I see where the Secret Order of Right-thinking Essayists (SORE), in the happy hours after the election of Obama, thrilled one another by packaging their (wish fulfillment) dreams as fanciful proposals. One of the clearest signs of their incompetence is the belief–unchallenged in the transcript provided–that I exercise enormous power, even to the point where I am credited with Svengali-like power over Michael Barone.
Trust me, I sit at his feet, not the other way around. We all should.
There is one little item that might be worth a followup, the one where a Mr Spencer Ackerman proposes that I should be thrown against a wall, or through a plate glass window. Is that hate speech, by the way? Is Eric Holder moving to impanel a grand jury? (Just kidding).
Maybe it would be better to have sushi. So if Ackerman reads this, he should feel free to set a date. There’s a good sushi place across the street. He can buy, and I’ll provide some space and Diet Coke at FDD.
What say? Yes, there are a couple of suitable windows…
UPDATE: I got a very straightforward apology from Spencer Ackerman and a dinner invitation. Well done by him. I, of course, am holding out for the sushi. We’ll see…
UPDATE II: it’s off. he says his editor wanted the lunch off the record, and I said I don’t talk off the record…so we shall see.
Throw you though a plate glass window for having beliefs different than theirs, have the government shut down Fox News, and they call us fascists? Why the virulence toward you? You were supposed to become irrelevant after the One talked Iran out of wanting nukes.
it’s off, he and his editor asked that the lunch be off the record. i said that i don’t talk off the record…
At least not with leftists that have spoken about physical violence against you.
i don’t believe in it at all (off the record); if i don’t want to talk about something i just say that.
True… one shouldn’t say things that one might have to take back later.
It seems the folks on Journolist never quite learned that lesson.
Good for you-I admire that, “say what you mean, mean what you say.”
One should always operate under the assumption that when speaking with a journalist in any media that nothing is off the record, even when it’s stated to be off the record. (speaking from experience with leftist “journalists”).
I have not trusted the left wing of the media in ages and wouldn’t start now, but this latest bit of hypocritical vitriol is too much. They accuse the right of hate? Ahem, who was it again that founded the kkk? (just for openers).
It is difficult sometimes to silence the anger I feel toward the left, especially given what they are doing to my country, but to hear they are full of anger and hatred for those that want the best future possible for this country is just too much to take.
“Off the record” statements have their uses and as long as the rule is followed ethical journalists should honor them. That rule, which also follows for “background status”, “not for attribution”, and “time-limited embargoes”, is that you must first ask and get an answer prior to giving out any information you want protected. Usually off the record comments are used to give a reporter something of value on a story in order to gain some concession from him on how the story is run or when the story is run. It’s a kind of tit for tat that is given when the reporter already knows enough to harm you, your organization, an investigation, or whatever. Of course not all reporters are ethical and that is the danger.
Seems to me that speaking “off the record” implies deception at some level, and therefore not trustworthy. I commend your journalistic integrity. That is a quality that the “JournOlisters” are severely lacking.
Good thing Ackerman is on the right side, so to speak. Then he won’t need Mel Gibson’s lawyer to get him off for making a public threat.
Well done Mr. Spenser Ackerman, you have taken the first baby step towards adulthood and the world of Michael Ledeen and Michael Barone.
There still is some class left in the world (thanks Michael). It just was not present anywhere on the journolist.
Be careful, Michael. That apology could be because he got caught, and you didn’t let him off the hook, rather than an honest stock taking of what he did.
Keep chopping wood, Michael. Don’t let your foot off the necks of these slimeball pygmies until you witness the ooze of green fluid flowing. Then stomp harder.
I have a subscription to the Atlantic and the New Yorker..I listen to NPR. My dad liked NASCAR. They think he’s a retard.
I can not believe that those people that write are so mean. SO very mean. Obama would not appreciate their spite and bile.
oh I’m sure Obama wouldn’t like our spite. he would probably say that it’s obvious we’re all acting stupidly.
I want to throw Ackerman through a plate glass window, but I don’t want it to be on the record.
More is to come from the Journolist Scandel; therefore, Ackerman’s so-called apology may be premature. Furthermore, I doubt he will mean it.
I just read that you take threats seriously and report them to law enforcement. Given this, it occurs to me that the subtle irony I intended in my previous post about wanting to throw Ackerman through a plate glass window and also wanting it off the record may not be evident to all readers.
I therefore take this opportunity to either clarify the previous post in this manner or suggest that both of these be removed for simplicity’s sake.
I still think it’s funny, though. Far more humorous, say, than Ackerman’s original suggestion about you.
Editor’s choice.
Maybe you could get Mr. Angleton to make an appearance if you cannot make it. I am sure he would be considered sufficiently off the record and temptingly Svengali-like to young Ackerman.
I hate to see really good sushi go to waste.
