That Lame Party

I love you Ana, but I am going to have to give you a big fat "who cares" with a healthy dose of disdain thrown in. The Correspondent's Dinner represents all that is wrong with the Beltway Media, and that fact that three of you are touting it as a "look at me, I'm so cool that I view this party cool party as lame, don’t you get the irony?" moment is somewhat nauseating. Our country would function much better if the press took on an adversarial role with those in power rather than sharing drinks, dinner, and after parties with them.

Ana,I've got to agree with the comment above. This makes you sound like a loser, bragging to the football team and cheerleading squad about the all the cool people you met at the science fiction convention.

No way, this was awesome. Like a freaking Robert Coover novel.

You know, it took me a moment, but I now realize the imaginary (?) "warrant from the Hague" Kissenger was talking about wasn't his own. Man, that's brazen.

You know what's more lame. Repeatly posting about the lame party you attended. And thinking lame makes you....Oh never mind. You guys are simply clueless.

If your goal was to induce nausea, mission accomplished. Do you people have any grasp of how absurd you look prancing and capering about in the company of criminals?

The MSM is a cartel, and there are only a couple ways to reduce their negative influence:

1. Point out their lies and attempt to discredit the sources and the individuals involved.

2. Give them competition by doing the reporting they refuse to do.

As long as Joe Klein posts here and has comments on his entries, the first shouldn't be that difficult.

The more difficult thing is the second, but it's actually something most people can do:

1. Go to campaign events.

2. Ask the questions the MSM won't ask.

3. Upload and promote the response to video sharing sites.

If Youtube is full of videos of regular citizens directly taking politicians to task for their lies and faulty policies, no one's going to want to come to a site like this and read about a party.

Oh, wait. I now realize it wasn't Kissenger talking about the Hague. Oh well. If Robert Coover had written this post, it totally would have been. And Richard Nixon would look out into the crowd and meditate on how dumb crowds are, before realizing that the crowd before him was full of Nixon supporters. The cops would show up to investigate a murder and be drunk before long, and some girl would half-lose her virginity...

Guess what? I came to a lame blog that had a bunch of lame reporters posting about how they went to this lame party. And they kept lamely posting about how lame the party was and then they posted a bunch of lame links to some lame pictures of them posing with some lame guys they lamely thought were famous and then this one time at band camp......

Oh, wait. I now realize it wasn't Kissenger talking about the Hague. Oh well. If Robert Coover had written this post, it totally would have been. And Richard Nixon would look out into the crowd and meditate on how dumb crowds are, before realizing that the crowd before him was full of Nixon supporters. The cops would show up to investigate a murder and be drunk before long, and some girl would half-lose her virginity...

...then someone would double-post a comment, one post from each side of the grave...

Lol. That was pretty lame. Did I mention I went to this lame party....

Lameosity seems to be the preferred expression of self-loathing for the Beltway press. Having merrily presided over the approval of a war of aggression, the abridgment of Constitutional rights, and the legalization of torture, the Swampland hipsters are having a few second thoughts about enjoying the celebrations they attend.

How hard it must be for them to carry on bravely when they are paid to keep quiet and entertained by the criminals they admire.

Today at Swampland
4 party posts.
2 I have the vapors over Wright posts.
2 I have the vapors over McCain being, well, McCain posts

I think one of the McCain posts was actually a vapor over Wright posing as a vapor over McCain. Any idea when these guys will go to a BBQ so they can at least be coherent?

We have read the last about McCain BBQs.
That is not to say there will be no more BBQs just that we have read the last about them.

Any idea when these guys will go to a BBQ so they can at least be coherent?

McCain has eight houses so there's still seven to go.

Hey, did you guys realize there's a WAR on?

I KNOW! I didn't realize it either until I saw a little crawler at the bottom of the screen where Larry King was interviewing Hannah Montana!

Apparently it's been going on for FIVE YEARS and costs TWO BILLION DOLLARS A WEEK!

Man, I sure wish somebody in the media would have told me about this.

