Sporto Concern Trolling, Right On Time

In the comments toDoc’s LeBron post on Thursday, I wrote: Well, and I said this over on Facebook as well, he may be the douchiest douche that ever douched, but to me the top spot in this week’s Asshole Derby goes to the ESPN dicks who decided to make this some epic thing America Needed To See In Order To Heal Together. And every other news program jumps on board in order to avoid looking like they got beat on What Everybody’s Talking About. He’s being a self-indulgent prick and his fans have every right to be put out. But … Continue reading Sporto Concern Trolling, Right On Time

My Favorite Harvey Milk Story

I just had some customers from Key West; a forty something gay couple. We started talking about sexual politics and how much attitudes have changed in our lifetime. There’s still beaucoup homophobia but now that more people have come out, there are many more pro-gay straights. Straight is a funny term, actually, I don’t define myself by who I lust after but our society is sex obsessed so that’s all she wrote. I dunno who she is but, apparently, she’s literate… Anyway, I told these customers my favorite Harvey Milk story, one that popped back into my head only recently. … Continue reading My Favorite Harvey Milk Story

Today on Tommy T’s Obsession with the Freeperati – Internet kill switch edition

p>Good morning, gentle people!

Well, when we last left those Duke Boys, old Boss Hog had hatched an evil plot to blow up the Internet with his…

Oops.

Wrong script.

Wait a minute – I’ve got it here somewhere…

Ah, yes.

Well, when we last left the Freeperati, old Jim Robinson had hatched an evil plot to blow up the Freepathons with his words inserted into each and every thread. I had to scroll past this dreck with every thread I viewed, so guess what? So do you.

Suits on – air lock door open – here we go!

A Few Good Freepers wanted

Free Republic is currently delivering over 1.2 million pageviews to over
230,000 visitors per day. That’s 40 million pageviews to 7 million
visitors per month or 120 million pageviews per quarter, 480 million
pageviews per year. We currently have over 330,000 registered screen
names on FR.

4/5’s of which are people I banned for supporting Dubya in early 2000, and the remainder of which I banned in 2008 for not supporting Fred Thomson.

Out of these millions of visits, hundreds of millions of
pageviews, hundreds of thousands of registered Freepers

And these yo-yos complain about Democrats keeping people on the voting rolls after they’ve passed away?

Considering the average age of a Freeper seems to be between 50 and 105, and the 2-4“Freeper (name here) has just passed away” threads I see every day, it’s no wonder they’re having trouble keeping the lights on. I don’t know what Jim Rob is spending the money on instead of servers – maybe he’s just shutting them down every few weeks to scare more money out of the yokels?

and hundreds of
thousands of regular lurkers only a relatively FEW actually donate the
funds to keep FR alive.

At last count, fourteen. Because they’re stingy and greedy GOPers by nature. This is what happens when your target demographic is greedheads. Interesting conundrum, innit?

Now I’m not complaining,

I’m just posting this bleg at the top of every single thread. So it’s more like nagging than complaining.

because we’ve always managed to meet our
fundraising goals in the past, butit is taking longer and longer to
accomplish the task.

That would be because your beloved Invisible Hand Of The Free Market nearly brought down the world economy in the spring of 2008 – which is, of course, Obama’s fault.

And part of that may be because it’s mostly the
same few dedicated FReepers providing the funds and along with the rest
of us I’m sure they’re stretched to the limit.

Why, James Von Brunn hasn’t sent us anything in over ayear!

Sure would be nice if a
few more FReepers and lurkers would lend a hand and send in a few bucks.
Doesn’t take much. I think our average donation is around $20, but you
can send in $5, $10, $20, $30 or more and make it a monthly contribution
if you can.

Certainly you guys can cut back on some non-essentials…

CatFoodGOP

A relatively few good FReepers

Oxymoron alert!

is all it takes to keep FR on the air so
that hundreds of thousands of us

I grew up in Waco. That’s close to the population there. If “hundreds of thousands” are your peer group, that makes you a subset of a subset of a subset of crazyville.

can join together in kicking liberal
butt and continue the fight for our freedom!!

Or at least so I won’t have to get a real job. Those government disability checks won’t make my McMansion payment, you know.

