Writing blog posts while extremely angry is probably not a good idea. Tommy Christopher has really done it tonight; you can check Twitter if you care. I plan to write it up, but I think I’ll do it tomorrow when I am not furious over a smear of my friend who died.

For now, I will just say this: if you’re going to pass along a story about someone who recently passed away, and the story paints that person in a bad light, and you are aware of facts that strongly undercut the story . . . the decent thing to do is to report those facts.

UPDATE: I will probably still be furious tomorrow, is my guess. But my fury will have leveled out to a manageable state, I think.

UPDATE x2: The best place to read about what made me so angry is at Twitchy.com, in a post titled Mediaite smears James O’Keefe and Andrew Breitbart. The post lays out all of the relevant context and tweets, with a link to (and extensive quotes from) my post discussing the testimony Nadia Naffe gave regarding the barn incident. Twitchy.com concludes:

Let us be clear: We don’t have a problem with Mediaite covering Naffe’s allegatons. We do have a problem with Mediaite’s failure to mention that the allegation of a “rape plot” is inconsistent with the allegations in Naffe’s criminal complaint.

Indeed. And so do I. A big problem.

I just want to add one thing. A friend of mine whom I respect greatly has tried to vouch for Nadia Naffe. Me, I don’t know what happened in the barn; all I know is what Nadia Naffe testified to . . . and it didn’t sound like a “rape plot” to me. I think it is a smear of Andrew to imply that he ignored a “rape plot” — without explaining that she told a judge she was not harassed or even touched that night in O’Keefe’s makeshift office (aka the “rape barn”).

And I also know this: my opinion of Nadia Naffe was cemented the day Andrew Breitbart died — because on that very same day, she tweeted this:

That disgusting tweet, and the company she keeps on Twitter these days (check for yourself: one of her retweets, republished by Tommy, is from someone who recently claimed to have been raided by the FBI), has me very suspicious of her motives.

The L.A. Times appears hellbent on overstating the percentage of Americans who believe global warming is man-made. Having corrected a recent article in apparent response to a blog post of mine, they are still materially overstating the percentage, and owe readers yet another correction.

The paper originally reported that 62% of Americans believe global warming is a man-made phenomenon. The paper has now corrected that number to 46.5%. But my reporting shows that the true number of Americans who blame human activity is actually less than 25%.

Time for a correction to the correction! Click “more” for the details.

(more…)

[Posted by Karl]

As usual, you are positively encouraged to engage in sockpuppetry in this thread. The usual rules apply.

Please, be sure to switch back to your regular handle when commenting on other threads. I have made that mistake myself.

Sockpuppet comments about the Republican primary race are strictly prohibited. If you wish to use sockpuppets for that purpose, confine your comments to this thread. Same goes for any discussion that is not funny where people want to get angry at each other. Offending comments will be summarily deleted and the violators flogged.

And remember: the worst sin you can commit on this thread is not being funny.

—

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) was having some Twitter issues yesterday… which was odd.  He has already proven that he knows how to use Twitter… to complain about the History Channel.  And last night, BuzzFeed’s Andrew Kaczynski ‏paid tribute on Twitter by tweeting and retweeting some choice photos of the senator.  Sure, you would expect the Iowan on a Deere, or to be admiring a pig with Fred Thompson.  But what is this photo doing in a Senate committee room?  And when did Chuck Grassley start touring with Devo?  Inquiring minds want to know!

–Karl