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TRIPLE PLASTIC

The Atlantic Free Press’s Ed Kociela:

Among my loyal readers is a guy named Jack, who frequently sends me those bogus e-mails about all the “good things” the “liberal media” refuses to print about what’s “really” going on in Iraq.

He’s sent pictures of soldiers giving candy to Iraqi kids; photos of troops sitting down to a Thanksgiving dinner as their Commander in Chief carries around a plastic turkey with plastic trimmings for a plastic international photo op; stories of how many schools have been built; and how this newfangled Iraqi democracy is “working.”

Ed owes Jack an apology.

(Via Murph)

Posted by Tim B. on 02/01/2007 at 10:28 AM
  1. The best thing about plastic turkeys is they never die.

    Never. Ever.

    Posted by Teaparty on 2007 02 01 at 10:41 AM • permalink

  2. Loyal reader Jack deserves a commendation for trying to get through the thick skull of this idiot Ed Kociela

    Goodonya Jack!

    Posted by aussiemagpie on 2007 02 01 at 10:47 AM • permalink

  3. I can see the bright side of this.  The plastic turkey myth has become such an article of leftoid faith, that when it’s blow out of the water it must cause, at least some of them, to question their beliefs.

    Posted by murph on 2007 02 01 at 10:48 AM • permalink

  4. I inhaled every word written by Hunter S. Thompson
    You’ve identified the root of your problem Ed.

    we’d never have learned about the Nixon scandal; we’d still be in Vietnam
    Wow! A 43-year long war? That’s almost biblical! Would have been a great way to shed a couple of million hippies. I’m surprised the Gaia worshipers didn’t think about this, it would have been a terrific step forward for their zero-population movement.

    I’ve had a friend in the administration Uh-huh, sure ya do. And that girlfriend that lives in Canada that no one else has seen? ask me to “take it easy on his boss.”
    You are so influential even the President of the United States of America has to send a mythical employee to ask you to take it easy? Funny, I’ve never even heard of you.

    I’ve looked a couple of the most familiar faces in Washington, D.C. in the eye and asked hard questions without flinching.  Jefferson and Lincoln? I don’t think I could look those statues in the eye (for one thing, I’m not tall enough) and NOT flinch when asking them hard questions. Nerves of steel this one.

    Hey Ed, you are a lot like a little dog that barks at you while he’s running away.  Instead of writing about things you know nothing about, why not sack up and go see for yourself?  If you really want people to think you’re some leather-assed tough guy go do some REAL reporting. There are these nifty little things out there called facts that await an introduction to you.

    Posted by Texas Bob on 2007 02 01 at 10:56 AM • permalink

  5. Calls the Manager at Mr. Paqeau’s Hat Emporium

    “Johnny? Paco. Listen, what’s the largest size we got in tin-foil hats? Uh huh. Eight and a half? No, I don’t think that will do. Call the factory and tell them we need a custom, ten and one quarter. Send it to Ed Kociela, care of the Atlantic Free Press. No charge to customer.”

    Posted by paco on 2007 02 01 at 10:57 AM • permalink

  6. #4: Great vivisection, T-Bob! And without anaesthesia!

    Posted by paco on 2007 02 01 at 10:59 AM • permalink

  7. Those are plastic kids, that they give candy to.

    Posted by rhhardin on 2007 02 01 at 10:59 AM • permalink

  8. Ooh look.  Ed’s displaying his commitment to free speech, dissent and the “hard truth” by blocking our IP addresses.  Knock me over with a feather.

    Posted by murph on 2007 02 01 at 11:07 AM • permalink

  9. Journalist are hyper focused on the repeat it until it’s true strategy.  They really really seem to want to see a failure.

    Fuck all.

    Posted by aaron_ on 2007 02 01 at 11:17 AM • permalink

  10. Congrats to Jack, but if he wants to get through that thick skull, kids with candy isn’t going to be enough. I’m thinking a 10 1/4-inch diamond-tipped mining drill should be enough.

    And if that doesn’t work, try bringing up what my brother saw: a row of hooks in Abu Ghraib for hanging prisoners, and a great big mural of Saddam on the opposite wall, so that the last thing they saw in this life would be his ugly grinning mug. Think that’ll get a response?

    God, I hate lefties.