For example, 1,500 dedicated FReepers and lurkers donating an average of
$20 each per month is all it takes to continue delivering these
hundreds of millions of propaganda-fighting, pro-liberty pages to tens
of millions of readers every year. How many concerned citizens and
potential voters can we reach for a tiny fraction of a cent per page? FR
delivers a BIG bang for the buck!!

I’d like to thank the gang for the bang.

Thank you for providing the bang AND
the buck!!

Cheetos Cheetos bang bang?

I donated .02 . This will cost them around $0.75 to process and deposit.

I lurvs me some Freepatons!

After the jump –Glen Beck blows up the internets!!!!

Continue reading “Today on Tommy T’s Obsession with the Freeperati – Internet kill switch edition”

Another Shameless Rising Tide 5 Plug

Our littleRising Tide conference is coming up in the world. Our fearless leader, Dangerblond has arranged for a group hotel rate for out of town attendees: We have a Rising Tide 5 group rate at theMarriott Springhill SuitesHotel, across the street from The Howlin’ Wolf.’ Thurs night, 8/26 – Sun night, 8/29 = $79.00 per night All rooms are “suites” with sitting room/office area Rate applies to rooms with 1 king bed or 2 double beds Double rooms sleep 6, King rooms sleep 4 Telephone 1.888.364.1200 to make reservations. The cutoff date for reservations is August 9th. Single Reservation.Double Reservation. … Continue reading Another Shameless Rising Tide 5 Plug

Weekend Question Thread

Jezebel has this thread aboutWorst Pickup Lines ever: So I went with him to the beach, with our mutual posses, to partake of some fine Italian herb. I was playing a little hard to get (mostly because I had to pee, and that was more at the forefront of my mind than sexy times), so to win me over, he decided to bust out the real lady-killer line: “I am gigalo.” My personal favorite was in college, when my roommate and I were at a party. She was dancing with a guy, and then he whispered something to her and … Continue reading Weekend Question Thread

Malaka Of The Week: LeBron James

I had a semi-plethora of emails from readers and friends suggesting a certain famous cager as this week’s malaka. I was already planning to pile on LeBron: not only for the way his free agency was handled but a result that strikes me as bizarre. Unlikemy colleague Doc the GearheadI don’t have an emotional stake in this BUT this is the week that LeBron went from being just another spoiled superstar to a malaka supernova as opposed to aChampagne Supernova.That’s right, he’s become a bigger douchebag than the Gallagher brothers… I was planning to crown LeBron the malaka king *before* … Continue reading Malaka Of The Week: LeBron James

Friday Ferretblogging

Thanks to everybody for the kind words about Puck this week. Bucky and Riot are taking it pretty well; Riot’s a little more bummed than Bucky is, and spent some time moping, but in the past couple of days they’ve gotten more and more riled up and I think it’s because they were holding back while Puck was so sick, so as not to overtax him. They’re good boys. Here’s Bucky, taking advantage of a sweatshirt left too close to the edge of the dining room table: Silly squirrel. A. Continue reading Friday Ferretblogging

Betsy (Part IV)

The last of the saga of Betsy. Thanks for reading along. If you missed any pieces, Part I, Part II andPart IIIare all here. In putting this together, I realized that I really am one lucky son of a bitch. Not just for the car, but for having a place like this to write about it and folks like you who indulge me by reading it. So, thank you, and have a great weekend. — Doc —— Journalism isn’t just about reporting or writing. It’s about being nosy. I can teach students how to be great writers and great reporters, … Continue reading Betsy (Part IV)

Fuck The Police

Oscar Grant, executed by the police.Image fromhere. Seriously. Fuck ’em. See that young man there? He wasmurdered by the cops in Oakland, CA. One cop was kneeling on his back while another cop, who was not threatened by this prone, handcuffed, face-down man, calmly drew his gun and shot him in the back. If you or I did that, we’d be looking at 25 with an L. The cop? Convicted, sure. But of involuntary manslaughter. As someone at Cole’s place pointed out, this cop will do less time for murdering an unarmed, helpless man than football star Plaxico Burress will … Continue reading Fuck The Police

Le-Gone.

(I know many of you don’t care. I know many of you are tired of LeBron. I know it’s not Friday for two more hours, but piss on it. I’m brain dumping this and moving on with life. The final Betsy installment will be up in the morning. Thanks for your tolerance. — Doc). This isn’t the LeBron James I will remember, sitting in a Boys and Girls club in Connecticut looking as comfortable as a guy getting a speeding ticket while explaining his decision to go the Miami Heat. For an hour, we were treated to “The Decision,” a … Continue reading Le-Gone.