But better that than waste sashimi.
Limbaugh is right, Journolist proves that Ackerman and company are part of the Democrat far left cabal. They don’t comment on it, they are part of the coverup obfuscation machine associated with it. They are propogandists. They actively scheme to paint false accusations of their political enemies in order to destroy their opponents character and credibility.
I have known this for many years actually. I stopped reading the following publications in the last 7 years:
Time,
Newsweek,
US News and World Report,
Boston Globe,
New York Times,
New Republic,
New Yorker,
Rolling Stone,
I have subscribed to all of these publications at one time or another.
I won’t bother listing the TV and radio I never listen to anymore. Suffice it to say that until 1994 I was a supporter of NPR’s local affiliate.
Do you think they have a clue as to why they are losing market share so rapidly? Of course not.
I am now rooting for their inevitable chapter 11-7 filings.
Mike Ledeen, I read most of your posts on PJ’s. Keep up the excellent work.
thanks samizdat, i will try. pity you didn’t subscribe to more newspapers; it feels great to cancel them…
They expected to lose market share, but not to worry. Everything is on schedule for “bail-outs” for the MSM, making market share irrelevant going forward as they move to full public funding.
[I stopped reading the following publications in the last 7 years: Time, Newsweek, US News and World Report, Boston Globe, New York Times, New Republic, New Yorker, Rolling Stone,...]
WHAT!? You actually read the New Yorker beyond the captions for the cartoons? I guess that makes you a paleo-highbrow. But now you are saving all that freed up dough and can afford sushi lunch with young Ackerman, eh? Nice work, Sam.
Well, you got a free meal out of it. That can’t be all that bad!
i wish, turf; not even that, at least so far. he backed out, blaming his editor. funny how all of a sudden “off the record” is some kind of protection, huh?
Michael, I have to say thank you to you and your colleagues for standing in the front ranks… what comes to mind is a description Dr. Hanson of the armored men standing shoulder to shoulder in the Greek phalanxes of old. You should know, standing up there in front and taking the heat, that there are many more of us standing directly behind you all up there, silent but still standing nonetheless.
Complete humor.
“They” got mad at Michael Ledeen? Why?
I appreciate your competent informed reporting. That does not mean I have to agree with everything…I assume you do this blog to “hear” and put to the test your “stuff”…not just for people to …”brown nose”.
I like saying when I think you are off the mark; does not make me right; but I do try and push you to consider another point of view…that I think you may not have considered.
This is written, so if I ever come off disrespectful; I apologize for that…I really try and point out what I think are errors in your thinking; as constructive…as I think you genuinely simply seek clarity…not ideology/right or wrong…
Thanks for what you do/did…remember “jiberalism is a mental disorder”.
well, yes, duerf, i love good criticism. it’s precious because it’s rare. i know i’m going to make mistakes, i want to know quickly when i’ve done it.
Duerf raises the question of what US policy has actually been on Iran over the years. Since 1979, it would seem, they have declared war on the West; inevitably so, with the exception of the regime. And their agents and sub-groups have raised far and wide to murder Israelis, Americans, Jews through the Diaspora and many more. All the minorities inside Iran, Kurds, and so on. And the hand of this revolutionary gov’t was certainly involved, as an inspiration and logistical head – through proxies – in all the actions of Hizbollah and more in Lebanon.
Michael, it does look that the US Admins have never really come close to a decision to counter-declare war against a regime that has truly gone on the offensive for a long time. Now it seems they have many agents in the US in different capacities, and are attempting to smuggle significant nos of people into the US via Mexico etc.
I just wonder if everyone is waiting too long, and hoping too much for this revolution. The haircutter I referenced yesterday both despises the regime and believes it will be a long time before it falls. Of course, the Iranians are the principal victims; I realize that. But I really wonder, again, if the regime will do severe damage on multiple fronts, in multiple countries, before it goes away.
Larry you are right (that is, i agree with you) on all counts.
You have raised people’s consciousness on this, and batted the sushi back as well. Thanks.
Say Michael:
If I had +/- 4,500 x +/- 10,000 does that =45,000,000? Did you hear Mama Grizzly say, where she dwells, they “got it” but won’t “dig it”…Why would someone claim to have 1000/day when they had +/- 50,000/day? Why would you have planned to “cap it” before you blew it completely if it were worth 50,000 x $70 =
$ 3,500,000/day or $ 1,277,500,000 billion/year?
I stand by my Iraq/Iran analysis…and just about rest my case: Does that make a whole different “mean”ing to “Texas holdum”?…
If “they” are holding back the oil to keep the price high and ripping us off; is that a big scandal? Is it the biggest scandal in American history?
There is also a theory, advanced by ‘leftists’ (these labels get difficult after a while) that part of the motivation to go into Iraq was to OPEC-ize the Iraqi oil supply.