    P.S. Enough with the plastic turkey! I wonder if the Plastic Arguments Coalition of Opposition is ready for another job . . .

    Posted by Tungsten Monk on 2007 02 01 at 11:32 AM • permalink

  11. Just had an exchange with, Richard Kastelein, the editor of that august publication:

    Mr Kastelein

    I see your brave journo, Ed Kociela, is (dis)proving his commitment to free speech, dissent and the “Hard Truth” by removing posts and blocking IP addresses commenting on his glaring error with regards to the tiresome old myth about George Bush and a plastic turkey.

    At least the NYT still has the iota of integrity required to admit an inaccuracy, even if they did bury it on page 200.

    (link)

    Lil’ Dicky’s response?  What else would you expect?

    That was me that banned you from commenting from my site.

    Not Ed.

    Now fuck off and go find something better to do.

    Richard Kastelein

    Posted by murph on 2007 02 01 at 11:45 AM • permalink

  12. #11: Fools! You idiots will never silence Murph!

    Posted by paco on 2007 02 01 at 11:49 AM • permalink

  13. It only gets better.

    Murph:

    Sorry Mr Angry Man.  Did I prick your ego?
    Bad news.  I actually enjoy this.
    There’s nothing better than pointing out some truths to some puffed up, 5th rate opinion writer from a 10th rate media outlet.
    So I might just keep it up.
    See ya ‘round Dick.

    To which Dicky boy really & truly threw his rattle out of the pram:

    Keep it up and you might find yourself with a dead hard drive.

    All great webmasters were once great hackers.

    Try me.

    Murph:

    You know one?  Good for you.
    Now where’s that number for the Scotland Yard’s Computer Crime Unit…

    Yay me!  More to come.  Surely…

    Posted by murph on 2007 02 01 at 12:04 PM • permalink

  14. #13: Go, Murph, go!

    Posted by paco on 2007 02 01 at 12:07 PM • permalink

  15. Now, the fact that Jack has a computer and is able to use e-mail means he has at the very least enough motor skills to qualify as a human, but I don’t think he should be allowed to amble down the street.

    And yet, the fact that Ed has a website and is able to post nasty messages on it (with Dick’s help) means he has at the very least nothing constructive to do, and I don’t think anyone should approach him without an adequate supply of antivenin.

    Posted by RebeccaH on 2007 02 01 at 12:22 PM • permalink

  16. Excellent work, murph.  If your hard drive dies, we all know who is to blame.  And if Dick keels over with an aneurism, we didn’t see a thing.

    Posted by RebeccaH on 2007 02 01 at 12:24 PM • permalink

  17. The fact that I don’t have a static IP is going to be a bit of a pisser for old dribble Dick.  CTRL-ALT-DEL and where back in action.

    Posted by murph on 2007 02 01 at 12:28 PM • permalink

  18. where=we’re

    d’uh

    Posted by murph on 2007 02 01 at 12:29 PM • permalink

  19. Jack’s only fault is that he actually bothers to argue with an asylum inmate.

    Posted by PW on 2007 02 01 at 12:33 PM • permalink

  20. #19 Yeah, but PW, considering that Ed is probably kept in a straight-jacket all the time, you’ve at least got to give him kudos for being able to type with his nose.

    Posted by paco on 2007 02 01 at 01:04 PM • permalink

  21. Can we start speading the meme that ED is plastic?

    Posted by cosmo on 2007 02 01 at 01:12 PM • permalink

  22. Here’s my response to Ed. It actually got on there but we’ll see if it stays after Dick gets back from lunch…

    a guest: ...
    Ed wrote: If not for a credible press, we’d still be marching in Selma, Ala. for civil rights.

    Ed, have you ever asked yourself why the salubrious effects of the Civil War were so short lived? After 1865, Freedmen across the South were being educated, voting, winning elective office, enjoying property rights, etc. Certainly, the US Army presence ensured these rights were observed and enforced as the vanquished Southern aristocracy could only fight back through terror groups like the Ku Klux Klan, etc. Never the less, progress was being made.

    However, by 1876, commitment to the cause of emancipation and egaltarianism had faded among the general public and a political bargain in the disputed Hayes-Tilden Election brought Reconstruction to an unsatisfactory close. Ensuing decades would see the rise of Jim Crow as Civil Rights gains were rolled back to a status quo ante.