U.S. District Judge Joseph Tauro, Attorney General Martha Coakley Win Today’s Internet

Come on down and collect your prize: BOSTON — A U.S. judge in Boston has ruled that a federal gay marriage ban is unconstitutional because it interferes with the right of a state to define marriage. U.S. District Judge Joseph Tauro on Thursday ruled in favor of gay couples’ rights in two separate challenges to the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, known as DOMA. The state had argued the law denied benefits such as Medicaid to gay married couples in Massachusetts, where same-sex unions have been legal since 2004. Tauro agreed, and said the act forces Massachusetts to discriminate against … Continue reading U.S. District Judge Joseph Tauro, Attorney General Martha Coakley Win Today’s Internet

Vitter: “He handled abortion but not women’s issues.”

Bitter Vitter aka Diaper Dave aka Senator David Vitter is on the trail grinding out more lies about Brent the Knife: After hisuncomfortable candidate filing event yesterday in Baton Rouge, Vitter faced the press again — this time in Alexandria, where reporters again asked him why Furer’s portfolio included women’s issues. According to Vitter, “he handled issues including abortion issues, including several other issues, but not women’s affairs.” So, who exactly gets abortions? Men? Maybe Dave is confusing it with vasectomies, he’s not big on science, after all. He should also steer clear of using the phrase “women’s affairs” it’s … Continue reading Vitter: “He handled abortion but not women’s issues.”

Denver Post: Quit Linking To Us!

Like nine people e-mailed me this thing: Your publication’s wholesale, and unjustified, use of the news content published by our clients, which is produced at significant expense by them and from which your firm is deriving advertising revenue everyday without our clients’ permission and without any compensation to our clients by your firm, constitutes multiple violations of our clients’ rights under the federal Copyright Act and the common law doctrine of hot news misappropriation. Without getting too far into the legal mumbo-jumbo, our understanding of the law expressed in this letter (which comes from actual lawyers, not us reading Wikipedia) … Continue reading Denver Post: Quit Linking To Us!

BP Rolls the Dice and Craps Out

UK Metro has unearthed a circa 1960’s board game:BR Offshore Oil Strike. I am not shitting you. What I’ve heard about the game itself is seriously creepy since it foreshadows the current oiltastrophe in the Gulf. Who hell wants to play a game sponsored by a multi-fucking national oil company? Not me. I was never even that into Monopoly when I was a wee lad in knee pants or whatever the hell it was we wore back then. I preferred Risk, which means that world conquest was more up my alley. I was a ruthless Risk player and always tried … Continue reading BP Rolls the Dice and Craps Out

Vitter Lies and Runs Again

Cross-posted at Adrastos: We all know that Bitter Vitter is not only lying sack of shit but a coward. His entire public career has consisted of smearing others and then running like hell for the exit. Who among us can forget his driving off in a panic after the DC Madam story broke? It reminded me of Daffy Duck’s shtick. Daffy panicked when confronted with danger and either went batshit crazy or ran like hell. Vitter always runs. The story of Brent Furer came back with a vengeance in Baton Rouge today. Vitter was at the Secretary of State’s Office … Continue reading Vitter Lies and Runs Again

Top Chef PWNS Heritage Foundation

ViaMelissa, this: Tom Colicchio: There were three of us who were the voice of reason. And one person fromThe Heritage Foundation said that if children are getting obese, then maybe we should stop feeding them. I was like[sarcastically] “okay.” He became my adversary right away and I managed to get a few digs in afterward. I watch Top Chef religiously and before I read this, I’ve never much liked Colicchio. He always came off as a nasty, sarcastic ass and not in an interesting way, but this has completely turned my opinion around. In fact, he’s looking downright tasty. A. Continue reading Top Chef PWNS Heritage Foundation

Rising Tide 5

It’s hard to believe but the fifth annual Rising Tide Conference is just around the corner. First Draft’s very own Scout Prime suggested the idea for the first one and a bunch of NOLA bloggers took the ball and ran with it. If you’re interested in learning more, head over torisingtidenola.com. The conference will be held Saturday 8/28 at theHowlin’ Wolf in New Orleans. If you can’t attendwe accept donations as well. Holy pledge week, Batman. We’ll have all sorts of interesting and, hopefully, entertaining content planned. I’ll be moderating the annual politics panel, which thus far features the dean … Continue reading Rising Tide 5

