Walking The Appalachian Trail And Trampling On The Voices Of Freedom

Roger L. Simon gives us the reductio ad adsurbum of warblogging:

Nevertheless, Mark Sanford’s out-of-control Father’s Day jaunt to Buenos Aires is particularly ill-timed, not just because of the obvious disrespect to his wife, children, friends, citizens of his state, political party, etc.

Reason: IRAN.

At this moment, the eyes of this country should be fixed on the horrific events coming from that company and the struggle for freedom against all odds by many of its brave citizens. They need our support more than anything.

I hope you're listening, politicians, stop everything in your personal lives or you'll make the protestors cry. For that matter, sure, we could debate fundamental health care reform, but how will that carry on the spirit of Neda?

I think even Andrew Sullivan would be embarrassed by this.

Crying To Keep From Laughing

The Pajamas Media imbroglio is so karmically just that I have to agree with James Wolcott when he says, "Were there a men's cologne on the market called Schadenfreude, I'd be judiciously dabbing some on right now, savoring its woody musk."

Let us part the beaded curtains of time. It was only a few years ago, November of 2005 to be tiresomely precise, that Pajamas Media held a launch event at Rockefeller Center's Rainbow Room heralding the arrival of a superstar group blog on steroids that would wipe out the old traditional media like so many thatched huts. The keynote speaker for the opening festivities was Judith Miller and a bevy of online semi-demi-celebrities were there for the free eats and photo ops. Such heady times those were, spiked with romantic fantasies of riches in store for those visionary enough to hitch their wagons to the Yahoo of blogs, copiloted by those crazy dreamers Roger L. Simon and Charles Johnson. Those of us unswayed and unimpressed with this bagpipe brigade of B-listers were accused of being threatened, even jealous, of these saucy upstarts with a sound all their own. In a gonzo fantasia written by Protein Wisdom's Jeff Goldstein, I was gooily portrayed as a mincing, porcine sis [some scrolling is required] who was 86'd by hotel security after crashing the festivities in warblogger drag. Too busy having fun at the expense of Pam Geller's thumb fiesta, I took no offence at Goldstein's labored gags (or the acclaim they received from his confederates), letting karma to take its natural course.

And wah-la, as Kaye Gibbons' Ellen Foster would say.

Ass. Kick. Curb.

I'm sorry, but it's just brilliant to watch these triumphalists fold back on themselves, with all the petty insults and jealousies bubbling to the surface. Roger Simon, unable to get advertisers to pay for the ramblings of Pam Geller and Glenn Reynolds, now thinks he can get viewers to pay $15 to $37 bucks A MONTH for them to watch the above talk to one another.

Dear (Sucker),

As you know, last September Pajamas Media began a new initiative in Internet television called Pajamas TV. When we started with our RNC coverage from Minneapolis, we noted that we would be in a Beta Phase through the first quarter of 2009. In the last few months we have strengthened the PJTV lineup with shows covering Media Bias, Education Bias, Middle East Update, Sharia and Jihad, Powerline Report, Ask Dr. Helen, Hugh News, Poliwood, Conservatism 2.0, Economy and Finance, National Security, and others.

As the end of the first quarter approaches and we near the production phase of Pajamas TV, we will continue to build our emphasis in this area. As a result we have decided to wind down the Pajamas Media Blogger and advertising network effective March 31, 2009. The PJM portal and the XPressBlogs will continue as is.

Since our ad relationship continues for the time being, you should note that in order to be paid for the 1st quarter of 2009, you must leave the current Pajamas ads up until 12:01AM April 1. We will be sending you information in mid-March on removing the ads. As of April 1, 2009, you will be free to arrange syndication or re-sale deals.

We thank you very much for participating during the formative years of Pajamas Media and we look forward to working with you in other ways. One of those is, of course, Pajamas TV. If you have any ideas in that regard, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Our best wishes in the new year and again our deepest gratitude for your participation in Pajamas Media.

Sincerely,

Roger L. Simon
CEO, Pajamas Media

Money line: "PJM’s new hope is PJTV, a pay video site. Where you can pay to watch Glenn and Helen Reynolds. This is not unlike asking people to pay to be punched in the face."