At the risk of exposing my media ignorance, I had never heard of Spencer Ackerman until today. After reading some of his screed, I don’t project that Spence will be a household name anytime soon either.
When I read what Spence had said about you Michael, I went to look up Spencer’s picture, fully expecting some SS lookalike. What I found from the pictorial was Woody Allen’s younger brother.
Spencer had better get a running start if he’s going to push anybody through a plate glass window.
tex, i had never heard of him either.
The reasons prancing metrosexual pansies like Ackerman feel free to spout their crap are are one, they are in an echo chamber and get their giggles from pretending to be tough among a gaggle of groupthink. Two, they believe no ill consequences will come of their boorish behaviour.
In the world where I live and work, words have consequences – but why would Ackerman and his kind believe that, when in their bubble not even actions have? Were I to make such vile statements towards those I work with, I’d lose major credibility points for not making them in their presence, and there’d be a real risk that I would face a physical response. If Ackerman really thought he’d be expected to throw anyone through a window, or come face to face with his intended victim, he’d be much more circumspect.
Heinlein is supposed to have said “An armed society is a polite society.”
they are (the liberal/marxist/progressives) cowards. they take the money from your wallet by mob and they threaten by mob.
well done Michael. it is really as simple as standing up to them.
I haven’t read the message in question, but I’m fairly sure that any talk of throwing Ledeen against a wall is a direct response to his “doctrine” (parroted by the illuminating Jonah Goldberg) that states, “Every ten years or so, the United States needs to pick up some small crappy little country and throw it against the wall, just to show the world we mean business.”
Anyone who says something as offensive of that shouldn’t get his panties in a twist when it’s suggested that he should try his own doctrine on for size.
Actually it probably was. As a follower of the Ledeen Doctrine I have to say that the comparison of a crappy little country, and the doctrine classifies those as a Libya, an Iran, an Iraq under Sadaam, etc., with a political commentator is rather facile but nonetheless humorous. Unfortunately the doctrine is never followed so the United States’ resolve is forever underestimated with tragic results such as 911. Under Obama the result might be a nuclear cloud over Israel.
Instead of sushis at three paces I suggest Colt 45 revolvers at 20 paces.
yes, jfm, but i’d get arrested by the DC police for possession of firearms.
Do it in Texas!
smartest suggestion yet. i LOVE texas.
It is all nice and good to patch things up but clearly the language of violence has permeated into the acceptable when people are talking in like minded groups.
It is never acceptable. Our society works because throw IDEAS against the wall to see what sticks, not PEOPLE.
What is embarrassing about Journolist is that it functioned as center for people who had already made up their minds, this is fine for you and me but not for people who are supposed to critically cover the issues of the day and fairly cover the people making news.
Ackerman’s editor at Wired is smart not to want further involvement by his employee in this disgrace. What’s the upside for them?
A line from one of my favorite movies…
“Men fight with swords, on horseback. Sometimes, this is not possible. Then they fight with rifles.”
No mention of sushi at all.
Throw me through a plate glass window, I’m picking up one of the shards and performing some real violence on you. Threaten me with the trip through the glass, and I will just laugh at you and your journolist candy ass.
Your reaction and experience may vary.
Sorry, I certainly believe in forgiveness and letting the past go, but Mr. Ackerman has mental health issues-not to mention immaturity issues.
An excuse really can’t be found for his extreme venting.
So the Marxist press who whine and cry about transparency just can’t stand transparency when it comes to them. This does not surprise me one bit.
They can dish it out, but can’t take it.. Ackerman is a whiny baby..
My question is, why do any of these Journolisters still have jobs? Have their editors and publishers have no shame? Don’t they realize that they are putting their organizations at great risk by keeping these masquerading frauds on their payrolls?
Then again, perhaps I just answered my own questions…
Hahahahahahaha*snort*HAHAHAHA!!!!!!
DD, you’re killin’ me with that dry subtle wit of yours… “have they no shame?”
HAHAHAHA!!!!!
These guys really scare me. I don’t know if it is a small step between fantasizing violence against political opponents and actually condoning it or doing it, but I suspect it is. What is more, I suspect that there are large portions of the political left that would be happy to do it and would think of themselves as good people for doing so.
In a way, I guess you should be honored to be loathed by these monsters. I hope they live long and happy lives, long enough to realize what scrubs they are at the moment.
What I find really chilling is that these “journalists” actually had the audacity to presume that the end justifies the means and they subsequntly worked (successfully) to alter the outcome of a Presidential Election. I thought elections were reserved for “We, The People”. Without a free and objective press working to hold every level of government’s feet to the fire, our Republic is doomed. It is my hope that this whole sordid affair goes viral, exposing the left, in front of the world, for the scoundrels that they are. But i’ll not hold my breath…..