Rudy (AMERICA’S MAYOR) is RIGHT as usual!!1 While GEORGE W BUSH was in charge, the terrorists KNEW what we’d do to them and were PETRIFIED to do ANYTHING to us!!1 For the life of me, I can’t think of ONE SINGLE INCIDENT of terrorism against the US during the 8 years when the rest of the world was actually AFRAID of us instead of NOW when we have the Obamessiah BOWING to everyone and letting the GITMO TERRORISTS loose in the streets of our Heartland!!1 What I wouldn’t give for a TIME MACHINE to go back to the days of the Bush Administration … but unfortunately under the new SOCIOFASCIST regime the free market has been so SEVERELY CRIPPLED that such technology may never be INVENTED!!1

This is the weirdest assertion to ever make. Incomprehensible that Stephanopoulos didn’t follow up on that.

Didn’t Mary Matlin make a similar assertion recently?

Does anyone really care what Rudy has to say? The left has never been very fond of him, and after his absolutely pathetic ’08 primary returns, his lack of influence on the right is crystal clear.

@Karl – Actually, he is wrong. 9/11 does count and Bush was president. That said, how about we blame the terrorists for a change. I know it totally destroys your pathetic argument that somehow Obama is releasing detainees on the streets and inviting attacks, but every so often a grain of reality is needed in these discussions. In case you missed it, during the Bush administration, we had multiple attacks, including 9/11. Oh, and Rudy in now officially mayor of nothing.

@Rachel – And you expect Stephanopoulos to somehow be less of a worshipping toady to Giuliani now that he is on GMA? The NY and DC based media are more afraid of Giuliani than they are of the terrorists.

Back to Karl – got anything that isn’t a flaming partisan spitball of hate? I am not totally happy with this administration on the national security front, but I wasn’t happy with the last administration either. Out of curiosity, are you one of those that blasted Dems as unpatriotic for criticizing Bush? Becasue an awful lot of the folks yelling that for the past 7 years are now doing exactly what they complained about.

Back to Rachel – So nobody wants to deal with the screaming hypocrisy on BOTH sides? The Dems now call people like Karl up there racist for having any criticism. The same Dems that blasted Bush for 8 years, including the requisite president as Hitler posters.

For the record, I am proudly No Party Affiliation and have been since Clinton. Neither party represents any actual Americans anymore and neither actually cares about governing.

Wrong again!

From Bob Cesca:

‘Confused Wingnuts and Counting the Attacks

The other night, Rudy Giuliani (deliberately) couldn’t properly calculate dates and timelines comparing 9/11 to the (completely dissimilar) Underpants Bomber. Not only that, but he claimed that the Shoe Bomber happened before 9/11. For the record, the Shoe Bomber attempt happened after 9/11. Can we agree on this, wingnuts? Bush’s initial response to the Shoe Bomber came six days later. President Obama’s initial response to the Underpants Bomber was just three days after the incident — not 10 as Vlad Rudy said on Larry King. bumper sticker methodology.Then Rudy was on Good Morning America and said:

“We had no domestic attacks under Bush; we’ve had one under Obama.”
WHAT?!

I’ve been having very similar debates with wingnuts over the last several days and I have to admit that it’s a real mind scramble. I’m hearing: Bush didn’t have any attacks in seven years, while Clinton had several attacks in eight years. And the Underpants Bomber counts as one under Obama. All sorts of twisted backwards logic and confused math about dates, and no real standards in terms of what constitutes and attack — shifting parameters between domestic attacks and Islamic terrorism, or overseas targets, and so on.

In and amongst the confused logic, the ultimate message gets lost which is that there will always be attempts at terrorism. Some will be successful, while others, like the Shoe Bomber or the Underpants Bomber, will be unsuccessful. The fact that there have been attacks during all recent presidencies is illustrative of the fact that human beings will always attempt to further their political or religious ideology with violence. There were more terrorist attacks on American interests under Ronald Reagan than under Bill Clinton. There were more terrorist attacks under George W. Bush than under Bill Clinton. Speaking realistically, this speaks partly to Clinton’s efforts against terrorism, and partly to blind luck.

