximum effect. This is definitely far more sophisticated than the usual rhetoric from North Korea.” And Jericho lays out a detailed case that nothing anyone has said comes anywhere near to convincing us that this was North Korea, Anatomy of a NYT Piece on the Sony Hack and Attribution. (Leave it to a hacker to do a better job capitalizing headlines than The Washington Post.)

http://franklycurious.com/wp/2014/12/22/we-dont-know-if-north-korea-is-the-sony-hacker/

[Extraneus]

the additional violence that is coming

They'll probably continue to flourish elsewhere in the city, but I would guess that the protests will die down on Staten Island. The white boys there are surely pissed off right now.

Btw, I didn't realize until I read the link below that the Gardner crisis happened five months ago.

They almost let that one go to waste.

http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2014/12/post_1029.html

[henry]

Hmmm, this guy claims the marginal price to keep oil flowing is $20 for Saudis and shale. He expects oil to fall to that price. Bad for new wells, but no wells will stop producing while demand stays sluggish. My SUV approves.

[henry]

Mangled the link.

[boris]

"DuDa, and everyone like him, are responsible not only those cops murders, but for the additional violence that is coming because they choose lies"

That is a good point.

The combination of deliberately provocative falsehoods spread by dimorat officeholders and their union/media/academe allies is different than "freedom of speech".

The right is not taking revenge. The right is responding to cultural pearl harbor and nine- eleven.

[Ben]

Break point for Saudi oil is $60. If it goes to 20...oh well.

With a $750 billion cash reserve they can only pump for 5 years.

Oh well.

[Ben]

Putin only taking physical gold for payment.

Oh well.

[MarkO]

There are myriad lies spread by the Dems, but chanting "What do we want? Dead cops." Followed by dead cops cannot be compared to rancorous lies or heated rhetoric.

It was incitement to murder. It still is.

Did any significant Dem condemn those chants?

[henry]

Police Chief Flynn just went all out condemning Dontre's brother for calling for "getting rid of the pigs" after the DA announced no charges this morning. Walker looked calm, noted the National Guard has been planning for this with Sheriff Clarke for several months. It's dark, the rain stopped, and the protestors are now next to city hall at the park where Dontre was shot. The big lie here was Dontre was minding his business, not clubbing the officer with his own baton.

[Ben]

"“This is again the key reason why the United States right now decided it needed to open up a new front against Russia and this is the whole United States-Cuba agreement.”

Estulin noted that “the global market for physical gold is extremely small” compared to the market for paper gold; “$360 billion per month are traded in paper gold and only $280 million a month are traded in physical gold.”

“The West has spent as much of its efforts and resources to artificially increase the purchasing power of the dollar and lower oil prices and artificially lower the purchasing power of gold but the problem for the West is that the stocks of physical gold in possession of the West are not unlimited,” he said.

“Russia poses a real threat to the American model of petro-dollar world domination,” he added."

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/12/22/391366/uscuba-deal-new-front-for-russia-war/

[Sandy "I Stand with Walker 2016" Daze ن]

Henry - thanks for that link. I may have mentioned, older daughter has been approached by a small Texas-based joint venture to approach local farms and land-holders in her area (Southern MI, Northern OH, Northern IN) about leasing land for drilling, to act as their rep. I have forwarded her your earlier link to RBN essays, and will forward the Bloomie link too.

[Threadkiller]

How to make a rhetoric connection, media style:

From the past:
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2014-06-09/news/sns-rt-us-usa-nevada-shooting-20140608_1_bunkerville-cliven-bundy-supremacist-ideology

[henry]

Sandy, you are welcome. That link was from our friend in Illinois.

[Ben]

I guess the markets aren't reading current events.

http://www.kitco.com/charts/livegold.html

[Sandy "I Stand with Walker 2016" Daze ن]

Please pass my regards, Henry

[Bori]

"DuDa, and everyone like him, are responsible not only those cops murders, but for the additional violence that is coming because they choose lies"

Is is not that they choose lies, its that they have to. Cases of the actions they attribute to cops and others are extremely rare.

They are trying to protest a perception, a feeling of racism. As such all they are left to do is to create falsehoods to fit those feelings and perceptions.

[PDinDetroit]

Sandy - plenty of oil and natural gas in Michigan, not always cost effective to do so.

[NKvirusedand back]

Unless Dana has gone totally mental, I don't think Ben is Dana. Dana mostly avoided making specifc factualy assertions which could be rebutted. 'Break point' for saudi oil is $60/b, huh? Saudi variable costs are under $2/b, and capital costs are below $4/b, total production costs are below $6/b. They have by far the lowest production costs in the world. at $110Brent they made over $100/b. Life was amazing for the princes. Now they 'only' make $50/b; yes a lot of nice things have to go and the government budget will be cut, but 'breaking point'? Just stupid; Dana avoided trapping himself that easily. Maybe he has gone mental.

