Yes, the god-fearing denizens of the Freepi swamps were so vile after hearing the news about Ted Kennedy that the moderator posted this message upon shutting down the thread:
Some of you are a disgrace to this forum, and life is too short to waste cleaning up your messes.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid:
“The Senate is a family. We are all concerned about the health of Senator Kennedy. He is a friend, the model of public service and an American icon.Representative Edward J. Markey:“And anyone who knows Ted Kennedy also knows that he is a fighter. He has a work ethic like no other and has risen to every challenge he’s faced – and we are confident he will rise to this one as well. It’s no surprise to me that when I talked with his wife today, she told me he is in good spirits and full of energy.
“The thoughts and prayers of the entire Senate family are with Ted and the Kennedy family. We are not sure when he will return to the Senate, but we all look forward to his recovery. Millions of Americans have benefited from the work of Ted Kennedy, and I know he’s not done yet.”
“Ted Kennedy is the greatest Senator in American history and a tireless fighter for America’s families. I know that he will take on this latest challenge with the same fighting spirit, strength and courage he has always shown. My thoughts and prayers are with him, his wife, Vicki, and his family. I look forward to seeing him fully recover and working with him for many, many more years to come.”Rep. Barney Frank:
“The news about Senator Kennedy’s health is disappointing to most Americans, and it is particularly sad news for those of us who’ve had the privilege of working under his leadership for Massachusetts, and for the goals he has championed. I hope that the great fighting spirit that has helped him win so many tough battles will continue to serve him well, and I hope the knowledge that hundreds of millions – if not more – people around the world are pulling for him will prove a source of strength at this difficult time.”Senator Dick Durbin:
“Mr. President, we’ve heard the sad news about our friend Ted Kennedy. Those of us who’ve stood by his side know that there is no better ally and no more determined fighter. Now, as Ted Kennedy faces another great fight, we know that he will bring the same courage to the battle. We also know that Ted has spent his entire life caring for those in need. It’s time for those of us who love Ted and his family to care for them and join in prayer to give them strength.”
57 Responses to “News of Kennedy’s brain tumor causes Freeper thread to be shut down”
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Wait, there’s a line? There’s actually a line you could cross a Free Republic beyond which you have, in their eyes, gone to far?
Wow, I’m honestly amazed. I didn’t think they had it in them.
I don’t like Tony Snow, but did not say anything bad about his bout with cancer and would not support using his situation to attack him. Same for Giuliani, same for McCain, etc.
As a two-time loser of the cancer lottery, I have nothing but sympathy for those who have it or are near those who do.
But in the bloodsport atmosphere of politics today, I guess it really doesn’t surprise me too much. Ted Kennedy has been a symbolic stand-in for “liberal” for a long time. So the Reichwing has built up a lot of bile toward him…
Be fair now - nearly all of the comments on the thread expressed at least some sympathy - and many without reserve - and the moderator was appropriately blunt in addressing the others.
Liberals found nice things to say about Reagan when he died, why is it so hard for them to say something nice about a liberal when he is hit with a tragedy?
Pam,
I just read about 50 of the posts at the Free Republic site and the OVERWHELMING majority of the posters are offering prayers and condolences to the Kennedy family. Why don’t you speak with data, like report the ratio of civilized comments to ones from assholes. Then do the same at the Huffington web site when Tony Snow’s cancer reemerged when he was White House Press Secretary.
Then we’ll know for real if the Freepi swamps are worse than the Libbi cess pools.
Jim, it looks to me like she was commending the blogmaster for reigning in the unchristian crazies.
Why do you have a problem with that?
Four comments in and the fucking trolls show up.
The vast majority of comments at HuffPo regarding Tony Snow were supportive. As they were at every other “libbi” (WTF?) “cess pool.”
And, FYI, HuffPo is not allowing comments on the Kennedy thread. Pretty sure they saw you coming, jimb.
I just read about 50 of the posts at the Free Republic site and the OVERWHELMING majority of the posters are offering prayers and condolences to the Kennedy family.
So your argument is that the Free Republic moderators shut down the thread and said, “Some of you are a disgrace to this forum, and life is too short to waste cleaning up your messes” because people were being supportive of Kennedy and his family?