The fact that 9/11 happened on Bush’s watch is partly incidental and partly due to incompetence. But to deny that 9/11 happened on Bush’s watch, while blaming Clinton for, say, the 1993 World Trade Center bombing doesn’t make any sense and it’s absolutely a lie.

Furthermore, there are methods of curtailing terrorism that have been more effective, and methods that are completely ineffective. But regardless of the method, terrorists have made it through the dragnet. They always will.

What we don’t want to do is to make it worse — and we don’t want to sell out our values, liberty and dignity in the process. And for all of its tough guy posturing and violations of the rule of law for the sake of security, George W. Bush didn’t ameliorate terrorism — according to the NIE of July, 2007, the Islamic terrorist group that we were ostensibly “at war with” had entirely reconstituted its pre-9/11 strength. That’s a fact. And fighting the evildoers was Bush’s whole thing. It was the centerpiece of his presidency. So it can be said that Bush’s method wasn’t just ineffective, it actually was harmful. In fact, I would suggest that as a marker of Bush’s record on terrorism, this NIE is much more damning than 9/11, despite 9/11′s transformative impact and dramatic death toll.

The whole process of counting the attacks and analyzing past data is supposed to tell us about which methods work and which methods are ineffective, if not counterproductive. If there are more American deaths under Bush and if the ranks of terrorists actually grew, then we have a sense of what we shouldn’t be doing. Likewise, the people who are trying to pitch those methods absolutely lack credibility — and it doesn’t help that their logic and reason is entirely ridiculous and unserious. In other words, the Bush Republicans need to shut up and sit down.

Instead, as Rachel Maddow and David Corn discussed last night, they’re deliberately skewing the debate into questions of twisted math and very obvious lies. See Vlad Rudy’s remarks. I suppose this is all they can do considering their horrible record and bumper sticker methodology.”

Chew on those facts!

You can always tell who the stupid teabaggers who watch fox are by their parroting of their stupid talking points. One of them just made an ass of himself with his longing for the Bush administration. As Bob Cesca points out, the numbers don’t add up. MORE KILLED THROUGH TERRORISM UNDER BUSH! Facts don’t have a counterweight. Either you have them or you don’t and, clearly you don’t! They were so scared they reconstituted to pre 911 levels. Yes, how I long for those days! Idiots!

“Perhaps worse than that, Stephanopoulos seems to have forgotten about 9/11,”

So true Tommy. A lot of people have forgotten, and that’s really unfortunate.

Obama said he was going to bring em’ home, now instead of Bush, it’s ‘Barrack Obama World Cop’.

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

I agree with Rachel – stunning that there was no follow-up.

Keeva says:
January 8, 2010 at 11:24 am

Keeva… we’ve talked about this. “Karl” is a “mock conservative loon,” like a Stephen Colbert… but not funny or well known. Don’t argue with him… it’s all just nonsense. You can check out more info on him <a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=christian+larson%2C+spensen&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a"here… it’s all just a really really unfunny and sad joke.

roxsteady says:
January 8, 2010 at 11:29 am

And the Underpants Bomber counts as one under Obama.

Well… two, if you count Fort Hood.

Speaking realistically, this speaks partly to Clinton’s efforts against terrorism, and partly to blind luck.

Oh, I don’t know if buy that. Clinton’s big efforts against terrorism were what, exactly? I think more of it was “luck,” as well as technology, speed of information, and so on and so forth.

If there are more American deaths under Bush and if the ranks of terrorists actually grew, then we have a sense of what we shouldn’t be doing.

To draw a correlation between Bush’s actions and growing terrorist groups like this, is misleading and false at best. Bush’s actions may have led to SOME increase in terrorism, but so did a major high-profile attack on the United States. Terrorism became popular, and to a degree (as disgusting as it sounds) glamorous to some already “ill” people. That’s not Bush’s actions causing it, rather it’s a reaction to the world making terrorism a priority.

Awwww… that was just a copy/pasted article! I thought you had gotten better at delivering coherent points with minimal stank and juvenile insults! Noooo… it was just copy/paste! Darn!

I’mNotBlue – I’ve been reading your posts for a long time and while I don’t agree with much of what you say, at least (like so few on the right) you back your arguments up with facts and logic.

