www.osborneink.com "Nixon had a word for people like Jane Hamsher"

[MrScorpio]

DEC 13, 2010 firebaggers

Jane the Hamsher is one of the cool kids, I realize; her front page status at Arianna’s place helps maintain her illusion of intellect and relevance. Yet she wouldn’t recognize progress if it smacked her in the face, and so far has achieved nothing resembling progress on any front. Indeed, I have been waiting for someone to tell me what this woman’s “progressive” credentials are.

She is first and foremost a self-aggrandizing publicity whore whose Accountability Now PAC has so far given $0 to progressive candidates in the first two years of its existence while spending $285,272. If she ran a non-profit this way, it would get shut down. As things stand, the PAC (which also counts Kos and Glenn Greenwald as operators) has only made noise.

Accountability Now PAC started in the wake of Greenwald’s Salon eruption over Democrats voting for FISA telecom immunity. In what he aptly described as a “strange bedfellows” campaign, the PAC’s foundation came in the heady days of Ron Paul triangulation and was always aimed at attacking Democrats from the left.

This was reflected in her media appearances. Hamsher’s kill-the-bill madness included an appearance on FOX News just months after her own call to boycott the network. She later returned to that channel spouting nonsense about cap-and-trade. Her recent appearances on Lawrence O’Donnell leave me convinced progress is not her purpose.

http://www.osborneink.com/2010/12/nixon-had-a-word-for-people-like-jane-hamsher.html

[leftstreet]

1. Nixon wanted a guaranteed basic income. Liberal Commie!!!!111 n/t

[mmonk]

2. And some of us had a word for people like Nixon.

Nixon is a plumber's friend.

[walldude]

3. And I have a word for people like Nixon...

Assholes... You are bolstering your hate for Hamsher with a quote from Richard Nixon?

Here's what Nixon had to say about Jews:

The Jews are irreligious, atheistic, immoral bunch of bastards.
Nixon to Bob Haldeman (1 February 1972)


So.. tell me again why I should listen to Richard Milhouse Nixon? Or to anyone who would use him to try to discredit a blogger?

[MrScorpio]

6. Quoting Tricky Dick would not be my preferred rhetorical device

It's the title of the article, by the way.

However, the author has stated his case about the blogger in question.

Not everyone on the left is a fan of her.

[walldude]

7. I can take her or leave her...

But this? You say "Quoting Tricky Dick would not be my preferred rhetorical device" and then you went and did that very thing. :shrug:

[MrScorpio]

8. It's the title of the article

I usually put the actual titles of articles in the subject line.

If you have a problem with what he wrote, I suggest that you take up your objections with him.

The link to his own liberal blog is right there for you.

[walldude]

10. Excuse me, but you felt it was important enough to post here

it's a little late to be claiming innocence. He didn't post this on DU you did.

[MrScorpio]

12. Yep, I posted it alright,

But obviously, we're having this particular discussion because the gist of the article is being ignore for the sake of creating drama over the title.

A distraction device, in any case.

[kenny blankenship]

9. And I have a word for people like people who like Nixon

But it's pretty much the same thing as what you said actually.

[MrScorpio]

11. Admiration for Dick wasn't the point of the article

The author only mentions Nixon twice, with his attention getting title and with a punchline at the end.

I doubt that anyone around here is expressing any admiration for the Old Dead Crook.

[mmonk]

14. Nope. It was about the similarity between the writer and Nixon.

[bullwinkle428]

4. Nixon had "interesting" words for Jews and many other ethnic groups as well.

[Flubadubya]

5. And some people have a word for ANY leftist activist...

Shitlisted! (I know it's a stretch of a word, but it works.:evilgrin:)

[Scurrilous]

13. K & R

:thumbsup:

[MilesColtrane]

15. Here's an article about Accountability Now with nary a Nixon reference.

Hopefully people will pay attention to the actual content.

http://www.progressiveelectorate.com/diary/2329/jane-hamshers-accountability-now-pac-raises-questions

