Between the demands for instant gratification from Obama’s administration and the puerile cries of “I told ya so!” every time he fails to turn shit into gold overnight, I’m ready to write off most of the leftie blogosphere (as opposed to leftie ACTIVISTS) as a kindergarten filled with nose-picking pants-wetters.

I’m reminded of the fawning piece he wrote about Obama during last year’s primaries.

It’s Susie Madrak. Re-litigating the primaries. What else do you need to know?

As if parroting PUMA nonsense back in the day wasn’t enough of a drag on her credibility, Mandrak is the type of writer who edits her pieces on HuffPo to make it appear as if she didn’t make boneheaded errors in the original piece that were pointed out to her in comments. And fails to note doing so. Hack.

As Stuart on Ian’s link up there observes:

Jeez, I like Susie, I just thought that was an exceptionally petty aside. Ian’s link is sort of blowing my mind. And making me feel less guilty about being a snipe-y bitch.

There was a long stretch where I used to confuse Suburban Guerilla with Mahablog for some reason; that must be why I missed the PUMAfication.

Betty—-are you sure? HuffPost has a tradition of editorial malfeasance, so I’d give anybody on there a whole lotta benefit of the doubt. Except Ridley, that fuckin’ scab. And Borowitz because he is to humor what rapping breakfast cereal mascots are to hip-hop.

every time he fails to turn shit into gold overnight

Failure I can handle—-nobody with 2 or more of their senses intact really expects Obama to clean up the messes Bush left, even with two terms. It’s the way he surrounds himself with lobbyists for Big Shit that worries me.

Betty—-are you sure? HuffPost has a tradition of editorial malfeasance, so I’d give anybody on there a whole lotta benefit of the doubt.

I’m sure—it was my comment that prompted the back-pedalling. There was a conversation about it in Rumper Room at the time. I copied what she said, posted a comment, and she immediately edited her post to make it appear as if she hadn’t made a bone-headed comment that I called her out on in the comment.

I’m sure—it was my comment that prompted the back-pedalling. There was a conversation about it in Rumper Room at the time. I copied what she said, posted a comment, and she immediately edited her post to make it appear as if she hadn’t made a bone-headed comment that I called her out on in the comment.

Yeah, I also had a comment that didn’t make the “cut” on that Madrak HuffPo post and Madrak definitely edited her post after Betty’s unpublished comment. Daou has also refused to post a couple of my comments on his posts. I love “real” progressives like Madrak and Daou who proudly pounce around slashing away at Obama (“it means we really care”), but when you try to call them on their bullshit, they fold up like well-oiled card tables.

Wow, I wouldn’t have pegged either of ‘em as prone to pulling that weak-ass shit. Manipulating comments to your own benefit is just vile.

Though again, on the doubt-benefit tip, I think they’ve got interns deciding what gets through on HuffPost—I doubt Daou had anything to do with that. Even my laudatory comments (I actually leave those sometimes, when I’m drunk) get killed, and all I can figure is, I’ve been flagged for my contributions to Living section threads, such as “are you sure it was an angel?”

Manipulating comments to your own benefit is just vile.

THIS.

p.s. you write like you’re handsome

Though again, on the doubt-benefit tip, I think they’ve got interns deciding what gets through on HuffPost—I doubt Daou had anything to do with that.

Actually, I’ve confirmed with a friend of mine who writes for HuffPo that authors have ownership over comments. I also notified HuffPo that Madrak altered her post after Betty commented (w/out running Betty’s comment) and they were unaware of it and claimed they were looking into it.  Never heard back from them.

“puerile cries of “I told ya so!”
I’ve never had much time for this one or the “don’t blame me,I voted for____” slogan.  There’s something narcissistic about those arguments.  And I don’t remember any liberals/leftists wearing “Don’t blame me,I voted for Kerry” t-shirts in the aftermath of Katrina or Iraq.

It’s the way he surrounds himself with lobbyists for Big Shit that worries me.

That’s totally legit. But Madrak would never acknowledge that Hillary Clinton would have pretty much the same situation, if not worse.

I have no idea what the final health bill is going to look like at this point. But neither does Suburban Brainfreeze—she, like a lot of bloggers with whom I’ve lost patience (no one here, of course!) would rather play “This is what’s going to happen based on my spider sense” in order to—I don’t know. Gain cred with tens of readers? Who knows?

But Madrak would never acknowledge that Hillary Clinton would have pretty much the same situation, if not worse.

Exactly. And it’s not like this is speculation—we have the record of what Clinton said during the primaries as well as her role in a disastrous prior attempt to reform health care to inform our spidey-senses.

But Madrak would never acknowledge that Hillary Clinton would have pretty much the same situation, if not worse.