[Sandy "I Stand with Walker 2016" Daze ن]

Not terribly knowledgeable about Oil and NG stuff, when I read about the Henry Hub Price, from reading at the RBN site, I thought first it was some sort of automotive accessory shop you were involved with, Henry.

[Ben]

Imagine how long they can survive with those low costs.

That's the point Injun Joe. If they want to break some backs, that is.

Or are they providing assistance to the consumer as a Christmas treat?

[boris]

"avoided making specifc factualy assertions which could be rebutted"

As in "it's not like algebra where a negative plus a negative is positive"

Before your time maybe?

[Sandy "I Stand with Walker 2016" Daze ن]

PDinDetroit -- I trust your assessment. The folks from TX seem to think there is gold in them thar fields. It could all fall apart, sure, and with the current glut, perhaps (I guess, what do I know), be put on ice for awhile.

[henry]

Sandy, about the only auto accesories I can provide are dents and rust.

[exdemocrat]

An especially obvious (and desperate) attempt at thread hijacking tells its own tale.

[Ben]

And I would like to see a citation on those anecdotal costs you suggested without linkage. You know. Just to keep it honest.

[Ben]

Well someone has to tell y'all the world doesn't revolve around rape culture and street crime in the US.

[exdemocrat]

Iggy - sunstein's choice of panetta & gates as contrast with W rather than Clinton & Carter reveals both his bias and the real purpose of his piece, no?

[PDinDetroit]

Sandy - The Oil and Natural Gas "Pumps" are still pumping and Exploration is still going on in Michigan. Certain areas have been prohibitively expensive, generally due to depth of deposits.

My brother just bought house and property on the West Side of the state, there are oil wells in the vicinity but they did not obtain Mineral Rights in the transaction. There have been times when Mineral Rights were given up to the State in lieu of Property Taxes, so it may not be straight-forward in access to drilling on specific properties.

[RickB]

Another young stupid thug establishes the value of his life.

They must have been nice shoes.

[henry]

Good. The Dontre protestors are ending their protest for the evening. They plan to be back to playing in traffic tomorrow. Looks like we get a calm night.

[GUS]

Dana Gilbert Ward is mentally ill.

[Ben]

Here I trimmed this nice Christmas tree of related info and, as per usual I get;

'There's a crooked branch in here somewhere. Got it!'

[Ben]

'Send better arguments"

[exdemocrat]

Rickb - interestingly, having scanned the first 150 of the (1,000+) comments to the Yahoo news article you linked, I have yet to see one in any way critical of the shopper who shot and killed that street punk trying to rob him at gunpoint.

[Janet - healthy and jolly as a joker!]

What did Rahm's son do to infuriate the African American who mugged him?

Does Rahm's son forgive the mugger?

Has Rahm's son made a public statement that centuries of Slavery and Jim Crow justified the Mugger's knocking out his teeth?

Why not? What's the matter with Rahm's son? Where the hell is his compassion?

I LOVE your post, daddy.

From Meet the Press 4-21-13 - "He (Tom Brokaw) said Americans need to take a hard look at “the roots” of why so many Muslims, including Americanized terrorists like the Tsarnaev brothers in Boston, want to kill them."

[Danube on iPad]

Sad note: dear friend, Southern gentleman and hero Ed Martin died last night. One of the very best.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUc_GwHk_Xc

[Iggy]

Only ideology could cause one not to use the Hot Springs Strangler and Brunhillary when searching for the antithesis of graciousness, exdem.

[Danube on iPad]

Ed Martin:

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_H._Martin

[MarkO]

Sorry, Danube.

[MarkO]

"He (Tom Brokaw) said American college women need to take a hard look at “the roots” of why so many college men, including football players and fictionalized frat boys, want to rape them."

[Iggy]

Another hero gone.
Do you know if his thoughts on EIT coincided with McCain's, DoT?

[Ben]

Just as I imagined;

*crickets* prevail when facts are absent.

[Iggy]

That should teach you to stop making fact free comments.

[Ben]

"That should teach you to stop making fact free comments."

Just WTF are you talking about. Trying to recoup your creds with the locals?

Sad indeed.

[Iggy]

You should stop making humor free ones too.

[NKvirusedand back]

DoT-- sympathies for the loss of your friend. God bless.

[Ben]

Do me a favor and stop 'helping' me. It does nothing for me and certainly doesn't help your standing here.

Be a lemming, despite their mammalian misunderstanding,

[Iggy]

Jeez. One innocent little joke and you're thrashin' around in the weeds like a Sour Patch Kid for no discernible reason.

[RickB]

exdemocrat,

The comments you note highlight the infallible nature of the President's Merde Touch. Firing up the Plantation thugs reveals both the nature and the value of the Obama Freeshit Army.

It's been tales told by idiots since the Fascist complete defeat in November, the sound and fury truly signify nothing but the fragility of the buffoon's ego.

[Ben]

"One innocent little joke ..."

Say what you mean. Your snark, if that;s the intent, misses the mark by a wide margin.

Address the facts with some links. That would be a tolerable margin for you and acolytes.