    That’s why 100 years after the Civil War, people were marching in Selma. Had the Federal Government stuck to it’s promises in the 1870’s instead of taking the easy way out, millions of lives, both black and white, would have been improved much earlier than they were.

    There are positive things happening in Iraq just as there are negative things happening there. That leaves us as a nation and a civilization at a crossroads. In my estimation in 2007, the heroes of the 1870’s were the ones who argued to stick it out, to fulfill the promises made to the freed men and women. Political expediency and partisan calculation only put off the reckoning the South had needed to undergo. If we abandon the people of the Middle East to the “Klan with a Koran”, our descendents will despise us as we despise the gutless and hateful politicians of an earlier era.

    My advice to ‘cut and run’ advocates is destroy anything you would be ashamed to have your great grandchildren read.

    Posted by JDB on 2007 02 01 at 01:24 PM • permalink

  23. #22: A very incisive and powerful analogy, JDB. Well done, indeed.

    Posted by paco on 2007 02 01 at 01:37 PM • permalink

  24. “Klan with a Koran”!  Excellent, JDB!

    Posted by RebeccaH on 2007 02 01 at 01:59 PM • permalink

  25. The paper allows comments, so I noted that there were never any plastic turkeys.  Now it gives a 403 Forbidden error if you try to follow your link.

    Ooh, actually, the whole domain is forbidden now.  I blame Tim.  Or Bush.

    Posted by blogagog on 2007 02 01 at 02:49 PM • permalink

  26. #25

    The twit running the show did an IP lookup and is threatening to dob me in to my employers.

    As I said to him, I think my employers would be more interested in his behaviour involving criminal threats to destroy their property, than me posting a link to an NYT correction.

    Posted by murph on 2007 02 01 at 03:13 PM • permalink

  27. #25 cut and paste the link into your browser nav bar

    Posted by murph on 2007 02 01 at 03:15 PM • permalink

  28. OMG!  I went through a proxy server and can get to the site, but I can’t from my regular ip.  The guy blocked my ip because I posted a correction for him!  Unbelievable.

    I’m not sure I understand what you are asking me (#25) to do.  The link to the article is here, and here is an image of the forbidden page when I come from my own ip here.  Did I do what you requested?

    Posted by blogagog on 2007 02 01 at 04:49 PM • permalink

  29. #28:

    He’s banning referrals from timblair.net, so it’s impossible to get there from a link here. If you copy&paste; the URL into a new browser window you should be able to get to the site.

    Of course, it’s possible that he’s also banned your IP based on your post there, but I doubt it.

    Posted by PW on 2007 02 01 at 05:30 PM • permalink

  30. Also, here’s some background on ass-hat William Arkin , who recently penned a vile essay about our troops for the Washington Post blog. There are stories all around the blogosphere today on this creep.

    Posted by paco on 2007 02 01 at 05:43 PM • permalink

  31. Thanks paco and RebeccaH. Although I didn’t coin the phrase “Klan with a Koran”, I try to insert it into a conversation everyday.

    I went back to check out more of that site and it may actually have fewer readers than the Niagara Falls Reporter! There are few if any comments at all—positive or negative.

    I did note that former CIA agent/current Democracy Now crank Larry C. Johnson had a post there predicting that President Bush might bomb Iran. Gosh! Dyathink?

    Some other nuts write: The Najaf “battle” was actually a massacre of innocent civilians by the Iraqi Army and the MNF, an anti-Semitic screed against Israel, and a laudatory review of a new book uncovering the real enemy…(wait for it)...Christian Fascists! They’re called “Cristo-Fascists” (much to the dismay of Andrew Sullivan who tries to market “Christianist”).

    Anyway, I’m not overly religious but if we’re gonna be taken over, at least I know the Christian songs and I can get a beer and a ham sandwich. But why object to one and not the other?

    I’d ask but there’s no one over there to respond.

    Posted by JDB on 2007 02 01 at 06:03 PM • permalink

  32. Oh I get it, thanks.  Sadly, copy/pasting the url doesn’t work for me either.  No big deal, I wasn’t planning on returning there.

    Posted by blogagog on 2007 02 01 at 06:06 PM • permalink

  33. All great webmasters were once great hackers.

    Bullshit.

    Ya know, I’m sick and tired of people who think that reading /. qualifies them as “great hackers”.