Jane Hamsher's Accountability Now PAC Raises $$ Questions
by: Curtis Abbey
Share |
Fri Apr 09, 2010 at 17:07:03 PM CDT

Maybe accountable wasn't the best word to use for one of Jane Hamsher's PACs. These PACs have been in the blog news lately for some curious, misleading and wasteful spending. The charges range;
1. Jane paying herself and her friends considerable chunks of the donations by "hiring" friendly firms that Jane or her friends run and own. So she signs the check on the front and back under different organizations. Whatever the PAC needed they seem to have a firm to take care of that, website, media, research, polling, consulting and blogging. This is evident in the filings from FDL Action PAC as reported by rcade at the DailyKos

Out of the $234,920 raised by FDL Action PAC in 2009, $44,192 was paid to Firedoglake and other business entities affiliated with Hamsher, according to FEC filings. The PAC paid $16,411 to Firedoglake for "shared general administrative expenses," $14,111 to the site for "list purchase," $9,920 to CommonSense Media for "online advertising" and $3,750 to KMP Research for "strategic consulting."
2. On top of the incestuous expense filings there is the concern that such a large chunk of donations go to administrative costs. For a group so concerned about the overhead in insurance companies, they sure aren't watching their own overhead. It appears they are interested in quite the opposite. Rcade has a handy chart that I've borrowed with the totals for 2009.

Recipient Amount FEC Purpose of Disbursement
Executive director Jeffrey Hauser $41,250 Strategic consulting
Executive director Benjamin Tribbett $24,460.05 Strategic consulting
PAC founder Jane Hamsher $24,000 Strategic consulting, research consulting
PAC founder Glenn Greenwald $24,000 Strategic consulting
Management consultant Marisa McNee $23,547 Strategic consulting
Management consultant David Meyer $14,500 Strategic consulting
Charles Monaco $7,100 Strategic consulting
Michael Whitney $5,894.98 Strategic consulting
Libertas LLC $5,250 Strategic consulting

[MrScorpio]

16. Thanks, Bro

It's amazing how just mentioning the Ol' Trickster can throw an adult conversation off track... Even in this day and age.

[Scurrilous]

17. Wow.

She's quite the grifter.

[johnaries]

18. Wow! That calls for a serious investigation.

Now it makes sense that Hamsher and Greenwald spew some of the muck-raking sensationalist bullshit they do.

[Luminous Animal]

22. What's to investigate? There is nothing out of line with those expenditures.

Accountability Now has never presented itself as a conduit for campaign contributions.

There mission is twofold:

"(a) to create a network of organizational donors and supporters, to form an infrastructure that will enable progressive candidates to mount a credible challenge against incumbents, and (b) to recruit credible primary challengers by identifying vulnerable incumbents, finding good challengers, and then persuading them to run."

[Lucky 13]

24. I agree. $40k for an executive director?

Seems to me the people getting paid for their work are doing so at a REDUCED rate.

But anything to go after the "loud left" or "sanctimonious purist" or "fucking retards" or whatever colorful adjectives the administration is using this week.

[MilesColtrane]

31. She paid herself (Firedoglake.com) over $14K of PAC money to purchase a list she already had.

That might be legal, but it stinks to high heaven.

[Jackpine Radical]

19. Jackpine's Corollary

to Godwin's Law:

As the length of any political thread approaches infinity, the likelihood of a Nixon reference approaches unity.

[MadHound]

20. You're stooping, stooping really low in your past few posts in defense of the president

First implying racism on the left for justifiably criticizing the president, now trotting out Nixon's hoary ghost.

Sad the lengths people will go to defend the indefensible.

[Scurrilous]

23. LOL

God forbid anyone defend President Obama.

[MrScorpio]

25. I stubbed my toe today...

So, I'm going to blame Obama.

Hey, he can't get away with everything on my watch.

