washington monthly

Washington Monthly

Leftwing publication and website that rapidly deletes comments that show how they're wrong. There are two very strong reasons why even their most ardent supporters should avoid linking to them:

1. As of at least 2007, their old entries (and the entries at Kevin Drum's old CalPundit site) were clogged with the worst spam imaginable. Linking to pages containing ads for disreputable products and potions might cause search engines to think you're part of those spammers' networks.

2. As of October 28, 2010, they have a sidebar block containing links to very "interesting" sites. Those links don't have the nofollow attribute, which means if you link to a Washington Monthly page some of your "link juice" will eventually flow to those selling those "interesting" products. As with the first, that might cause search engines to think you're part of the network selling those "interesting" products.

Last modified Oct 28, 2010
Discussed in (click each link for the full post):

Even Washington Monthly (somewhat) admits the "challenges" of massive low-skilled immigration (Texas, Phillip Longman) - 03/03/14

A rare moment of clarity on mass immigration comes from Washington Monthly as senior editor Phillip Longman (also linked to the New America Foundation offers "Oops: The Texas Miracle That Isn’t" ( peekURL.com/zRPFqc5 ).

Why Jesse Singal shouldn't make policy (DREAM Act, Washington Monthly) - 12/01/12

Jesse Singal of the Washington Monthly discusses the Julia Preston story about the DREAM Act and says ( peekURL.com/z2kCSje ):

No, Sharron Angle isn't calling Social Security "wicked" (Harry Reid is lying) - 10/28/10

[See the update: Harry Reid is lying about Angle's comments] The Democratic Party's "Accountability Project" uploaded [1] the audio below, apparently trying to make people think that Sharron Angle is calling Social Security and similar programs "wicked". In fact, she's not calling those programs "wicked". What she considers wicked are those who turn their backs on the least among them, relying on government programs to take care of people they should be taking care of. On the audio she accepts social safety net programs as a reality, she just thinks that people should take care of those in...

Dennis Welch, Kos, Amanda Terkel, Steve Benen, Ben Smith, Ben Frumin smear Jan Brewer over quote - 06/02/10

Arizona governor Jan Brewer is threatening to cost powerful people money and power through actions such as signing that state's new anti-illegal immigration law. Their lower-level hacks are currently swinging into action, deliberately misinterpreting a quote Brewer made in a disreputable attempt to claim that she inflated her father's war record [UPDATE: Statement from Brewer below]. Some are listed below, and if you find others please leave a comment. During World War 2, Brewer's father worked at a Navy munitions depot in Nevada; he died in 1955 as a result of lung disease from that job....

Reason #73218 why you can't trust Steve Benen, Alex Pareene, John Aravosis, HuffPost, and GottaLaff (McCain on illegal aliens "intentionally causing accidents") - 04/21/10

Yesterday in an appearance on the Bill O'Reilly show, John McCain said among other, more important things, that he supports Arizona's tough new immigration bill (not yet a law) because "the people whose homes and property are being violated. It's the drive-by that -- the drivers of cars with illegals in it that are intentionally causing accidents on the freeway." You can watch it here: peekURL.com/vztpe5h

Census worker found hanged in Kentucky; see who's politicizing it - 09/24/09

[UPDATE: Police say it was a suicide]

Jon Henke: Sarah Palin's "death panels" are a "cartoon" (Peter Wallsten on GOP's quest for acceptance, respectability) - 09/14/09

Peter Wallsten of the Los Angeles Times - the reporter who refused to release the Obama/Khalidi tape (also here) - gleefully offers "Some fear GOP is being carried to the extreme/The Republican establishment hopes cooler heads will prevail over strongly anti-Obama parts of the conservative base" (link). In this case, Wallsten is what's called a "concern troll", and he's got some help. Those weighing in on the side of pearl-clutching, intellectually-dishonest respectability include David Frum (former George W Bush speechwriter) and Michael Goldfarb (former spokesman for the McCain campaign)....

Washington Monthly deletes comment on post extolling "diversity of thought", openness - 02/10/09

The Washington Monthly has a habit of deleting comments, and they're even willing to do it on entries lionizing Barack Obama for being open to a "diversity of thought". I guess some "diversities of thought" are more equal than others.

"Liberals" support quotas, just not for white men, southerners (Obama cabinet) - 12/22/08

Many "liberals" believe in quotas in everything, whether they admit it or not. However, there are limits to liberalism. Namely, when the quota involves white men, especially white men from the South. Following are four recent examples involving the selections Barack Obama has made for his cabinet and top administration positions. These are reactions to the article "Southerners are the missing group in Obama's Cabinet" (link), which quotes Larry Sabato as saying: "Obama scored a tremendous advance for Democrats in winning the three large Southern states and ignored them... I'm just stunned. It...

Steve Benen/Washington Monthly gets hat trick: deletes three comments in one day - 10/04/08

Steve Benen of the Washington Monthly has scored a hat trick: he or his helpers deleted three comments I left on his entries today. And, the deletions happened very shortly after I left the comments, so obviously they're very worried about their readers learning about the things that Steve Benen isn't willing to tell them.

