The kids are asleep and I have nothing better to do on a Saturday night. How about a live blog, for the two of you who are still up and on the Internet?

Here’s how it works. You see the chat window below? Look at the bottom. Enter your name or pseudonym in the top window. Enter your comment in the second window, and hit send. I will have to approve your comment before it appears, but I’m online right now, and will approve most comments within a minute. Usually within seconds.

So hop on!

UPDATE: Note the buttons at the bottom. You might want to turn off “autoscroll.” It bothers a lot of people.

UPDATE x2: Thanks to everyone who participated. I’m tucking the transcript in the extended entry. Click on “more” to read it.

(more…)

The L.A. Times Top of the Ticket blog has an excellent and genuinely nice post about Tony Snow. The comments section, however, is filth.

A notice at the Top of the Ticket blog says: “Comments are moderated, and will not appear until they’ve been approved.” Here are some charming comments that the editors of that blog have chosen to approve today:

I hope the rest of these criminals die too. Good riddance to a person who contributed to making this world a worse place.

Posted by: Max | July 12, 2008 at 05:58 AM

Its unfortunate he won’t be able to see the damage he helped inflict on this country and the world. I wonder how he likes hell.

Posted by: tedson | July 12, 2008 at 06:27 AM

. . . .

Good riddance , we still have a white house full of liars
and American soldiers being slaughtered. if Cheney strokes
then change will begin , as for Bush he is just to stupid
to die and when he dies bury him at home in IRAQ.

Posted by: slimjim66 | July 12, 2008 at 07:30 AM

. . . .

There is special place in hell for Mr. Snow. As a co-conspirator of the Bush administration, I have no special sympathy for him. I only wish his suffering were more prolonged.

Posted by: Efrain Rojas | July 12, 2008 at 09:05 AM

. . . .

When I heard Tony Snow had died I felt very bad. As much as he sold his soul to shill and lie for the country’s worst president, I always liked Snow, his cheerful disposition and respected his bravery in his fight with cancer. My first thought was, How come it couldn’t have happened to someone really evil like Dick Cheney? It’s ironic that all the TV news reports about Snow’s passing were immediately followed by reports of Cheney’s annual physical and heart test. The media must have had the same thoughts.

Posted by: Bush hater | July 12, 2008 at 09:30 AM

. . . .

I guess now we know that lying causes cancer.

Posted by: Star Mingus | July 12, 2008 at 09:35 AM

The question begs to be asked, is it possible to die when you don’t have a soul.

Posted by: Chad | July 12, 2008 at 09:38 AM

. . . .

Tony Snow was a lying right wing propagandist on radio, Fox and in print well before he got to the White House, as official Press Liar for the Bush administration. He earned his reactionary stripes early by helping gin up the Lewinski malarki in ’97-98 via Lucianne Goldberg, the horrible right wing screed writer. I’m terribly sorry for Snow’s young family, of course, and worst enemies should not be wished his fate. But karma is a bitch, is it not?

Posted by: robt517 | July 12, 2008 at 10:16 AM

I hope he suffered at the end. Just a terrible person.

Posted by: Melainie Samson | July 12, 2008 at 10:20 AM

. . . .

Thank you G*d.
Only 99 more of them to go.

Posted by: Tom from Texas | July 12, 2008 at 10:55 AM

. . . .

goodbye Snowjob – I will not miss you at all.

Posted by: RB | July 12, 2008 at 11:10 AM

. . . .

Tony Snow was an enabler of the most corrupt administration this country has ever known. I feel for his family, but I still say good riddance to all liars.

Posted by: William Straub | July 12, 2008 at 12:03 PM

. . . .

Welcome, Mr. Snow. I believe your roommate, Mr. Helms, has already arrived.

Posted by: Hell’s Receptionist | July 12, 2008 at 12:59 PM

. . . .

ANUDDER ENABLER BIT THE DUST

Posted by: ROGER | July 12, 2008 at 01:30 PM

. . . .

good riddance

Posted by: gundumma | July 12, 2008 at 01:35 PM

the world is now a slightly better place

Posted by: gundumma | July 12, 2008 at 01:37 PM

. . . .

I will not miss Tony Snow. I feel bad for his family & happy [for] our country.

Posted by: Vikter | July 12, 2008 at 01:42 PM

. . . .

Good riddance:

Posted by: Huey | July 12, 2008 at 01:45 PM

. . . .

Death does not turn a bad person into a good one. Adios amigo wont miss you one bit.

Posted by: ed ramia | July 12, 2008 at 01:52 PM

. . . .

Oh YES HE WAS A WONDERFUL MAN AND A …..
PUUULLLEEEASE
THIS PERSON HAD A MAJOR PART IN THE MOST EVIL ADMINISTRATION THIS COUNTRY HAS EVER SEEN.
DEATH AND TORTURE, ILLEGAL WARS, WAR CRIMINAL SOLDIERS, GOOD RIDDANCE
CANCER WAS TOO GOOD FOR HIM
HOPE IT WAS PAINFUL.
NOW FOR THE REST OF THIS SCUMMY ADMINISTRATION. COME ON CANCER, DO YOUR GOOD WORK………………..
.

