What’s the douche saying this week? Who cares! I’m sure its baseless, inflamatory and only slightly more articulate than what my uncle’s monkey writes when seated at the typewriter.

I should say that I have in on good word that Taibbi writes all his drafts on the wall of his bathroom. In feces.

It makes me think of all those History Channel documentaries I watched growing up, like the one about Nostradomas. He predicted the end of the world, where “the two great superpowers would fight against an Arab Nation with a leader who wore a blue and white turban,” or something like that . . . The two great superpowers being America and Russia as the narrator explained.

Let’s just cross our fingers that the apocalypse is a metaphor, and not the actual destruction of the planet.

Thanks for that insightful commentary, Rowr, it’s a real window into your mind.

Rowr- It’s really cool that your uncle has a monkey, but if you don’t like it, leave.

This is really crazy. Was/is someone trying to send a message? If the Kremlin did it, surely they have the resources to just have him whacked cleanly, oh . . . a hit and run car accident or something.

Matt, google Staticbrush, and you’ll see that Polonium-210 is alot more readily accessible than you thought.

Far be it from me to defend someone who is (presumably) just another right-wing idiot, but Rowr has a point: Matt Taibbi is kind of a douche. He makes some good points here and there, but he tries to channel Hunter S. Thompson in every one of his columns and ends up coming off pompous and juvenile.

Hey Matt: Inserting the word “fuck” into every other paragraph does not make you a more interesting journalist. You aren’t clever, so stop trying. Give us the facts and go away.

C U— are you kidding? really?

I saw more new facts, information and insight in that article than anything ive read in any newspaper or magazine in months. try not to get your panties in a bunch when you read the work fuck ok.

Hey, I use the word “fuck” in at least every other sentence, okay? My point is that there are journalists and there are writers, and Taibbi is a journalist who thinks he’s a fuckin’ writer. His painful attempts to regale RS readers with tales of H.S. Thompson-esque weirdness — “driving through historic Nizhni Novgorod in a Mike Tyson mask with Led Zeppelin IV blaring out of my midget car windows” or “going outside to catch a drunken American woman humping the front right tire of my car” — are pitifully lame, especially given the fact that they precede an article about a very exigent news item that has fuck-all to do with any of that silly bullshit.

I can see that you don’t agree with me — fine. But how dare you imply that I’m some kind of prude?

Fucker.

Uhhm, I can be “left” and still know bad writing and bad reporting when I read it.

And let’s just say that I totally agree with “C U…”. Taibbi runs headers that normally attempt to equivocate his writing with news or analysis but he never delivers either. Calling Hillary Clinton a “rusty vagina” is not a critique of her opinions, governing style, or her motives/chances to be President. Indicting TV personality and comedic nit-wit David Letterman for his views on the war (which, strangely, coincide with Taibbi’s own) is not media criticism. Watching CNN on election day and making scatological jokes about Wolf Blitzer is not, actually, election coverage.

As far as his politics, Taibbi is a hysteric, guilty of all the things he indicts the right for and part of a big problem we have on the left…namely, those on the out-skirts inability to stand with their party and actually accomplish something besides stabbing each other in the back.

In other words, my original statement, base as it may have been, is still 100% true. Even if I did write the first draft on the wall of the bathroom. In feces.

Name calling isn’t the substance of Taibbi’s pieces, it’s the comic relief. If you’re too sophisticated for dick and fart jokes what are you doing reading Rolling Stone? Stick with the Economist.

If you think Taibbi is a bad writer I’d be curious to see who you think is good.

By the way, editors write headlines, not columnists.

Matthew,
I’m not on either side of this argument, but, scroll up. Right there, under the title “National Affairs Daily”. That “Edited by” phrase. It makes Tiabbi the editor. 1+1=2 Just trying to help out.

“Comic relief” implies that there is substance to be relieved from…I see none of that in Taibbi’s columns. I’m sure he’s a bright guy, maybe he feels insecure about sharing that. There’s nothing insightful or funny about ad hominem attacks on Sens. Cinton and Lieberman, particularly when Anne Coulter makes the same jokes.

As far as reading the Economist…Tim Dickinson’s writing is great. He collects a lot of stuff in one place and, when he includes opinion, its backed by fact and respectful of the political process. And Rolling Stone has a number of great writers, political and otherwise, that raise it above the teeny-bopper pandering that many of the cover stories dwell on.