I didn’t think the moderators at Free Republic are such horrible people that they would shut down a thread because they got too many messages of support for a political opponent, but I guess you know them better than I do.
Whaddya know? The only thing that a conservative can do correctly is make a huge mess.
I’m asking Pam to do some statistical research regarding her insinuation that Freepers are worse than Libbi’s when commenting about the ill fortune of political adversaries.
kac90b-HuffPo is more worried about their own than the Freepers.
Um, the reason that all you see over there are sympathetic comments is that the moderator already deleted the really awful ones.
Among the 218 comments that were posted before the thread was closed, 35 were removed by the moderator. And clearly, some mild snide comments were allowed to stay, so I’m assuming what was removed was probably truly vile.
kac90b-HuffPo is more worried about their own than the Freepers.
That may be part of it, and if so I would think that shows a bit of good sense on their part. They get WAY more nuts than Pandagon. Typically.
I was flying home the day Ted Kennedy fell ill. In the Las Vegas airport, I heard the guy sitting behind me say (possibly on his cell phone) “Well, that’s one more liberal down. We’ll get them all one at a time.”
I played out a couple of scenarios in my mind of standing up and asking him to repeat that to my face, then demanding an apology. I decided I wouldn’t handle the ensuing argument well, so I didn’t say anything.
Why should she? If you have a point to make, you do the footwork.
Mnemosyne @ 8 - The thread was turned off because of tasteless comments, and there were maybe a dozen that had been removed by the moderator, so whatever they said can only be imagined.
But the ones that were left were almost all supportive, “Don’t like the guy but I wouldn’t wish this on anyone” kind of thing. Surprisingly civil.
I’m asking Pam to do some statistical research regarding her insinuation that Freepers are worse than Libbi’s when commenting about the ill fortune of political adversaries.
That’s not what you said. You said that the overwhelming majority of the comments are supportive. Therefore, the moderators must have shut down the thread because there were too many supportive comments and not because there were nasty ones, right?
I’m asking Pam to do some statistical research regarding her insinuation that Freepers are worse than Libbi’s when commenting about the ill fortune of political adversaries.
That’s because the moderator was deleting the disgusting stuff; there’s no way to do “statistical research.” I would hope that they would leave the decent comments there.
Actually there are more threads that popped up after that one was deep-sixed: here, here, here, here — and one self-policing thread: Prayer Thread for Sen. Ted Kennedy (prayers ONLY, God is your Moderator).
Caroline,
You did the right thing. The ass could have been an Air Marshall, and we’d be reading about you on the news tonight.
I was wondering how they’d respond once I heard it got to the brain tumor stage.
Often, the “civility” on the right is a means of self-congratulatory “we’re better than the liberals” tripe, as seen on the comment about Falwell on Redstate:
http://redstate.com/stories/congress/on_senator_kennedy
Notice the rude treatment mikey666 and liberalrepublican receive in efforts to remember his ideology.
Also browsing littlegreenfootballs and notice a few such comments (but not many) like 29, 34, 54, 55, 95, 102, 119, 134.
Oops, meant to post the lgf link; I’m sure there are dozens more negative comments (almost 1000 overall.)
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/30024_Breaking-_Ted_Kennedy_Diagnosed_with_Brain_Tumor/comments/#ctop
I looked up the stats as best I could given the incomplete information available on glioma diagnosis. That is a grim diagnosis at best. Then I remembered some research a friend was leading. It involved stem cells which have an incredible affinity for the inoperable gliomas. Y’all remember stem cell research don’t you?
Damn. I was relieved that it wasn’t a stroke and was hoping for merely a seizure disorder. This diagnosis is so sad.
And I just learned yesterday that a neighbor of mine has about five months to live. An ex-Marine, retired Teamster, lifelong Democrat—and he probably won’t make it to election day. If people I respect could please quit getting death sentences this week, I’d appreciate it.
Calvinhobbes, you’re a brave person for delving into the intellectual and moral vacuum that is the comments section of Little Green Footballs.
Much like people who pump out the sewage at waste treatment plants, its a dirty but necessary job.
in all their backhanded “niceness”
Limbaugh had a victory laps and dancing the day of Tip O’Neil’s funeral … even some of this callers were appauled … I wonder what he’ll do this time … well actually I don’t.