The whore that is Mark Penn? That’s all I needed to know.

as a regular reader of susie’s site, and as someone who disagreed with her stance on clinton and argued with her strenuously on her site and in her comments, I have to say this post is some pretty weak shit.

betty cracker’s comments are especially stupid.  I came her to see what this “editing” brouhaha was about, and I am thoroughly underwhelmed.

as for manipulating comments, madrak has ALWAYS removed comments that are offensive: personal attacks, invective and the like.  However, she does not delete comments simply because contradict her own point of view. if that was the case, none of mine would be there anymore. 

And I can’t blame her for that either: i won’t stand for people callign me names at MY blog and she shouldn’t either.

one thing madrak is NOT is a hack.  that’s just absurd on its face.

Absurd? How about you try to establish some evidence before you come here calling one of my co-bloggers “stupid” for no good reason? Since you say “i won’t stand for people calling me names at MY blog,” how’s about you exercise a similar standard of behavior to that you expect?

The only thing I may have been wrong about is Betty’s comment not being published immediately. This happened a while ago and I thought they initially held it in moderation, but I may be wrong about that (Betty?). I am absolutely sure of two things. First, Madrak added new content to her post after Betty submitted this comment:

I can clear up one mystery for you: The book has been reviewed by so few bloggers because it hasn’t been released yet. PUMAs and their ilk seem suspiciously overrepresented in the pre-release copy recipient pool. I hope this doesn’t mean that Boehlert plans to concentrate solely on the sexism directed at Clinton (though that deserves a thorough airing) and ignore the racism directed at Obama. Both were shamefully evident in the liberal blogosphere during the primaries, and to address one and not the other in a book that purports to provide a comprehensive examination of the role of blogs in the 2008 election would be a work of pure hackery.

You can see from Betty’s comment and the added content YAFB noted above that it was clearly an act of supreme hackitude to do so without noting the update was in response to Betty’s comment.  Hack hack hack hack HACK.

Secondly, my comment at HuffPo complaining about this unacknowledged update never made it out of moderation. As you can see from the amount of comments on her post (4), it’s not like they were deluged with stuff in the queue.

The only thing that looks “especially stupid” in this thread is you coming in here pounding your lil’ cyber chest when you don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about. Bugger off.

Strikes me that a way to actually engage with the audience of commenters (1 at that point - at least that got published) in a situation like this, rather than getting on a defensive high horse, would have been to do what we do here and happens on any number of blogs:

Post a respectful h/t to whoever raised an issue or said something worth posting as a correction or update to our screed (we’re not omniscient). Or even get down and dirty and egalitarian and chat it out in the comments. Also.

I have to say this post is some pretty weak shit

THIS.

I give her credit for tactical smarts: Now that she’s come out on her own blog and essentially declared that seriousness and owning-your-own-words are the sort of frou-frou high-mindedness you don’t have to observe when you’re writing for free and only being front-paged on candy-ass, joke outlets like HuffPo and C&L, she’s pretty much mooted her critics.

By proudly embracing her hackdom and shabby journalistic wankery, she’s rendered herself unassailable. Checkmate. If only everyone who’s just killing time on the Internet were as honest as she!

I can’t speak for everyone, but I personally believe it takes steel grapes to come right out and admit that you’re just typing any shit that comes to mind for the sheer thrill of a byline. Godspeed, Susie. You’re a beacon of bandwidth-sucking self-indulgence in a world that, alas, puts way to much stock in bloggers who actually do their job and serve their audience.

For the record, if I’d had even the slightest inkling that this post would result in such unpleasantness, I would’ve put more effort into it. It really is a shoddy piece of work—Dead Zone refs were done to death under Bush.

Ah well. Hopefully next time I inadvertantly set off a shitstorm it’ll be with something I can get behind.

Too late, gil. You’ve set the match to Dresden, now live with the firestorm.

By Grabthar’s Hammer, you shall be avenged!

Never mind the quality, feel the width.

When I die, that will be found engraved on what’s left of my heart.

FWIW, I know brendancalling in RL, and his credibility with regards to the Great Blogwars of 2008 aren’t in doubt.

I don’t know anything about Madrak’s comment editing at HuffPo, except to say that from what i’ve seen at her own site, it wouldn’t surprise me.

I don’t think Madrak is a hack in the classical sense of the term. She’s really just of a contrarian.

Hi guys,

boy all this stuff about my issues and everything is really awesome. It’s clear that you mean business: a bunch of people with imaginary names talking about someone they don’t know and have never met, while setting up an awesome straw man to boot. Thus, I’d like to address a few misconceptions and downright errors you experts on journalism and writing have made.

