Stuff to Read

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Salon has been running a series called “The Hack Thirty” listing the 20 worst political hacks in media. The Number One pick is in, and it’s (spoiler alert) … Richard Cohen. I don’t disagree with the choices, but I wouldn’t have put them in the same order.

“Most Americans think incoming Congressmen who campaigned against the health care bill should put their money where their mouth is and decline government provided health care now that they’re in office,” says Public Policy Polling. See also Steve Benen.

Matt yglesias notes that the alleged mistrust of government is highly selective.

10 thoughts on “Stuff to Read”

  1. Jonah Goldberg only at #7? I’d have to give him the first place prize, where are all the FAUX news hacks? He says the list is columnists and cable TV commentators?

  2. The choices are fine. But, where’s ‘Sour Krauthammer?” He’s conspicuously missing.
    To me, hands down, it’s Kristol.
    Jonah’s a pale, doughy piker compared to ‘Bloody Bill!’ Sure, both are sons of priviledge of Conservative icons. But Lucianne was no Irving. She was like Lucille Ball compared to Kissinger in those circles. And, while Jonah wouldn’t be trusted to run a summer camp for boys, figuring he might do ‘God knows what,’ and was relagated to the minor leagues, it’s Kristol who, if he wasn’t his father’s son, wouldn’t have been hired to make sandwiches, or even to stock soup cans and beer in a backwater WaWa on a rural road for fear he’d sue for dropping said cans on his own foot, or for picking his nose, or his ass, while making a hoagie, that went to the ‘Head of the Class’ when you needed a go-to guy to kill brown people, put Israel on a pedestal, and do whatever it took to make Democrats as demonized as Jews in Germany before WWII.
    And then, of course, they finally found a place for Jonah – to ‘write’ “Liberal Fascism.” A book that tries to make Santa into Hitler, Hitler into Santa, and Mao, Stalin and the Easter Bunny into Lliberal Zombies feasting on the flesh of rich people.
    Kristol makes anything he writes about insipid. He’s boring. He makes ‘Pablum’ seem like cayenne powder. He’s a war-mongering sociopath. Capt. William “Wrong Way” Kristol is also one of the few conservative columnnists not to lose his space on the NY Times Op-ed page due to death. He lost it the old-fashioned way, he earned it. He made William Safire seem like a combination of S.J. Perelman, Russell Baker and R. W. Apple. In his first column, he made more errors than an Rookie League catcher with an iron mitt.
    Jonah is certainly a close contender. As is another guy not mentioned – Ross ‘No-doubt-he’s fat.’ And where was Ann Coulter? ‘It’ should have been on the list.

  3. HOLY COW! No Malkin! She’ll be ENRAGED that she was not included! It’s like she was ignored!!! Look for her next column to demand that everyone without a swastika tatoo’d somewhere on their body to be interned in some camp.
    But what a fun excercise! It’s like, who’s worse? Vampires, werewolves, zombies, ghost’s, ghoul’s, troll’s, Blue Dog’s, etc.

  7. One of the things I am most thankful for, on this day of thanksgiving, is Maha and ‘the gang’ for allowing me a very passive way to vent my political anger. I stay quiet mostly because you all are so well-informed, witty, and I rarely have anything to add cuz you all do it so well. Thanks Maha and ‘gang’! Have a very……….
    Happy Thanksgiving!!

  8. Happy Thanksgiving, everybody.
    Despite my constant kvetching, I have a lot to be thankful for.
    Though unemployed and without health insurance, for at least another couple of weeks I get umployment, and, as far as I know, my health is ok for a broken- down relatively young codger.
    My family is ok, and healthy for the most part. My parents (Mom soon to be 79, and Dad 85 in a few weeks), are ok, relatively healthy, and pretty self-reliant – they’re tough old Slavic bird’s. My sister still has piano students, my brother-in-law was downgraded, but still has his job. My beautiful and smart niece is entering her final semester for her Masters at Eastman Conservatory where she’s studying oboe, and is considered ‘World Class!’ And my wonderful, bright nephew, a Junior in HS, is doing well in school, geting ready for College, and plays French horn like a champ.
    My parents still have their house, where I live. And food is hot, though not very varied – but that’s because I once lived by myself and was able to do my favorite thing in the world, and that’s go to different restaurants, especially ethnic ones. When I cook during the week, I try to jazz-up the diet with a few spices (not too hot for the old folks!), marinade’s, and different takes on veggies.
    Knock on wood, my car runs ok.
    My teeth are still in my head.
    And today, I’m looking forward to eating like a Viking and drinking like a fish (well, not really a fish, since I’m the DD – but, a few nice glasses of Yellowtail Cab) in a few hours. Plenty of dark meat, stuffing, and mashed potato’s, drowning in a tsunami of gravy large enough to be declared a bio-hazard zone with its own EPA alert.
    So, I’m thankful for what I have today, which is a Hell of a lot more than many, and that’s all any of us can do. Tomorrow is tomorrow, and none of us knows what it’ll bring, so I’m going to try to enjoy every today. And with turkey, stuffing, gravy, wine, pumpkin pie, and a bit of football, that’s a lot to be thankful for. AND LEFTOVERS FOR TOMMOROW! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!
    Again, I wish everyone a very Happy, Healthy, and Safe Thanksgiving. May God, or whatever goodness you believe in, shine on you and yours, today, and many, many tomorrows…

  9. maha,

    Happy Thanksgiving to you and to all of the commenters who post here. I realize that only in the USA does the 4th Thursday in November become Thanksgiving Day. I realize that Canada also has a Thanksgiving Day on the 2nd Monday in October, so a belated Happy Thanksgiving to our neighbors to the north.

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