Calling Out One Of Our Own

It pains me a bit to admit that it’s getting harder and harder to find interesting commentary on The Huffington Post any more.

To begin, we were treated to this angry screed (and I’ll admit that I know a thing or two about angry screeds) by John Ridley aimed at the New York Times over the MoveOn “ad that will never die.”

As I stated in a prior update, if Ridley wants to accuse the Times of some kind of a double-standard in running the ad…well, I may not agree with him, but I’ll cut him some slack. However, when he starts citing percentage numbers showing a decrease in readership and revenue as a signal that the paper is ready for the bone yard, he starts to sound ridiculous; all newspapers are taking those hits. And to say that the paper stinks now because “Pinch” Sulzberger has supposedly never had to work for anything is childish.

Next, we have HuffPo blogger Sam Stein trying to manufacture a “story” out of the fact that “webisodes” (I hate it when people invent words like this pertaining to the Internet, to be honest with you, and the items in question are video portrayals of John Edwards and the campaign) are apparently no longer available either from the Edwards people or the company that produced the videos (though at least one commenter was able to find the information that Stein claimed no longer existed).

And on top of that, we now have Jeffrey Feldman in a snit at Edwards over his supposed claim that he wants to keep combat troops in Iraq until 2013, which apparently was a date that Tim Russert pulled out of a bodily orifice when questioning the Democratic candidates (with Russert taking a break from serving as self-appointed spokesman on behalf of “fathers and sons” in this country to moderate the debate).

(And by the way, I should point out that I did not watch the debate. However, HuffPo commenter JoAnnCr did and stated as follows in response to Feldman)…

Replay the tape and John Edwards's statement. All combat troops out at the fastest pace the military recommends. The only troops will be the ones associated with the U.S. Embassy and other U.S. interests which is standard in every country in which we have the same type of presence. Where do you get that he would have combat troops in Iraq in 2013?

Those of us in Iowa like John Edwards because we've met him, we study his plans, we like what we see and hear. He doesn't pander. He gives us concrete hope because he has done incredible research, crafted plans that are thorough, comprehensive and workable. He tells us how he's going to pay for them and how he's going to work with everyone else to get them done. He also tells us the Washington establishment will no longer decide everything to the exclusion of the American people and stands by it by meeting with us in small groups with lots of question and answers. His plans are also what we want.

What more can you want?

What indeed?

And by the way, HuffPo, you also do a crappy job of policing your trolls. Tell them to at least keep their rants to the posted topic or ban them (like you guys did with me, apparently, and I’m still unsure as to why).

Sorry to engage in this “blogger hissy fit” stuff. I try to avoid this sort of thing, but sometimes things need to be said.

Update: What kos says, unfortunately - I respect the principle advocated by Edwards, but the Repugs will never play fair here, and the scenario envisioned by kos is dead-on.

And it figures that the only Republican who has a shred of decency on this issue (McCain - sorry, but despite his political antics, I can never completely disassociate his military service) doesn't have a snowball's chance at the nomination.