I cried the moment I heard the news and sent an email to Senator Kennedy’s office… my tears had dried until I say Sen. Byrd. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Y_Iqr45L-Q
Kennedy is a lifelong and professed Roman Catholic, but to a lot of these people, Catholics aren’t “real” Christians.
Mnemosyne yes I know, but to put it there… hence my use of the word “backhanded”
I’ve actually read several… one even said something to the effect of that it was fitting that it was his left lobe.
Also LGF keeps harping on how Daily Kos treated Tony Snow’s news, and how if Ted was one of them we’d be dancing …. so I did a little checking — I know republicans can use the google or the search function
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/3/27/1006/42536
yeah … seems like dailykos was doing cartwheels .. even on another diary entitled
should be: . . . republicans CAN’T use. . . .
Pam—The moderator provided the following when a comment was removed: “Comment #55 Removed by Moderator”
Seraph said: “Why should she? If you have a point to make, you do the footwork.” OK I did. There were 27 comments removed from 270 comments. So 10% were deemed vile enough to remove.
Now you go do some footwork to prove that Libbi’s are inherently kinder and more sympathetic than Freepers by going to the HuffPo thread discussing the Tony Snow’s cancer reemergence and report what the gloating percent was.
Who said I’m trying to prove that? If you want to prove that liberals are worse, then you have to go to Huffpo, calculate the gloating percentage, and then come back here to report it.
You may very well prove that the “libbi’s” on that particular Huffpo thread were nastier than the Freepers on this particular Free Republic thread, and were allowed to run free at that. Makes no difference to me. The point of this whole exercise is acquaint you with the concept of “burden of proof”.
Wow, so JimRob has another alias he uses when trolling liberal blogs?
Pay attention.
You’re rude in ignoring evidence that you demanded.
JimB:
Sorry, Jim, you don’t get to make wild assertions and then petulantly demand that other people do the work to “prove” them for you. If you want something proven, stop being such a craven, self-serving piece of shit and do it your own fucking self.
People like you are exactly why I think logic and rhetoric ought to be required subjects in all high-school and college curricula.
Damn damn damn. Olbermann just said that Schwarzenegger, who is, after all, married to Kennedy’s niece has announced that the tumor is inoperable. I think he’ll be lucky to las a year.
MKK
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Y_Iqr45L-Q
Yep, that one hits home. I don’t cry easily and that had me in tears.
(Politicians, take note: it’s usually very moving when you are authentic.)
Certainly some things are more important than politics, this is one of those things.
Here is an interesting comparison for how one is supposed to act in these situations.
http://pandagon.blogsome.com/2007/05/15/the-gates-of-hell-swing-open-and-satan-welcomes-his-beloved-son/
WTF - “libbi”?
I mean seriously - grow the fuck up.
For the record, if the majority of the posters on HuffPo are liberal (which I doubt), my message to them is, “Get off my side. Now”
Your comment about JimRob of Free Republic trolling this site is way off-base. Jim had his leg amputated this week, so I doubt he has had time to breathlessly monitor the pearls of wisdom here. And yes, there are many sincere prayers for Ted Kennedy at FR, not many people there care what a few vile nuts and trolls have to say.
falwell was a hate-spewing, vile little man. thatis a lot different than someone with different political leanings.
Jeana, how many times has Ted Kennedy blamed LGBT people for things like Katrina destroying NOLA, the 9/11 attacks, etc.? How many times did Ted Kennedy claim that abortion has lead god to condemn America? When did Ted Kennedy claim that segregation was part of god’s plan because he never meant for the races to live together? These and much more represent the real Jerry Falwell.
Ted Kennedy cannot, in any way, be meaningfully compared to Jerry Falwell, and no one but a troll could possibly claim otherwise.
The worst that could be said of Ted Kennedy is you think his policies were wrong.
The worst that could be said of Jerry Falwell was he was a sick bigot who used Christianity as an excuse for his sick bigotry.
Not even in the same league…
Jeana: Your lack of comparative logic skills are hideously lacking. So, STFU.