[Name removed]

28. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[midnight]

21. Why are we interested in Nixon's quotes? Why aren't we

more interested in what Kennedy had to say about people who disagreed with him? " Fears of shattering the warm feelings of perceived unanimity -- of rocking the boat -- kept some of Kennedy's advisors from objecting to the Bay of Pigs plan before it was too late. After that huge blunder, JFK revamped his decision-making process to encourage dissent and critical evaluation among his team. In the Cuban missile crisis, virtually the same policymakers produced superior results.{2}"http://www.probe.org/site/c.fdKEIMNsEoG/b.4221087/

[LostInAnomie]

26. Hamsher is scum.

I wish she and FDL would be banned from DU.

She and FDL do nothing to further progressive causes or discussion. They are shit-slingers and nothing else.

[Lucky 13]

27. I wholeheartedly disagree and resent you calling her "scum"

This post attacking her is pretty uncalled for.

[LostInAnomie]

29. I think it's pretty accurate.

From her pairing up with Norquist and the Teabaggers, to her overt Obama bashing, to her questionable PAC, there really isn't a much more apt description.

[MrScorpio]

30. Going on Fox, spouting GOP talking points sounds pretty scummy to me

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9F_J_sbeU8

[Ramulux]

32. I will never understand all the Hamsher hate

In the end the only legitimate criticism I have ever heard anyone say about her was that stupid picture of Joe Lieberman in black face that she put on her website. Hamsher has been right about Obama and the dems from day one, and all the apologists have attacked her mercilessly for being willing to tell the truth about Obama's corporatist behavior.

This article is disgusting and something I would expect on FreeRepublic or some other right-wing rag. So, being against the health care bill for being nothing but a giveaway to the private insurance companies somehow automatically makes you a publicity whore? Being willing to go on cable news and explain your positions, automatically makes you a publicity whore? This crap is absurd and this whole article is just this guy bitching about the fact that Jane has been right from the beginning and he was wrong. Its pathetic that so many people on this site have jumped on the FireDogLake bashing wagon, when they couldn't be more on our side.

[Lucky 13]

33. It's not even an article. It's a post on some guy's blog.

[Ramulux]

35. I am so sorry

I failed to distinguish between an article and a blog post. Lord have mercy on my soul.

[Lucky 13]

36. Um. I was agreeing with you. It's crap.

It's not journalism... it's just crap on some dude's website.

[Ramulux]

37. I know

I was just joking.

[Individualist]

38. DLC hates all progressives.

[Name removed]

34. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Number23]

39. K&R It's interesting to me that blogs/post from members of the black blogosphere are being locked

repeatedly on this site. Somehow, the words of black bloggers are not to be trusted or are too "inflammatory" but this piece detailing Jane Hamsher's underhanded dealings has certain folks frothing at the mouth.

Wonder if posts from her will get the same reception that posts from black bloggers are getting? Though of course, none of these black bloggers have done anything that warrants an apparent investigation from law enforcement, unlike Ms. Hamster.

[nemo137]

40. I wonder if it's related to that article that was going around today

on white progressives not "getting it" about the Obama administration thanks in part to white privilege. I don't really have a fully-formed thought here, but I think the juxtaposition is interesting.

[Number23]

42. There have been a few articles in the news in the last few weeks

from black journalists/bloggers/academics urging the white progressives who have been behaving as though they have bees in their undies to calm it down a bit.

Quite a few have been posted here and for some reason, many of them have been locked. All I can do is shake my head because for the life of me, I will never understand why the voices of the most loyal supporters and the most critical component of the Democratic Party's base would be silenced here.

I don't really have a fully-formed thought here, but I think the juxtaposition is interesting.

What do you find interesting?

[flamingdem]

41. Jane has an unual face. It appears to be kind of rodent-like, maybe bad plastic surgery?

Seriously, I've never seen that kind of facial structure before.

[Norrin Radd]

43. Let's see your face.

I think she is cute. Let's see how great you look after having cancer.