Matt Taibbi

Good stuff.

It's passages like this one that ultimately give me a bit of a problem with Taibbi:

Who ultimately loses in these deals? Well, to take just one example, the New Jersey Health Care Facilities Finance Authority, the agency that issues bonds for the state's hospitals, had their interest rates rigged by the Carollo defendants on $17 million in bonds. Since then, more than a dozen New Jersey hospitals have closed, mostly in poor neighborhoods.

Up until that point, the piece, albeit heavy on schtick, basically made a reasonable and accurate summary of the scam. But the connection he draws here is just absurd. Based on Taibbi's own facts, we're talking about, what, 10 basis points lost? 20? 50? Even if it's 50 basis points, the lost interest on $17m would amount to $85,000/year -- real money, but hardly enough to make or break a hospital closing.

On the other hand, he doesn't say that the interest rate issues caused the hospital closings. You can just read it as saying "clearly these hospitals were hurting for cash, and some of the cash they needed was instead taken by unscrupulous parties."

He's not inaccurate, and you can read him perfectly reasonably, but you could also jump to some bad inferences without too much sloppy reading/thinking.

I was more put off by his claims that terms like "nickel" and "dime" were "code" rather than just common slang/argot.

Oh come on. "Since then" implies a causal relationship.

I guess that's the kind of writing that works for Rolling Stone, but I find his constant resorting to hyperbole a little tiresome. "It's as though the mafia and the zetas made an bet to see who could steal the most candy from dying babies" etc.

Like, this was a skimming/bid-rigging scheme. If, e.g., major grocery chains conspired to fix, say, milk prices, you would probably say "that's really fucked up, and they're screwing over ordinary working people." And that would be bad enough. You wouldn't have to embellish it by insinuating that they were causing children to starve to death.

hes sloppy because hes convinced of his moral rightness, which make him less morally right

lag∞n who is your go-to pundit for suitable rage/accuracy

(don't say morbs)

but i want to say morbs

i guess i just dont like rage that much in my reporting, which is not to say that it not justified, mabye i just prefer to get the facts then manufacture my own rage, to come totally clean w/this thread i dont like hunter s thompson either and i read all the wonderkin technocrat bloggers even tho i dont think theyre cool people

not just saying this because i know him personally but ghost rider strikes a p good balance between having some emotional energy and knowing what hes talking abt

plus he's a motorcycle hero

and an admirable young man, who suspects that his invitations to discuss matters publicly are dwindling thanks to his comprehensively otm hack list

here is matt taibbi talkin abt fear and loathing on the campaign trail http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/books/2012/06/hunter_s_thompson_fear_and_loathing_on_the_campaign_trail_72_review_by_matt_taibbi_.html

It’s been read and reread by practically every living reporter in this country, and just as you’re likely to find a dog-eared paperback copy of Evelyn Waugh’s Scoop somewhere in every foreign correspondent’s backpack, you can still spot the familiar red (it was red back then) cover of Fear and Loathing ’72 poking out of the duffel bags of the reporters sent to follow the likes of Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, and Barack Obama on the journalistic Siberia known as the Campaign Trail.

*puke*

I'm starting to think you don't like this guy!

you can still spot the familiar red (it was red back then) cover of Fear and Loathing ’72 poking out of the duffel bags of the reporters... on the journalistic Siberia known as the Campaign Trail.

unconsciously making villainous Nixons, or Quislingian Muskies, or Christlike McGoverns out of each new quadrennial batch of presidential pretenders.

gah why whyy

each new quadrennial batch of presidential pretenders (it was red back then) on the journalistic Siberia known as the Campaign Trail.

nooooooooo

"Quislingian"!

Good stuff:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/this-presidential-race-should-never-have-been-this-close-20120925

Although I think he misses the other obvious point, which is that none of the serious Republican contenders want to run against Obama, who is ridiculously good at winning elections.

All the more reason it shouldn't have been this close, no?

eh, I question whether "shouldn't have been this close" is meaningful in presidential elections, as though it were equivalent to the Miami Heat only beating the Washington Wizards by a point or something.