Terry Savage: Life Is Like a Lemonade Stand

Sticky, sour andstaffed by unpleasant assholes: We follow the same rules in our family, and one of them is: Always stop to buy lemonade from kids who are entrepreneurial enough to open up a little business. My brother immediately pulled over to the side of the road and asked about the choices. The three young girls — under the watchful eye of a nanny, sitting on the grass with them — explained that they had regular lemonade, raspberry lemonade, and small chocolate candy bars. Then my brother asked how much each item cost. “Oh, no,” they replied in unison, “they’re … Continue reading Terry Savage: Life Is Like a Lemonade Stand

Okay, Hawaii’s Right Out as a Vacation Spot

WTF, people? Gov. Linda Lingle announced today that she will veto the civil unions bill, describing the measure as “marriage by another name.” Lingle said the legislative maneuvering by the House, which brought the bill to a vote on the last day of session, was wrong and that the issue is of such societal importance that it should involve all the people of Hawaii. She said she made the decision about a week ago. “I feel very comfortable with my decision,” she said. “I think I gave (the issue) the dignity that it deserved.” “I have been open and consistent … Continue reading Okay, Hawaii’s Right Out as a Vacation Spot

Wayne Allen Root: All My Friends Agree I’m Awesome

Anna Tarkov sends this over viaTwitter, and I know it’s hot in Vegas, butis it brain-boilingly hot? Obama has killed jobs, he has killed motivation to create new jobs, he has killed the motivation to invest in new businesses, or expand old ones. With all this killing, Obama should be given the top spot on the FBI’s Most Wanted List. Meanwhile, he has kept the union workers of GM and Chrysler employed (with taxpayer money). He has made sure that most government employee union members got their annual raises for sleeping on the job (with taxpayer money). He made sure … Continue reading Wayne Allen Root: All My Friends Agree I’m Awesome

Lords of COBOL

Driftglass: And so, like the roads and bridges and dams of the Eisenhower and Johnson and Roosevelt administrations that were supposed to be budgeted for, planned for and replaced as part of thoughtful, long-range planners but never were and are now rotting out from underneath us… …many of the Big Iron software systems from an age gone by ended up in the hands of short-term, immediate-profit-driven consultant-types who saw no reason why they shouldn’t patch and paint just enough life out of those systems to last until they skipped out for the next gig… …leaving behind systems buried way down … Continue reading Lords of COBOL

Cyndi

Oh yeah: So you regret giving that up.I got it back. I’m back. I went down to Memphis and I used the original guys that worked at Stax. The spirit of that blues movement is what I tried to capture. A song like “Down Don’t Bother Me”—”I’ve been down so long, down don’t bother me”—that’s what people are feeling. But you’re gonna get back up again here, come on, come on. The age of Obama, right?Well, Obama’s not steppin’ up or they’re not lettin’ him, but this stuff in the Gulf, this is where government should step in. They sold … Continue reading Cyndi

Michael Steele Doesn’t Have to Care

Maybe: Embattled RNC chairman Michael Steele may well have been saved by the calendar. On any other day, a leaked video showing him telling funders that Afghanistan is a hopeless war, launched not by George W. Bush but by President Obama could easily have cost him his job. As luck would have it, though, the footage surfaced on a Friday before a holiday weekend with many of Washington’s biggest newsmakers out of town or unavailable for comment. But with Republicans and conservative operatives calling for his head, Steele must be wondering whether he’ll survive beyond the long weekend. Or maybe … Continue reading Michael Steele Doesn’t Have to Care

Today on Tommy T’s Obsession with the Freeperati – Froth of July edition

Happy Independence Day, everyone! My British expat friend Martin and I were talking some time ago. I asked him what he was going to be doing for Fourth Of July, and he replied “Soolking”. Speaking of sore losers, let’s see what Freeptopia has been up to lately., shall we? This week’s offering is a grab bag of older posts that didn’t fit into a category (unless you regard “batshit crazy” as a category), but were too good to spike. Iso suits on, air pumps running, zippers up – Isaw that smirk, Pansypoo – and off we go! First up –It’s … Continue reading Today on Tommy T’s Obsession with the Freeperati – Froth of July edition