So the problem is that I called Betty Cracker “stupid”, right?  That’s the beef?

Because anyone with actual knowledge of me and my POV knows I’ve been mocking Lambert relentlessly since the 2008 election hysteria began, at Susie’s website no less. Not only do i not know the guy outside of the blogosphere, I don’t even like him or read his stuff.

Okay, well, I’m cool with you now. Obviously, none of us were aware of that.

Listen, you’re protective of Susie and we’re protective of Betty.  Whatever. We thought what went down at HuffPo was bullshit and, as a guy who seems to have no problem calling bullshit on others, you should appreciate our right to do so, pseudonyms or not.

Who the fuck is Brendan and why the fuck is he sullying my hometown? Look motherfucker, I don’t care who the fuck you are, we call bullshit when we see it and your lengthy fucking screeds about two-bit hacks like Madrak you can save for a raint day.

I also love the buck-up I use my real name bullshit. I don’t give a flying fuck who you are you blitherng fuck knuckle, real name or not. You attempted to defend Madrak the Magnificent editing idiot who can’t own up to her own bullshit, and you got your ass handed to you and rightfully so.

Go play with your fucking cat already, it’s time for the adult swim.

Go play with your fucking cat already, it’s time for the adult swim.

Okay, I choked on my tongue with that rant finale. 

Brendan, meet HumboldtBlue. Don’t feel too bad. He directs his fire at pretty much everybody, including me.  Which is why I love him more than I can ever adequately express in written form.

Which reminds me: gimmeabreak, you claim to know me. Why not have some actual balls and confront me face to face since you live in Philly and come to DL, since you obviously have a problem with me.  Seriously: email me, we’ll meet up and work this all out like adults instead of you hiding behind a pseudonym and throwing out potshots about my “issues”, a/k/a “shit you know nothing about”

Brendan, you misread my meaning completely.  I was explaining how I met you and why you were no longer the chapter lead of DL (I have the Pennsauken, NJ chapter, btw, and was inspired to do so by your Center City chapter).  I was not dumping on you, but in fact explaining who you are to my bretheren and sisteren here reflecting our flippant and snarky way.  If I am incorrect that you gave up hosting DL due to personal responsibilities, please accept my apology.

Since you have an issue with pseudonymous nomenclature used nearly universally in blogosphere comments, I have used gimmeabreak for 1/2 a dozen years now, but for you I’m Denise Williams.

Thanks for the invite to Fergies, however I do have other plans.  I’ll catch you there another time - haven’t been to that DL yet.

Cross-posted at Brendan Calling.

Soooo, Brendan’s probably not going to add us to his blog roll?

oh so NOW you’re cool with me, after I pointed out that pretty much every fucking thing you wrote about me was WRONG, MALICIOUS, and IGNORANT.

You know WHY you weren’t “aware of that”? because you didn’t ASK.  You just collectively said “he didn’t answer an email after 5 whole fuckin’ minutes so it’s open season on someone we don’t know.” All the while crowing about “hacks” and “journalism” and “wankery”. Who’s the hack now?  And by the way, what do my “issues” have to do with anything? What ARE those issues anyway? Tell me, please, since you guys think you’re the fuckin’ experts.

Fuck that, dude.  You guys said all sorts of shit about me and now that i called you out you’re “cool with me now”. No, pardon me; the reason you’re “cool with me now” is that I don’t like Lambert either, not because I called you guys out for talking a bunch of smack and you’re embarrassed and apologetic. heaven forbid you say you’re sorry.

well, we’re NOT cool. Not when people like “gimmeabreak” are suggesting I have “issues”: what a classy little malkinite slur that is. She’s trying to walk it back now, saying she was referring to “personal responsibilities”, as if there’s no connotations srrounding the word “issues”. Please. I’m a writer too. I’m not stupid.

So far as “journalism” goes, you guys FAIL the most basic test: fact checking and contacting your subject for comment.  And I’m not gonna forget that.

Motherfucker I aint cool with you, now fuck off. Go play your elephants never fucking forget game somewhere else.

Well, I just registered to answer Brendan, though Wordpress seems not to think I have enough permissions, even with the password, to comment on his site.

But, Brendan, Susie’s response on the thread at her place should tell you that she has problems with people who honestly disagree with her. Possibly not politically—I don’t read her, so I don’t know—but this was in regard to her actions. She did not fairly respond to my comment, which may have been tough for her to read but was certainly not abusive. Instead, she employed snippery and deletion, on valid, serious comments. You will see that your comments here are not deleted.

I think she knows herself that her actions did not show up well, or speak well for her. Editing a published piece in order to improve it isn’t the issue. The issue is that an honest writer acknowledges doing so, and if it’s in response to negative criticism, acknowledges that as well.