Taibbi proves his worth when he writes lines like this imo:

Unless someone snags an iPhone video of Obama taking a leak on Ohio State mascot Brutus Buckeye, or stealing pain meds from a Tampa retiree and sharing them with a bunch of Japanese carmakers, the game looks pretty much up

taibbi confusing the american public w/ 300 million matt taibbis

god he is so bad at this stuff

I don't think the serious contender thing is necessarily true schwantz. this is actually prob one of the more 'winnable' elections heyo 8% unemployment and if they didn't want to run it was prob more because they didn't think they'd beat romney

If the clichés are true and the presidential race always comes down to which candidate the American people "wants to have a beer with," how many Americans will choose to sit at the bar with the coiffed Wall Street multimillionaire who fires your sister, unapologetically pays half your tax rate, keeps his money stashed in Cayman Islands partnerships or Swiss accounts in his wife's name, cheerfully encourages finance-industry bailouts while bashing "entitlements" like Medicare, waves a pom-pom while your kids go fight and die in hell-holes like Afghanistan and Iraq and generally speaking has never even visited the country that most of the rest of us call the United States, except to make sure that it's paying its bills to him on time?

wow cool sentence, now what if the cnn cliches *aren't* true, o crap

whoa, what if.

sorry I forgot yr a big fan right

what is your favorite of his long sentences

so many republicans would switch parties if Obama put bankers on trial

i like his short sentences actually. although the long ones can be funny too. what can i say? taibbi got jokes.

taibbi confusing the american public w/ 300 million matt taibbis

― iatee, Tuesday, September 25, 2012 11:44 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

one weird trick for winning the presidential election

Taibbi proves his worth when he writes lines like this imo:

Unless someone snags an iPhone video of Obama taking a leak on Ohio State mascot Brutus Buckeye, or stealing pain meds from a Tampa retiree and sharing them with a bunch of Japanese carmakers, the game looks pretty much up

― look at this quarterstaff (Hurting 2), Tuesday, September 25, 2012 9:37 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

hah to each his own but its sort of unfathomable to me how anyone anyone enjoys these smug comedy histrionics, and hes so sloppy too, is honda any sort of boogyman anymore at all, someone needs to update their incisive lefty quips spreadsheet

I'm always surprised to see him get slammed here -- his stuff basically reads like ilx zings.

the ilx house style is way pithier

not that there arent some terrible tabbi style stylist around

wow cool sentence, now what if the cnn cliches *aren't* true, o crap

what is your favorite of his long sentences

oh goodie – a sentence lecture from the author of these sentences. We're waiting, chin on fist.

comparing rolling stone articles to off handed message board posts *chin on fist*

j/k not really chin on fist

just a chin on fist thinkin bout things...

guys let's all admit we're the worst and move on

What part of your bod is your chin on right now [Started by lag∞n in September 2012, last updated 8 minutes ago by Ned Raggett on I Love Everything] 61 new answers POLL closes: September 28 (in 1 day)

http://image.blingee.com/images18/content/output/000/000/000/6f6/675542200_1774310.gif

tbf we're writing in the style of an ilx post on ilx, rolling stone isn't an ilx board, last I checked

The point is that iatee, as usual, is being a rude asshole.

to matt taibbi?

This election isn't close enough, with 0-0 being the most rational outcome.

I thought the basic premise of the Taibbi piece was fine--basically, what's the matter with Kansas? once again--except, unless I missed it (I read quickly), he completely disregards race. The idea that Obama would be getting some monstrous percentage of the vote if he were a better candidate, and if millions of putative Republicans wised up to their own interests, is rather naive. Give it whatever number you want, but there's some significant percentage of Republicans who just aren't going to vote for a black candidate--I never quite get why a writer like Taibbi just glides past that.

fwiw I apologize to matt taibbi and have sent him some cocaine and desperate russian girls as an apology

that was v big of you

This election isn't close enough, with 0-0 being the most rational outcome.

Picturing it:

http://cdn.bleacherreport.net/social_assets/nfl/Week_3/Packers_Seahawks/PackersCoach_FistPump.gif