[Threadkiller]

The "may" man demands facts!!

Snap to everyone!

[Iggy]

Speaking of fact free; the new New Republic beclowns itself with over the top fear mongering even by the high bar set by other climate change charlatans and fabulists.

[Threadkiller]

Obama Support among Military Plummets to 15 Percent

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/395212/obama-support-among-military-plummets-15-percent-john-fund

The exit polls don't ask if having a dual-citizen as CiC influenced their decisions.

[Ben]

Maybe if I interspersed phrases like "merde touch' and 'plantation thugs' with facts of local interest, it would provide some room for lemming-like responses. Thinking about matters outside the meme of acceptable tropes and prejudicial outcomes seems a bridge too far, but I'm willing to chance it.

[Threadkiller]

You may have success.

[Iggy]

--Say what you mean.--

LOL. Now that's more like it; rich, jocular irony.

BTW, if any of my acolytes are around, I'm craving a sizzling pizza, no green peppers, and some Henry Weinhrad's Root Beer. Chop, chop.

[mockmook]

Wouldn't it be nice if just one NFL or NBA player had the balls to wear a "NYPD Lives Matter" shirt?

[Miss Marple]

Back from church (penance service). It's raining here.

O'Reilly on phone with Greg Gutfeld and was very hard-hitting on DeBlasio. Said the mayor sided with the protesters and considers Sharpton a friend and ally, and although he didn't directly cause this, he was responsible for creating a climate of hatred for the police and now he is trying to talk his way out of it. (Not a verbatim report like daddy does, just general gist.) O'Reilly was as angry as I have ever heard him.

[Danube on iPad]

I don't know, Iggy. I last saw him Nov. 1, when he was extremely frail. McC had not yet begun talking about the Senate report and his views on EIT (although he had expressed them in the past. I spoke to Ed frequently and in detail about his Hanoi experience--he was very open about it--but never asked what he thought about the Gitmo procedures.

He hosted a fundraiser here for John during the '08 campaign, and he and I did a few-odd things to help out. He was always loyal to McC as a fellow aviator and prisoner, but I very much sensed that he was disappointed in him as a Republican, for pretty much the same reasons I am.

Just a fine, fine man.

[Ben]

" jocular irony."

Minus relevant facts...you forgot that part on purpose.

So you do say what you mean.

[Ben]

As I;ve said on numerous occasions...

You can't get rid of me until I;m ready to go. i'm in for the long haul.

[Iggy]

Ben, please take a break. I have no idea what you're talking about and doubt you do.

You have in the last few comments used the phrase "mammalian misunderstandings" and then criticized others for obscure phrases.
Then, apparently because you misinterpreted my first harmless comment, you got worked up and gyrated between accusing me of trying to "recoup my creds with the locals" and then a couple minutes later of trying to help you, which you said wouldn't help my standing here.

I'll disengage cuz I'm not too sure what the problem is but you seem to think there is one.
Have a 'shroom.

[NKonIPad8.1]

Adm Martin sounds like a superb man, no surprise there. What aircraft did he fly, if I can ask.

[Iggy]

Thanks, DoT.

[Ben]

What was it, 2006?

I challenged Maguire to a live-blog with Greenwald to discuss the legalities of torture. NADA.

It's the way of things here I seek to adjust. Eight years later I'm hangin' in. Eight more I could do standing on my head.

EZ PZ.

[NKonIPad8.1]

Iggy, I am on the train, I can get you a Joe Pepe's coal fired pizza. Do you want anchovies on that? Acolyte NK over and out.

[Threadkiller]

You seem to understand torture.

[Threadkiller]

Sorry about your friend, DoT.

[Ben]

"I can't understand what the problem is..."

heh.

[henry]

A bit of WI prog reasoning. Hey Graeme, I hope you weren't tweeting while driving drunk. (Guy has a history there, the gal that just lost the WI AG race keeps letting him off with warnings).

[NKonIPad8.1]

So it is Dana. Were you really canned? What? you engaged in some of that rape culture stuff during the feather passing, like the donald sutherland character in Animal House?

[Captain Hate on the iPad]

So the Children of the Cornhole plan on making a comeback by adding scary visuals to the insane text?

[Ben]

" Were you really canned?"

Still waiting for the precious link.

[Danube on iPad]

"The exit polls don't ask if having a dual-citizen as CiC influenced their decisions."

I'm sure it was foremost in their minds from dawn to dusk.

[Danube on iPad]

He was flying an A-4. We were at a small dinner party about three years ago with the Martins and the guy who was his wingman that day and saw him go down.

[maryd]

DOT, so sorry for the loss of your friend. He lived a life that mattered.

[Jim Miller]

Some regret among our "mainstream" journalists?

I may be imagining things, but most of the stories I have seen in the past two days on the assassination of the two New York police officers are delivered by journalists who seem a little ashamed of their part in hyping the anti-police stories.

As they should be -- though I don't expect those feelings of shame to last forever. Or even very long.

(I'm in the Seattle area, for those who don't know.)