You know Brendan, I see a lot of words from you, and things that are almost-sorta sentences, but nothing that actually justifies what Madrak got called out for here and that she chose to then highlight herself with her stunning lack of self-awareness.

She edited published copy after the fact, in response to a reader’s comment, without publicly acknowledging the edit. That’s what she did. You may not have a problem with that, but pretty much every legitimate publication I know of wouldn’t let that stand. You’re flailing around about everything else in this thread without once addressing that—and in fact, as Mrs. Polly points out, everything Betty said was based in fact. You apparently didn’t know squat about the situation—you just sallied in looking for a fight. And that makes your comments, well, stupid. We get it. You’re friends with Madrak, you hate Lambert. Now explain what that has to do with someone using hack editing practices on a site and then defending it by saying “Well, I’m not paid so it doesn’t matter.”

So far as “journalism” goes, you guys FAIL the most basic test: fact checking and contacting your subject for comment.  And I’m not gonna forget that.

Um, did you first try to fact check the substance of Betty’s complaints against Madrak with Betty? The answer is apparently “no.” And since I’m not in the habit of apologizing to self-pitying twatwaffles who start battles of wits when they are clearly unarmed (whether they despise Lambert Strether or not), I think I’ll take a pass on your naked plea for one now. But please, remember it always. That’s as good a use of your brain tissue as anything else, I guess.

Well, whatever, Brendan. I tried. You’re the stranger who stormed onto a blog and started flinging his poo around. I don’t know what you were expecting. I guess I’ll have to suffer through life knowing that we’ll never be best buds.

@kevin: oh. dear. whatever. shall. i. do?

@kevin: oh. dear. whatever. shall. i. do?

I don’t know.  Go fuck yourself?

Well, I think we’ve all learned a valuable lesson here.

Well, I think we’ve all learned a valuable lesson here.

That Jeff Goldstein suffers from multiple personality disorder?

And thus ends the great blog war of August 2009?

This one sucked. The original was way better.

Oh, sure, this sets the blogosphere afire, but when I solve the health care crisis, nobody even notices.

Good thing my post poking fun at bitchphd for a harmless little bit of language policing got eaten. Probably would’ve played out like the events just prior to The Road.

@kevin: back atcha. Hey sorry about your dead cat or whatever it was.

Reason number ten zillion for using a pseudonym: creepy internet stalkers.

Geez, I was just going to suggest that though Brendan did poorly on the compulsory portion of the blogger floor exercises (i.e., “backing your shit up”), he deserved full credit for sticking the flounce exit. But no—he had to stumble back in with a lame and extremely-out-of-date gibe that not even BORING_PERSON_BAN stood by. I’m afraid he won’t advance to the Flamewar Finals.

Oblomova, I don’t think he’ll get out of the qualifying round, but he might do well at the greased piglet competition.

That Jeff Goldstein suffers from multiple personality disorder?

Fuck.  You stole my comment.  Well, I wasn’t going to say that exactly but what with all the “I’ll meet you in RL” shit I’m expecting a cock slapping threat if this goes on much longer.

Geez, I was just going to suggest that though Brendan did poorly on the compulsory portion of the blogger floor exercises (i.e., “backing your shit up”), he deserved full credit for sticking the flounce exit. But no—he had to stumble back in with a lame and extremely-out-of-date gibe that not even BORING_PERSON_BAN stood by. I’m afraid he won’t advance to the Flamewar Finals.

Comment of the day for me!

Oh, sure, this sets the blogosphere afire, but when I solve the health care crisis, nobody even notices.

This one’s a contender, too.

I do love that our least confrontational blogger (sorry, marin, you used to hold the title) set this whole mess in motion.

(sorry, marin, you used to hold the title)

Was it my post on the use/non-use of the term “retard” that pushed me up the confrontational ladder? ;-)

Folks, due to a few emails the front-pagers have been exchanging about this, I’m calling a moratorium on this flame war and I’m respectfully asking that everyone puts this to rest.  Brendan, I’m not going to close the thread so you don’t feel like you’re getting shut out, but I think all that needs to be said about this topic has been said.  If you feel the need to get the last word in, be my guest. And then I’m shutting this thread down.

Deal? Deal!

Apologies, Kevin, but I do need to try to put this to rest from my point of view (I’ve been offline most of the last 24 hours) by explaining why I’d assumed Brendan’s email address was a spoof (I’ll obscure the email addresses as bots can trawl sites, so I don’t believe in posting addresses on open threads):

In light of the “i’m going to find out who you are” email, I’m rescinding the “last word” offer and shutting this thread down.  If Brendan wants to continue this silliness, he’s can do it at his blog.