    Oh, and I just made a comment. Yeah, they’ve blocked referrers from here. Wow. What a commitment to free speech and intellectual honesty.

    Posted by Rob Crawford on 2007 02 01 at 06:09 PM • permalink

  34. What’s worse, he’s probably just blocked 95% of his potential audience for the month. ;)

    Posted by PW on 2007 02 01 at 06:42 PM • permalink

  35. Well, I got in and I posted. The website made me enter the Turing code/passcode about ten times but it finally got through. THEN, I got a message saying “your post will be reviewed by admin.”

    So I think we can assume that good old Ed is really, really committed to healthy and open debate. Either that, or he’s a paranoid asshole.

    Posted by Dr Alice on 2007 02 01 at 07:01 PM • permalink

  36. That link to query.nytimes.com didn’t work for me, but Google has the correction in their cache.

    Posted by Chris Chittleborough on 2007 02 01 at 07:41 PM • permalink

  37. “I inhaled every word written by Hunter S. Thompson”

    Well, to be fair, you can’t exactly read the stuff. Then again, he’ll never get the smell out of his carpet…

    Posted by Andrea Harris, Administrator on 2007 02 01 at 07:54 PM • permalink

  38. Hm. I copied and pasted the link into the browser window and got to the page. Above the comments box I found the following interesting statement:

    We welcome tough, passionate debate in the comments section of Atlantic Free Press. But if you have an argument with a viewpoint expressed on the site, we ask that you keep the discussion focused on the issues: no personal invective, no demonizing or pseudo-psychologizing of your opponent, etc. This is a site for political discussion—and action—not a playground or a barroom.

    Okay.

    Posted by Andrea Harris, Administrator on 2007 02 01 at 07:57 PM • permalink

  39. I spent 20 years destroying brain cells with tasty preservatives…I wonder how many would still be left if I’d ‘inhaled every word written by Hunter S. Thompson.’ It’d be a wonder I could type at all, wouldn’t it? Much less produce anything coherent & sane? Might be a lot of drooling involved? What a maroon…

    Posted by KC on 2007 02 01 at 09:03 PM • permalink

  40. Pity he didn’t inhale the last thing that went through Hunter’s tiny little mind: a couple of grams of high velocity lead.

    Posted by murph on 2007 02 02 at 06:37 AM • permalink

  41. Crisco-fascist? I thought it was about petrolio.

    Posted by aaron_ on 2007 02 03 at 12:31 PM • permalink

  42. Frisco-fascist?

    Posted by monkeyfan on 2007 02 03 at 12:44 PM • permalink

  43. Any half-competent Hacker should be able to stop someone going through, say, a proxied link to the site from here. I mean, that’s simple, script-kiddie stuff.

    Maybe he should stop pretending to be L337 lest he attracts the attention of some programmers who do military stuff, and make him look like a Dill.

    Posted by Zoe Brain on 2007 02 03 at 05:49 PM • permalink

  44. Why are these bloody yanks so fixated on a “plastic” turkey?

    Having eaten some yank food in yankland, I would say that a fair chunk of it is “plastic” - ie, shit fake food.  Sorry yanks, but I have to side with the French on this issue.  You will never live down Twinkies and Cheese Whip.  And “smoke sauce” - my god, what is that supposed to be?  And Pizza Hut - what resemblance do their “pizzas” bear to the real thing?  And don’t start me on Hershey Bars - Hershey was a fitter and turner. 

    The thing I find most hilarious is tofu-eating leftnuts getting all worked up about a “fake” turkey - this from people that eat tofu that has been moulded into burger shapes so that they are eating fake “hamburgers”!

    Get over it - the turkey was real (since it was prepared by an Australian company).  It was more real than your Tofu “burgers”.

    Posted by mr creosote on 2007 02 03 at 10:04 PM • permalink

  45. #13

    Keep it up and you might find yourself with a dead hard drive.

    All great webmasters were once great hackers.

    Try me.

    What a miserable fuckwit. Just the threat is an offense, at least in this country, and I’ll doubt you’d have to search far to find someone who would argue that the threat was made in this country, even though the miserable fuckwit crim is in US and the victim is in UK.

    Quite right too. Anyone who makes a sleazy threat like that should be prosecuted. Extradict the fuckwit.

    Posted by geoff on 2007 02 03 at 10:32 PM • permalink

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