Posted by: perry | July 12, 2008 at 02:26 PM

. . . .

I prefer to give tribute to the many fathers, mothers, sisters, and brothers of the hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians that were killed all because Mr. Snow continued to perpetuate the lies of the Bush Administration. May THEY rest in peace.

The worst lies are indeed the ones we tell ourselves. May Tony Snow get the eternity he truly deserves….

Posted by: Jan Friedman | July 12, 2008 at 03:07 PM

. . . .

Yes Alessandro I agree. The one of him with the horns made him look like a total dick. [Alessandro had said: “You picked a nice picture for your tribute.” — Patterico]

Posted by: Chad | July 12, 2008 at 04:28 PM

All you right wingers would be saying much worse things if the same had happened to Ted Kennedy or Obama – you are nothing but trash and liars just like Snow job was. good riddance to bad rubbish

Posted by: Alan | July 12, 2008 at 04:52 PM

Charming!

This is the sort of filth we would see on Marc Cooper’s Huffington Post. Accordingly, they closed comments, knowing that if they didn’t, they’d see the same ghoulish sort of comments that they had when Dick Cheney faced danger.

By the way, Marc Cooper is an editor at the Huffington Post. I bring this up because Cooper recently denounced my commenters as “bitter, angry and delusional folks.”

I love irony when it’s this ironic.

UPDATE: Andrew Malcolm, the L.A. Times blogger who wrote the post in question, comments below and points out that not all of the comments were ugly — and of course that’s true. I am setting forth the ugly ones here because those are the ones I’m shocked were approved, without any disapproving commentary from the blog proprietors.

Malcolm calls these comments “a very tiny minority of the some 52,000 comments left on The Ticket in recent months” — but they are, unfortunately, a sizable percentage of the comments on this post. I quoted 23 comments above, I believe, out of about 98 — roughly 1/4 of the comments.

I think the paper needs to take a look at its policy on handling comments in situations where a political figure is ill or dies. On my blog, Malcolm calls the comments “vile and despicable.” OK — so why not say that in his own comments section?!?! Maybe that would have discouraged these ghouls.

By the way, here is a another rich vein of unhinged hostility from L.A. Times commenters: the comments to the paper’s obituary. Steel yourself for more ugliness.

Tom Blumer at Newsbusters catches the AP attacking Tony Snow’s memory with tried-and-true techniques of liberal bias:

With a quick-from-the-lip repartee, broadcaster’s good looks and a relentlessly bright outlook if not always a command of the facts he became a popular figure around the country to the delight of his White House bosses.

….. During daily briefings, he challenged reporters, scolded them and questioned their motives as if he were starring in a TV show broadcast live from the West Wing.

Critics suggested that Snow was turning the traditionally informational daily briefing into a personality-driven media event short on facts and long on confrontation. He was the first press secretary, by his own accounting, to travel the country raising money for Republican candidates

Not a single incorrect factual assertion by Snow is documented, and not a single critic is named.

If you could strap the reporter down to a table and waterboard him (you can’t, despite our best efforts to get such a law passed), he would eventually confess that the “critics,” none of whom he bothered to name, are him and his buddies at the water cooler. That’s how journalists get their opinions out there: simply attribute them to unnamed “critics.”

The AP would tell you they need balance in the story. But critics of the AP suggest that they are soulless ghouls and partisan hacks who were embarrassed by Snow’s superior command of the facts while he was alive — so they waited until he was dead, and couldn’t fight back, to urinate on his reputation.

Tony Snow has died:

Former White House press secretary Tony Snow — who once told reporters “I’m a very lucky guy” — died at the age of 53 early Saturday after a second battle with cancer.

More here.

Tony Snow was a remarkable man. It was amazing to watch him articulate the conservative position. Conservatives have so few spokesmen that can explain our principles like Snow could.

And — in a move that will forever endear him to me — he once said kind words about this blog. After I praised his performance on a Bill Maher show in which he stood up to three boneheaded liberals with grace and persuasive power, he commented:

Thanks for the wonderful write-up. It’s always fun visiting the belly of the beast. Meanwhile, keep up the great work. Love the blog.

That was one of the prouder moments I’ve had here.

He will be deeply missed. What a terrible day.

P.S. Anyone who says anything bad about him in this thread is banned and the comment will be deleted. Anyone who says anything bad about him today anywhere on this blog will be banned and the comment will be deleted. It’s not the time or place.

Comments are still open on other threads on this blog — put “Tony Snow” into the search engine — and if you want to wait until tomorrow and then articulate respectful disagreement with his views, etc., you’re welcome to. Today is not the day, and this comment thread will never be the place.