Scott Shane/NYT's pro-BHO spin on Bill Ayers/Barack Obama collaboration - 10/04/08

Scott Shane of the New York Times offers "Obama and '60s Bomber: A Look Into Crossed Paths" (originally titled "Obama Had Met Ayers, but the Two Are Not Close"). If you believe the NYT, then everything's fine and dandy, and Barack Obama and 60s radical Bill Ayers are not close. The fact that they aren't close and never were close and nothing funny went on and there's nothing to see here is especially important because Ayers is a former and allegedly unrepentant terrorist who's since been, in Shane's words, "rehabilitated". On the other hand, if you actually want the truth, compare the second...

Steve Benen/Washington Monthly continues proud tradition of deleting comments - 09/23/08

During the Kevin Drum years at Washington Monthly, several of my on-topic, non-abusive comments were deleted. As pointed out here a few times, that means you can't trust anything you read there: everything has to be double-checked because they're willing to delete fact-checking by their readers. (I also noted that many of their old pages are full of spam, and if you link to those pages it might harm your search engine ranking.) Now, Steve Benen continues that fine WM tradition. The following comment I left on washingtonmonthly. com/archives/individual/2008_09/014836.php is no longer there....

John McCain ad was right and Barack Obama, MSM misled about BHO's kindergartener sex education bill - 09/16/08

Earlier this month the John McCain campaign released an ad (link, video link) saying in part: "Obama's one accomplishment? Legislation to teach "comprehensive sex education" to kindergartners. Learning about sex before learning to read? Barack Obama. This has led to a wide variety of BHO supporters - specifically those in the MSM - calling McCain a liar. To a certain extent, they have somewhat of a point: the bill might not be an "accomplishment" for BHO since he was just a supporter and not a co-sponsor and since it never passed. And, the McCain campaign might not have correctly...

Washington Post: America's finest source for bad reporting (Palin "slashed" funds story) - 09/02/08

The Washington Post recently published a blog post about Sarah Palin (in their words) "slash[ing]" funds to a non-profit group. Except, what they got from the state of Alaska alone was over three times what they got from all government sources combined in 2006. Let's take a look at the WaPo's "downstream", the three-eyed fish who gobble up what the WaPo sludges out.

Kevin Drum/Washington Monthly deletes yet another comment (Obama's Global Poverty Act) - 08/06/08

Kevin Drum obviously doesn't want his readers to know how much of a hack he is, since either he or someone else at Washington Monthly keep deleting comments from me and apparently from others as well.

Washington Monthly deletes yet another comment, again - 05/25/08

Washington Monthly has a habit of deleting comments I (and apparently others) leave there. Kevin Drum is apparently on vacation so I don't know whether he popped in just to delete the comment I left earlier today on this thread: washingtonmonthly. com/archives/individual/2008_05/013790.php.

Kevin Drum/Washington Monthly deletes yet another comment - 03/25/08

Kevin Drum and/or the Washington Monthly have a habit of deleting perfectly reasonable comments; because of that you can't trust anything you read there. Comments sections serve as a form of check on the blogger or reporter; if they make a mistake someone will probably come along to point it out. If - like Kevin Drum and/or WM - they start deleting comments you never know what's missing, and it might be a comment offering a correction. So, every single thing he writes has to be double-checked before relying on it.

Should you drop your links to Washington Monthly and Calpundit? - 03/25/07

A week ago I posted about Washington Monthly editing comments without noting they were edited.

Washington Monthly desperate enough to edit comments without noting they were edited - 03/18/07

[Update here] Washington Monthly ("WM"; Kevin Drum/Political Animal, washingtonmonthly. com) used to have an open commenting policy, and I've been posting the occasional and almost always critical comment at that site since Drum moved there and at his previous location (calpundit.com) since 2002 or 2003. WM recently changed to some form of post-moderation of comments. Unlike almost everyone else who uses moderation, that includes the sleazy and underhanded tactic of editing comments without noting that they've been edited. In particular, adding extra characters to some URLs left in...

Jon Vessey, crops rotting in the fields, and pro-illegal immigration propaganda - 12/05/05

Jon Vessey is a California grower who's been quoted in a few recent articles about how crops will rot in the fields unless growers get more cheap labor to pick it. (UPDATE: see crops rotting in the fields). On 11/21, the WaPo featured him in "Shortage of Immigrant Workers Alarms Growers in West" (link), and today the Los Angeles Times features him in "Picking a Battle Over Shortage of Farmworkers" (link). And, he was apparently also featured saying similar things in Copley News Service and USA Today. And, the CSM article (link) I discussed in "America's produce industry is facing a crisis"...

Arianna Huffington and Baby Blumenthal - 10/01/05

Did you think the low-point of Huffington Post came when Randall Robinson uttered these memorable words? It is reported that black hurricane victims in New Orleans have begun eating corpses to survive. Well, you're only part right. While it's extremely difficult to find an actual low point of the sexy Greek goddess' site, a contender must be Max Blumenthal - the son of Sid Blumenthal - called by Marc Cooper a "featherweight tyro and designated puncher for enraged but impotent Democrats" here. There's even a direct connection between Max and Randy. Shortly after the cannibalism charge, Sid Jr...