An LA Times reporter was fired for sending an insulting email, using the paper's mail server. (Note the liberal hate speech, per the Professor's and others' comments today.)

Here's the email:

Congressman Thomas,

Surely, you can?t be that stupid.

I mean, even for the standards of the current Republican Party, which has turned from the party of Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt into a hateful, dogmatic and uncompromising group (except in the case of big business, when you become the party of Stepin Fetchit), your comments on CNN are so completely out of line, they defy logic.

To blame Bill Clinton (our last legally elected president) for the current corporate shenanigans completely flies in the face of truth and logic. The president you and your ilk impeached for lying about oral sex presided over a country that lowered teen pregnancy rates 22 percent, dropped the crime rate by roughly the same amount and knocked nearly half the welfare recipients off the rolls. While those numbers were dropping, so were the numbers in divorce, teen drinking, teen suicide and abortion.

But that doesn?t jibe with your partisan rantings. Everything?s Clinton?s fault, from your faulty perceptions about this country?s moral laxity to the state of the military ? which was cut to pieces by George Bush I and his secretary of defense ? Dick Cheney.

Without a scintilla of regret or moral thought, your party has embraced corporate crooks, polluters and other moral rot. It wasn?t Bill Clinton who cooked books at Enron, Global Crossing, Worldcom and who knows how many other companies.

It wasn?t Bill Clinton who engaged in accounting fraud while working as the CEO of a Fortune 500 company (see Cheney, Dick). It wasn?t Bill Clinton who engaged in insider trading while leading yet another company into bankruptcy (see Bush, G.W.).

It was Bill Clinton who lied about a blow job. Somehow, I don?t see the comparison. Then again, I?m not a morally bankrupt Republican congressman who opts for partisanship ahead of truth.

Respectfully yours,

Brian Robin
Lancaster, CA

I don't know what's the big deal. I mean, it is the LA Times.

He shouldn't have been fired--with howling idiocies like this, he should have been promoted to the editorial page.

It surprises me that he was fired, this is the standard press release of pretty much the entire Demo party isnt it? I dont even see anything in here that I have not heard spouted by all the shills they push onto various talk-shows, or to campus speaking engagements, fundraising events, etc.... etc....

Maybe the fact that it was traceable right back to the paper (the mail server) got them mad, after all, it does give a bit of credence to the media bias stories they have been decrying for the last year or so.

Excuse me while I wipe a single tear from my eye after hearing of this reporter's plight. It will, however, have to wait until my bout of malicious laughter subsides.

As Nelson would say, "HA-ha!"

I don't see why he got fired. I haven't read anything that entertaining since the last Molly Ivins column.

*grins*

Fired for telling the truth perhaps - the emperor really has no clothes.

Which "truth" would that be?

Pretty much the whole letter, though "truth" is getting rare with all the spinmeisters working it over. Clinton may be sleazy, but he isn't dumber than a box of rocks, something Bush has yet to demonstrate. I thought you had to be fairly bright to fly jets, but apparently I was mistaken.

Okay, HJ, if that's your idea of debate, then go to hell. If you are so damned arrogant and full of yourself that this is how you characterize your political opponents, if you refuse to conceive that anybody intelligent could hold an opinion dirrering from your own, then you have forfeited any right to be treated with respect and consideration. Don't pose and preen as an intelligent, thoughtful disputant if this is your argument.

I was hoping that I wouldn't have to actually fisk the poor idiot's letter, since he's already been fired, but if that's what it takes to send the HJs of the world back into their little troll holes, then perhaps I will.

Go for it Rand, Fisk him good. Still, about the best thing about Bush is that he isn't Gore. I thought this might be a place for comments and opinion, not formal debate, sorry I offended. In any case, since there is a little South swell I'm going surfing

Well, I agree that whatever else you say about Bush, he isn't Gore, and that's a good thing.

I don't know where one goes for a "formal debate." When someone makes comments like yours (assuming this is still HJ) in any forum, they shouldn't be surprised when they get a response.

Yeah, it was me, I hit the review button by mistake and it posted anonymously.
About all I did was state an opinion about the apparent intelligence of our current president, the response seems to be more indicative of the intelligence of some of the Transterrestrial readers. I mean come on..the only member of the Bush crew showing any smarts at all , and a good sense of humor as well, is Rumsfeld, too bad he didn't run for the office himself. It is sad that "Saturday Night Live" seems to be the only venue that can be honest about our leaders' IQ or lack thereof. Smart as a sack of hammers is one phrase that comes to mind.

Instead of going to hell, Mr. Skubinna, I went surfing and had some pretty good waves.

George Bush has made a career out of taking advantage of people who underestimate him. He graduated from Harvard business school. Algore flunked out of his grad schools. So who's smarter?

You didn't just say that Bush was dumb. You said that everything that the reporter said was the truth. That's...bravo sierra.

Go ahead, you can call it bullshit, most of us here are adults I think. I thought the letter was both funny and fairly accurate, at least from what I've seen and read. It might have been a little shrill, but hey, that's religion and politics. It certainly shouldn't have gotten him fired.

I really do hope and pray that Bush is actually smarter than he appears, and that he is not a con artist as well (ie.taking advantage of people underestimating him). If he isn't smarter than he appears, and his staff as well, then America is in deep doodoo.

P.S. Graduating from the Harvard business school is not a great recommendation, they seem to have specialized in the profit uber alles, beancounters in charge, attitude that has given us heavily promoted but crappy products.

Also, just for grins, there's a book out called "If God Wanted Us to Vote, She'd Have Given Us Candidates" which pretty much sums up American politics these days.

Idiotarianly yours, HJ

If you want to accuse Mr. Bush of being a con man, that's your privilege. It's hard for me to square that with your contention that he's an idiot, but maybe an idiot could do it.

It's also hard to square your contention of his being a Harvard Business School grad as being someone who seeks profit uber alles, with being an idiot.

Which is it? Is he a moron, or an evil genius?

It would be easier to argue with you if you could keep your story straight.

The letter was not funny at all (in my opinion) and it can be easily demonstrated that its accuracy was zero.

My advice to you is to stick to surfing (and that doesn't mean web surfing), since it, at least, seems to be within your intellectual reach.

I'd suggest you re-read both posts, mine and your response to it and see just whom is being inconsistent.
I said I thought Bush was less than bright, you stated he graduated from Harvard - the two statements are not exclusive. Incidentally, in the spirit of Socratic discussion, would you know if the Harvard business school has had anything to do with the accounting techniques promulgated by Arthur Anderson?

Incidentally, I suspect the average intelligence of surfers is higher than that of politicians, though out here in Hawaii, some politicians ARE surfers.
Has anyone yet bothered to analyze bloggers' comparative intellectual status? Have a nice day, I'm sure I will.

One isn't even accepted to a Harvard graduate school without being of reasonable intelligence, let alone graduate. It certainly doesn't happen to someone who is "dumber than a box of rocks."

Someone more familar with the curriculum there would have to answer your second question, but I don't think that any business school either teaches, or recommends, accounting fraud.

As for the relative intelligence of surfers versus politicians in general, I have no data, but my opinion of the latter is pretty low. Of course, there are some politicians (like Dana Rohrabacher and a representative from San Diego whose name I forget right now, not to mention Bill Simon) who surf as well.

But I wasn't making comments about surfers in general--just one in particular who has stepped in it repeatedly in this comments section.

Good one. I'd like to point at at least I haven't repeatedly made nasty remarks about your intelligence nor have I made personal comments. Geez, if I stepped in it what do you have to say about our boy Steven?

You made some pretty personal comments about the President. When they're as unsupported and illogical as yours were, expect to be called on it.