Well, allow me to add MY tasteless comment. Ever hear the word “Chappaquiddick”? Read up on the incident in which Kennedy scrambled for 8 hours after leaving a woman for dead in a canal to try to blame the accident on the dead woman herself.
Caroline and Matt,
I think that expressing disgust with people–Air Marshalls or not–who say things like that in public has value.
It is not necessary to be confrontational, though I probably would be. But it is important to let jerks know that others pay attention and think they are jerks.
People say things like that because they want others to think they are cool. Polite expressions of disgust at disgusting comments tells them they are not.
Just my two cents.
what the hell does chappaquiddick have to do with the man having a brain tumor?
Because, Melissa, every time Ted Kennedy’s name has been brought up in the last 30 years, “Chappaquiddick” has to be smooshed into it.
EVERYONE knows that Senator Kennedy seriously fucked up with Chappaquiddick and should have been handled differently than he was, but the hideous faux xtian right don’t believe in any kind of redemption or forgiveness for “libbis.” (Still wondering WTF is a “libbi?”)
oh silly me! and that makes him just like falwell, right? am i catching on?
Melissa:
Apparently, to some….it does. I think that’s the way this game is played.
Taylor Marsh posted a disgusted denunciation of the vile comments on her post about Ted Kennedy on her site. I certainly commend her for that.
In a way though I feel like she eggs on die-hard Hillary supporters to believe that the nomination is being stolen from Hillary who has been betrayed and ganged up on by people like Kennedy… She witnesses and encourages their anti-Obama vitriol and ridiculous rumors…
- - and then is shocked - -shocked! when the hate spills over to the tragic occasion of Senator Kennedy’s diagnosis.
Yeah, what’s with this “libbi” term- in context it appears to be the opposite of “freeper.” Except that “freeper” refers to the readers and commenters at a specific blog, Free Republic. “Libbi,” in this context, seems to refer to all liberals, but if it doesn’t, I’d like to know which specific blog’s readers it does refer to.
I’m guessing it’s another double standard: it’s ok to refer to ALL liberals by one diminutive label, but when referring to conservatives, only use a label that refers to a narrowly specific group. That allows you to simultaneously tar all liberals with a single brush while taking umbrage that anyone would lump you in with the handful of crazies on your own side.
Unless you really are trying to refer to ALL conservatives, and you just didn’t know that “Freeper” is a specific term for a specific group.
You should, if that’s the case, use a different term as a general diminutive for conservatives. I recommend, “douchebags.”
“Douchebags” it is, RobW.
RobW—You are right. I didn’t know that Freepers referred to Free Republic readers and commentators. Thanks for informing me.
Let’s go with your suggestion to use “douche bags” in generally describing conservatives. And I’ll use the term “scum dumpsters” in describing liberals in general.
Both terms have a kind of misogynistic ring to them which should hopefully annoy some of the more oppressively feministic posters here.
JimB, don’t you have a magnifying glass and some ants that need “punishment”?
Go outside and play so the rest of us can talk in peace…
Wow! Comments too tacky for Free Republic? Unpossible!
Somewhere on one of my computers I have the thread from the days after the Clinton’s dog was killed by a truck outside their ‘compound’.
It was vile… It was true freeper to the nines…
They have so much to be proud of. (Like avoiding jail time)
I lasted about three days there. I was guilty of pointing out that a thread about some stupid crap was beneath human garbage because, well, it was, and I was booted off.
At another blog, back in the ‘good old days’ of Smirkingchimp, there were contests to see how quickly someone could be chucked off the clown car.
I think the record was in the 5 or 6 minute range.
To find people so proud of being so stupid and mean… It’s just incredible…
Both terms have a kind of misogynistic ring to them which should hopefully annoy some of the more oppressively feministic posters here.
Actually, brainiac, “douchebag” isn’t “misogynistic.” Douches are extremely harmful to a woman’s health, most women know this and have never even come close to one. When we call someone a “douchebag,” it’s approrpriate.
Work on your fem cred a bit, why don’t you.
Let’s go with your suggestion to use “douche bags” in generally describing conservatives. And I’ll use the term “scum dumpsters” in describing liberals in general.
The term is “cum dumpster.” If you’re going to insist on using misogynist terms, at least get the term right, fer chrissakes.