I disagree, HH. You wrote, "Having merrily presided over the approval of a war of aggression, the abridgment of Constitutional rights, and the legalization of torture, the Swampland hipsters are having a few second thoughts about enjoying the celebrations they attend."

Whereas I think we could easily have seen the exact same "I'd cool for DC because I know I'm not actually cool" article in 2000. The times change, but the snark remains the same.

While parties are fun and pretending to be offended by African American preachers is oddly satisfying there is always this buzz kill:

"At least 44 American soldiers have been killed in Iraq in April, making it the deadliest month for U.S. forces since September"

Anyway back to questioning the patriotism of someone you had never heard of a month ago.

"Favorite moment: Watching Ben Affleck..."

At least it won't be broadcast over & over & over again on ABC, like one of his lame movies.

= MEDIOCRITY ACCOMPLISHED =

Am I to understand that reality-TV stars Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt from MTV's "The Hills" were at The Correspondent's Dinner? Or was that an attempt at irony since it would be highly unlikely that these two cable performers would be invited to such an exclusive event also -- by the by -- attended by Mrs. Fancy-Pants? Please clarify. Readers want to know.

This is really getting to look like a hipster remake of Poe's "The Masque of the Red Death." Except it is the gate crashing apocalyptic trio of financial collapse, energy depletion, and climate disaster that are showing up at midnight.

Party on, Swampland fools, party on.

BTW Hornet, where does Dear Ben anywhere appear NOT already in rant mode?

The guy IS all rant, all the Time.

I mean, he's like Alec Baldwin Lite, with half the Trader Vic's calories and half the borderline talent, eh?

= SWIZZLE STICK ACCOMPLISHED =

The guy IS all rant, all the Time.

Astute, QH.

The guy IS all rant, all the Time.

Pot, kettle.

This is really getting to look like a hipster remake of Poe's "The Masque of the Red Death."

OK, HH.

That was really good.

Paul-no not that one:
I just want to know when we can play beer pong with AMC. ;-)

Hey Swamp-scribes thanks for sharing all your awesome party stories from Saturday night. You know what I did this weekend? First, I took the kids out with me to put gas in the family truckster, and that set me back about $52, because you know, in addition to getting all those U.S. troops killed, our war of liberation in Iraq hasn't even gotten us any cheap oil ... WTF?

Then my son got an ear infection so we took him to the first care place in teh strip mall (pediatrician out of town) where we got him some antibiotics. Out of network, so it's all out of pocket! That's another WTF? $569 a month in health insurance for two adults and two kids and they don't cover squat. Man I wish I had some of that awesome health care coverage that McCain gets. For a dude who's so anti-government he can't seem to get the federal boobie out of his mouth.

By now, it's dinner time. Frozen chicken nuggets for everybody. Cheap, non-perishable, and you can make them last for more than one meal if you're careful.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed your shin-dig with the fancy meat on a stick and drinks that have more than three ingredients. There really ought to be a law against any cocktail that has more than three things in it, you know?

For what it's worth, I finished the night standing on my deck in 35 degree weather and drink Bud Light mixed with Clamato. Long live the red beer and the average American who knows the press bailed out on us a long time ago.

kthxbai.

OK, HH.

And on that note of thanks, I am out of here, stuart_z. My threshold of disgust has finally been exceeded. The quadruple treat of Swamplander party wallowing accounts has filled me with such profound revulsion that I no longer wish to communicate with these people. They are much more contemptible than their masters who pursue rich prizes. These fools fight in the mud for trinkets and display them as badges of merit. May they all be visited by the many forms of misery they have inflicted on the world.

Well, that's too bad, HH.

I, for one, have appreciated your free-flowing bile.

And I say that with all sincerity--I've found your posts quite cathartic.

So long, HH. It was a pleasure watching you scourge the media dogs here.
Perhaps it's for the best, I think these people are so gone into media-circle-jerk-BS land that not even your soul-crushing cynicism can disrupt their worldview.