Seeing certifiably crazy people react to the news that they won't be getting their wingnut welfare checks anymore is just pure blogger bliss. But even more hilarious is how Simon tried to set it right:

Actually that part of our business has been losing money from the beginning, so the people getting their quarterly checks from PJM were getting a form of stipend from us in the hopes that advertisers would start to cotton to blogs and we could possibly make a profit. Didn’t happen. No wonder those people are kicking and screaming now that they are off the dole. I might too. [What's their beef? I thought most of them were free marketeer libertarians or something.-ed. Go figure.]

Good people skills.

This demise was inevitable, but it's beyond fun seeing these self-important maniacs take out the claws on each other in the process. Which continues to the end:

50. Sissy Willis:
Good night, sweet prince. Don’t let the bitter ones get you down.

Yes, good night, sweet prince. Good night.

The Horrors! Peaceable Assembly!

Jesse at Pandagon says about all that's needed to be said over Roger Simon's comments here:

They are floating the idea of changing the venue of [Barack Obama's] acceptance speech from Denver’s Pepsi Center to the much larger outdoor Invesco Field. I’m not going to indulge in the obvious comparisons. But I am disturbed by this development. 76,000 people blindly screaming “Yes, we can!” in a giant stadium is not an image I relish seeing in a free society.

There's something fun about saying you will not indulge in the obvious comparisons followed by indulging in them. But as Jesse says, that field is not used solely for Leni Reifenstahl film re-enactments and re-education camps. 75,000-plus people show up to cheer mindlessly hundreds of times every fall weekend. They call it "football." And I'll be damn happier when 75,000 people come together in support of taking steps to provide more affordable health care or ending the war in Iraq rather than cheering a play-action fake and fly route for a touchdown.

Note to conservatives - fascism does not equal "popular".

Man Crush

Is it such an accepted bit of wisdom that policy doesn't grab eyeballs, or a contempt for those who are smart enough to demand substance, or WTF is it that results in this kind of crap masquerading as political analysis?

Mitt Romney is so good he is almost too good.

Candidates want people to come away from their events thinking “presidential,” not “slick.”

But Romney is so polished and looks so much like a president would look if television picked our presidents (and it does) that sometimes you have to ask yourself if you are watching the real deal or a careful construction.

Romney has chiseled-out-of-granite features, a full, dark head of hair going a distinguished gray at the temples, and a barrel chest. On the morning that he announced for president, I bumped into him in the lounge of the Marriott and up close he is almost overpowering. He radiates vigor.

And he can’t wait to stand next to John McCain on a stage and invite comparison. (McCain, who looks less hearty than Romney, was severely injured while fighting for his country as a Naval aviator. Romney never served in the military, though the band at his announcement played both “Anchors Aweigh” and “The Marines’ Hymn.”)

That's maybe the worst article I've seen since this blog started. It's cotton candy; there's literally nothing in it except measuring manly chins and manly muscles, and looking for flip-flops and how things will "play" with the base and horse-race process politics. It's literally everything bad about journalism thrown into one article.

If these Presidential beat reporters can't pass a basic policy quiz, or just turn up their noses when anything meaningful gets discuss, can we have a vote in the country to fire them? The number of poll respondents there would make American Idol look like a group of volunteers for shark cage duty.

P.S. Speaking of the media, I don't think I've ever seen as bristling an effective a takedown of anyone as I see in this Matt Taibbi article about Joe Klein. A sampling:

He is the living, breathing incarnation of American "conventional wisdom" -- and what American "conventional wisdom" is is a spineless, slavish, power-worshipping watcher of polls who has no problem whatsoever denying today what he said yesterday, and is mostly interested in making sure he still has invitations to the right Beltway parties.

The war, you might have noticed, has not budged very many of these people from their places. Many of them now claim to be against the war. But they're the same people they were three or four years ago, and they're still quite openly sneering at the people who really were right all along. They seem to hate us even more, now that we've so obviously been proven right.

Klein's getting pressure from his left so he's starting to turn around, but that doesn't make him any less spineless (actually more so). Matt Taibbi might be my favorite current political writer (not good enough to get me to buy Rolling Stone, but still).