Bill Maher, Jon Stewart, Steven Colbert, etc. cover topical events with incredible humor without turning to blatant cynicism and hypocritical outrage. Further, they’re opinions, insights and parodies are backed with facts. To do so is not a major accomplishment for a political commentator/humorist, its a baseline.

Jack D

Under the National Affairs Daily section it says “edited by Tim Dickinson.” 1+1= Tim Dickinson writes the headlines. Wow.

Rowr
All the comics you just named are notorious cynics. Bill Mahr — not cynical? I think he’d throw used condoms at pot seeds at you if he heard you say that. Taibbi just happens to be more radical and more informed then the other people you named. (who are entertainers not journalists or commentators mind you)

As far as Taibbi’s content, The Low Post is a column, not reporting. Taibbi presents facts that others have compiled and comments on them. It’s meant to be opinionated. It’s just wrong to say there are no facts in his pieces. There are — just not his. Unless you think he was just making all that stuff up when he wrote about the f-22 last month.

Taibbi isn’t just a commentator though — he does do original reporting. Try reading his piece “Bush Like Me” about the 2004 elections.

Look, if you don’t like the guy you don’t like the guy. Just don’t make things up about him. I get the impression you don’t read him very carefully.

Ha! God I love it when I instigate bullshit like this.

Listen ladies, we can split hairs all day and all next week over whether Taibbi is right or wrong, who properly bears the responsibility for writing headlines, and the difference between reporters and columnists. The fact is, Taibbi’s writing style is shitty and boring. That’s the only point I was trying to make — and as of yet, no one has presented any evidence or logic to the contrary.

You can be right and still be a douche bag; I’ll confess I happen to agree with a lot of the substance of what Taibbi says. It’s his cheap, pandering prose that I find offensive.

Lick my cat’s asshole, Taibbi. Rolling Stone, you can do better than this.

Pfft. Polonium 210 can be extracted from anti-static brushes with sodium hydroxide and hydrochloric acid by any half-educated chemistry major. Ten brushes would provide enough to poison one unruly Russian.

I hope America fares better than Litvinenko did. We still have some residual strength that may yet carry us thru our bout with NeoConium 911 poisoning.

you said it, mr. hell.

How can this be “the first act of nuclear terrorism” when the US military has used uranium-238 laced munitions & missiles in Iraq, Bosnia & Kosovo?

It wasn’t, but that’s why he punctuated with a question mark. It really isn’t terrorism, just a sloppy assassination. If he’d died sooner like he was supposed to, fewer people would be concerned. They obviously couldn’t hide the shit in vodka, or he’d been dead two weeks ago.

Well, actually, the world’s first act of nuclear terrorism occured in Hiroshima. That the US is still ready, willing and able to test its nuclear capabilities on foreign lands should not be overlooked. Despite Taibbi’s apparent longing for James Bond to once again take on on the dirty Russians, the US remains the most dangerous nuclear power on the globe.

The difference between “terrorism” and “assasination” is class-based, irrelevant and offensive. Let’s call it what it is: one gang trying to off a member of another. There is nothing else.

Let’s not give the Bush administration or Republican Party any ideas in “Offing” their opponents/political rivals…

I only hope the Demos are Very Careful now and for the rest of their terms…(And, yes, I would put nothing past the current Regime)…

Hey Cake,
What do you think the anthrax attacks were? A “terrorist” attack? heh heh…

MATT TAIBBI
, from my first exposure (this article) seems to be a intelectual fellow, with a nack for connecting the dots, however i don’t know if i necessarily like his style, as the tomson-esk intro really didn’t relate to the article. That sort of thing can work really well thought, he has excelent fundamentals excelent content, but strikes me as pandering to a lower denominator with high-brow content. I have to say good on him, for that, but don’t know if he’s underestimating his audience personally i think he is.

he drinks and rights politics,amazing

maybe i should learn how to spell

I’m not gonna get into a dialogue with anyone to prove a point about Matt Taibbi’s style, etc. I enjoy reading just about everything he writes. Matt, I hear your voice loud and clear–nice work.

Basayev was assassinated by the FSB in July 2006. Berezovsky’s “connection” to him would definitely be in the past tense.

This is the same month in which President Vladimir V. Putin kissed the little boy on the stomach and later explained that he wished to cuddle with him like a kitten.

It does make one wonder if Putin has an M.O. of celebrating his violent conquests with other kinds.

Never mind who edited the title. Who let London’s ‘Piccadilly square’ go without an edit? Its a circus not a square.

wasn’t hiroshima the first act of nuke terrorism?