That being said, I think Karl is a riot – and he certainly seems to have figured out how to push your buttons, since you’ve obviously become obsessed with “exposing” the poor kid to the world. You really are coming off like a lunatic with your bizarre vendetta, and I’m sure he’s loving it.

Oh, and he’s totally right about your attitute, too. “Snide” and “condescending” don’t even BEGIN to describe it.

You’re reading comprehension skills are gone. Oh, and thanks for commenting on the content. It speaks volumes that you didn’t share your opinion. Just change the subject. It’s working so well for teabaggers!

Hey Mediate,

I was reading TVNewsers’s commenting policy and they have the following rule:

“You will respect other people’s right to personal privacy and will not post any other person’s identifying information ”

I am wondering if you may have a similar policy, and if so, will you use it as justification for banning this douchebag called ImNotBlue?

Suburban Correspondent says:
January 8, 2010 at 12:34 pm

(Thank you for reading, and the compliment)

Re: Karl… You think so? Well, you’re half right… the guy does annoy me. There are a lot of folk around here who post things that are really loony, and I’m not talking about people who disagree with me, just people who aren’t fact based and just like to shout. But Karl is different. His intent is to disrupt and be annoying… not to have a real discussion about anything… and to me, that’s worse than being so flummoxed that you can’t form a cogent argument.

So yeah… he annoys me… I think you’re right, that’s obvious. But since I was able to do a little “Journalism 101″ and figure out Christian Larson’s real persona (best exampled by his Twitter page and resume on LinkedIn), I feel obligated to remind folks before they get into a conversation with him of who and what they’re dealing with. My goal would be for the good intentioned folks around here to just ignore him (I don’t bother reading his posts anymore, no point). Perhaps then, he’ll go away… or contribute under a real name.

A name, perhaps like yours???

roxsteady says:
January 8, 2010 at 12:53 pm

What ARE you talking about?

same2u says:
January 8, 2010 at 12:55 pm

Yes… posting a link to “Google” is really intrusive isn’t it?

It wasn’t a link yesterday. It was his actual name.

9/11 – multiple embassy bombings – beheadings on video – panic in multi-color terror alerts – and Rudy doesn’t remember. Alzheimer’s is a horrible disease.

Actually, there have been three under Obama, but whose counting.

Rush is having a field day today with all the MSMers blaming Bush for the Christmas bomber; it really is funny to listen too. The same folks who screamed Bush didn’t connect the dots are saying that Obama should be held accountable for not connecting the dots because he has only been in office less than a year and it really is all Bush’s fault.

Never heard anything so funny in my life. Journo’s have no integrity. He is especially going after NBC/MSNBC today. Clearly Rush will be WPITW tonight.

The other interesting part of GMA today is when George S attempted to convince viewers that putting the terrorist in criminalcourt and giving him his rights really won’t interrupt our ability to get info from him. Too funny. George S a demo operative, then, now, always.

Argh — I wish there was an edit button.

Above should say that the MSMers are claiming that Obama should NOT be held accountable……

Argh

Hey Karl Spensen.
Pretty funny. I couldn’t stop laughing.

same2u says:
January 8, 2010 at 1:08 pm

No, you misunderstood me. I linked to a Google search with his real name… which I mentioned above. Again, this was all “Google” accessible stuff… not that hard to find. Remember, nothing dies or gets hidden on the internet. And if you’re going to post under a fake persona on a journalism website, well… I suppose there are some obvious risks you take that someone might know how to work Google.

Although, earlier today, didn’t you post that someone you saw on Facebook who posts here was, “Fat.” Isn’t that personal information?

same2u says:
January 8, 2010 at 7:21 am
I think Smithee is black because he was using his facebook profile for a while early on. And from what I remember he is fat.

@ImNotBlue – You are right. I forgot, or to quote the prophet Jagger, “What a drag it is getting old.”

@same2u – Well, based on your comment, calling someone a douchebag is also banning grounds on a lot of sites. Hypocrite often?

ImNotBlue, you behaved like an internet stalker. And I did not disclose any personal information about Smitthee that he didn’t freely provide.

Once again, I call on Mediate to ban ImNotBlu for disclosing the personal identify of Karl Spensen.

I’m sure Tapper, Koppel, and Moran would do a better job of getting past the empty talking points than George has been.