Yep: glad you folks enjoyed the evening and the cool celebrities. Now how about some serious analysis of why the MSM has refused to give the story of the Pentagon's use of the generals to control the Iraq War message. Why not call your colleagues at CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS and FOX and find out. If you do a good job maybe you will need another party to deflate.

@Cookie: Beer & Clamato? Is that legal? Whatever happened to a Bloody Caesar? ( >3 ingredients?)

@TomT: "Pot, kettle" - LOL! Nuttin but net!

The MSM enjoyed the party enough to call it "lame" this year. Funny, I don't recall this reaction 2 years ago when Colbert was p!ssing in the punchbowl! ;-)

Wow Ana, while you've said, and we all agree you're not a 'serious journalist' this really, really is as low of a post as you can go.

All that was missing was a link to Jimmy Kimmel's video with Ben. Wait, maybe all of you Swamplanders can create a similar video with Joe Klein as the center of attention. Ugh..

Sorry to see you go, HH. Like William F. Buckley, you always presented a perspective worth engaging.

(It doesn't all line up quite right, but for the purposes of this analogy, let's consider QH to be Jonah Goldberg).

I hope you reconsider.

@kbanginmotown: Beer and Clam is better than it sounds. Prevents hangovers and it stretches your beer supply ... kind of like cutting your blow with baby formula to turn one kilo into two.

@Cookie - except for the Bud Lite and Clamato (I can't decide which ingredient I find more revolting)your post is perfect.

(Where do they drink Bud Lite and Clamato, anyway? Must be a regional thing - somewhere north, sounds like.)

I'm not typically big on commenting on blogs, but in this case I can't resist.

The problem with the faux party ambivalence, I think, is that it puts you at complete odds with your readership. The converse would be a fashion gossip blog devoting half the posts to sweatshop working conditions. If alienating the passions of readership is the goal, mission accomplished.

By definition, a political blog is going to have a pretty narrow appeal. And I'm guessing within that narrow group, you could count on one hand the readers who don't consider the WHCD part of a very big problem and care about the celebrity gossip. By devoting more than one post to it, you are basically conforming to every Kool Kid stereotype. People who spend time on politcal blogs want to cut through the nonsense and spin, not wallow in it. There are ample places on the net to get mindless celebrity play-by-play, I don't think that what people come looking for here.

Jeez, the swampers go to a party, seem to have fun, and have the temerity to write about it. Give them a break.

Aside to HH-

You have no idea how many times I've started a post to your outrageousity but.... Dude?

jose - if the Swamplanders did decent reporting and posting all the time, and then posted about the party, I'd have no problem. In fact, I didn't give KT any grief about her party post because she usually does a good job.

But AMC and Scherer do bad jobs, and so when they blather about TEH AWESOME PARTIES, I feel obliged to yell at them.

Well, not yell, per se, but type very loudly.

(Where do they drink Bud Lite and Clamato, anyway? Must be a regional thing - somewhere north, sounds like.)

In Montana. Bring your rifle and your cheap domestic beer. We'll supply the Clam.

This column is jaw-dropping. If I didn't know better, I might actually think this was satire.

This column illustrates, in a completely unintentional and unselfconscious way, everything that is wrong with our pundit class. It also illustrates the utter contempt that people like Ana Marie Cox have for the "real Americans" that they so piously claim to understand and empathize with.

Ana Marie Cox, it appears, actually believes that average Americans--the ones who read Time--are more interested in the banality of the White House Correspondents dinner, more interested in the Jeremiah Wright nonsense, more interested in John Edwards's haircut, more interested in whether or not Barack Obama drinks orange juice, more interested in Hillary Clinton's pantsuits, more interested in John McCain's BBQs for the press, than they are in a single real-life political issue.

I suspect that Ana Marie Cox and the rest of our imperial pundit class wouldn't know a "real American" if one fell dead on her lawn, having sought medical treatment but having been denied treatment due to inadequate health care coverage. It's no wonder, then, that they give us endless pablum of the sort described here--they think they're giving us what we want.