Which reminds me, I was wrong about Tapper in a post weeks ago; he does his homework and pushess the buttons on both sides.

As an aside, all this talk about getting better information from a person designated as an “enemy combatant” rather than a criminal defendent is typically devoid of factual basis across all the media I’ve been reading.

As anyone who listened to the FBI agent testify and read what he said (Ali Soufan?), he got much more and better information by coaxing the prisoner and earning his truct than any torture ever did.

Which is also what WWII interrogators told us about their dealings with German prisoners. Regardless, the baseless proclamations go on that we must take them to Gitmo and make a martyr out of them. Brilliant!

Rudy lying for political gain isn’t a surprise, but failing to mention 9/11 in every breath (and Stephanopoulos not calling him out on it) are surprises.

Here’s an assessment: (I really do hope others besides just me sense some of this)

This may apply to many of you literally or metaphorically. When I read some of the comments I get the sense that many of you still live at home with you parents.

- You still have your names written on your underwear where you or your parents wrote on them

- You have at least 2 PC/MAC/Laptops networked in your room or the basement your parents coverted to a room for you.

- You don’t like to get out much, but when you do, your neighbors can hear you down many of the streets yelling “liar liar your pants are on fire”. You know neighbors can hear you because they’ve complained to your parents about it and won’t let you sleep over any more with their kids.

- The other thing your neighors kids complain about is your over use of “I know you are, but what am I? ‘I know you are but hat am I?…

- For those of you that are not bullies, you hide. To get back at them you tattle tale on your friends as a way to get back. So you have to live with the tattle tale label.

- You complain to your parents when you get grounded because nobody understands you, nobody believes you. You’re right and they’re wrong. This you tell your parents, includes your teachers, which you swear to your parents that your teachers hate you. Especially those teachers that gave you detention or failing grade.

- You get so frustrated you’re left with holding your breath until someone does understand you or when you realize that the breath holding won’t work, you insult people as a way to get back. A way to get others to see you as relevant. You know, to ‘understand’ you!

I could be the only one that pictures this from many of the comments. But I really hope not!

OK, all those who believe the content of the following quote raise their hands:

“I looked up at the burning buildings and saw people jumping, falling to the ground, and I turned to my Police Commissioner Bernie Kerik, and I said “Thank God George Bush is President!”…

Guiliani on stage live before the Republican National convention, 2004, NYC.

Kind of sad to see this site has become another Huffpo/Daily kos. I had hoped Dan Abrams would have been able to shake that rabid MSNBC following, but alas, they followed, obviously in big numbers.

I hopped on here from day one, and have commented often as it was a daily read for me and there were some interesting comments. My visits have dwindled considerably as have my comments since the following pattern has developed:

Virtually every “story” has something to do with a conservative (in a negative light), written by a really jaded columnist/reporter/blogger/correspondent (whatever you call them) that sets up the tee for the roxsteady & pals diatribe calling anybody and everybody foul names over and over again. Tiresome, to say the least.

Keeva says:
January 8, 2010 at 1:59 pm

You know Keva, I’ve never gotten into the Stones, and I don’t know why. I really should listen them more often.

same2u says:
January 8, 2010 at 2:10 pm

There is a fine line between internet stalker, and journalist. I searched to see who this character is/was because his posts were so over the top, I knew something was right. A quick Google search, and I found I was correct. Now… a stalker would send emails to him, and use the information negatively (which I haven’t… although, I’ve received emails to my unpublished account from an editor here at Mediaite who apparently ‘found it out’ from a tip submission), or would follow him from site to site (like what happened to TfT, which you didn’t complain about). So once again, you fail… sorry.

But enough of this… don’t wanna dwell on you and me, there are more important things to talk about, no?

Clearly Mediaite doesn’t have a problem with commenters searching for personal information on other commenters on the internet and then re-posting it within their comment section.

I won’t be forgetting this clear infraction of blogging etiquette and personal privacy standards on your part, and the complete indifference demonstrated by the editors of this blog.

same2u says:
January 9, 2010 at 5:32 pm

Yeah… getting rid of “Google” would be a big improvement.

As for blogging etiquette… methinks this site lost that a long time ago. You want a list of people who represent that, or do you remember your own posts?