The Pony isn’t Adele’s first brush with controversy lunacy:
Oh, Adele. You’re a girl after our own hearts.

The Pony in this one is the mind-boggling idea of her having a husband — if that’s true, wouldn’t the poor man say that after every single word she writes?

An intrepid reader picked up the phone and called up Adele’s paper to learn a little more about the woman behind the magic:

I took advantage of my lunch break yesterday to call the Kitsap Business Journal. More than morbid, car-crash-variety curiosity, I wanted confirmation that it is indeed a real paper with real people making editing decisions, and not some Onion joke gone awry.

Anyway, a beleagured, Lieberman/Eeyore sounding editor answered with: “All right, let me have it.” Said that I was welcome to write a letter but I’d be about the 1,200th person to do so. Said his paper is contractually obligated to run Adele (pronounced with a long A, by the way), unedited. It seems that Adele is something of a celebrity in Washington state because her column is syndicated there. Added that he would have “taken a red pen” to some of her more inflammatory statements. (Leaving only, “By Adele Ferguson” on the page, I presume.)

He said that very little of the response came from locals and the reaction was from folks like me who saw it on Wonkette. He even lamented that he’d been called every name in the book at that point. (I bit my tongue to keep from pointing out that black folks hadn’t had such a hot day either thanks to the KBJ.) I said that that syndication contract seems to put him in quite a bind, and I felt for him and could even make a free speech argument, but that he might want to proceed with a little more caution when she submits her “pony hidden in the Holocaust” or “pony hidden in Sept. 11” columns.

Oooh, we like that idea! The pony in Kristallnacht is that it gave a lot of people a good excuse to replace some old windows!

The only way we could love this story more is if Adele pulls a Clooney.

Great Job!! [Voices of Palestine]
Earlier: Folks, Meet Your New Catchphrase
The Pony in Corporate Consolidation

Last night, the Wonkettes left their respective apartments and headed out into the real world, to attend an exciting event at the National Press Club. The event, “An Army of Davids or the Triumph of Goliath?”, was pitched as “a no-holds-barred debate” between these three giants: Glenn Reynolds, the Instapundit himself, and author of the just-published An Army of Davids; Joe Trippi, former campaign manager for Howard Dean, and author of The Revolution Will Not Be Televised; and Barry C. Lynn, senior fellow at the New American Foundation, and author of End of the Line. (They are pictured above, from left to right: Lynn, Trippi, Reynolds, and moderator Nick Gillespie, editor-in-chief of Reason.)

After the jump, our comprehensive coverage — plus more fantastic photos, taken by Wonkette shutterbug Liz Gorman, Intrepid Girl Reporter. Enjoy!

The event was like a rock concert — libertarians with sleeping bags showed up the day before to get seats!

The topic of the debate was described as follows: “Do the Internet and other related technologies allow us to be more in control of our lives? Are politics, culture, and economics more responsive to individuals than ever before, or is more power becoming concentrated in fewer and fewer hands?”

After brief introductory remarks by the pink-tie-sporting Nick Schulz, editor of TCSDaily.com, and speaker intros by Nick Gillespie, editor-in-chief of Reason, the speakers began their “no-holds-barred” debate. As it turned out, the tag team of Glenn Reynolds and Joe Trippi ganged up on Barry C. Lynn (no, not that Barry Lynn; the other one).

The audience listened, rapt with attention, as the speakers sparred with each other. The debate can be summarized as follows:

Reynolds and Trippi: “Three cheers for the internet! It’s making the world a better and freer place. YAY!!!”

Lynn: “Bah, humbug! That’s the virtual world. Let’s focus on the real world. Wal-Mart is ruining all of our lives!”

Glenn Reynolds tells half of Wonkette to get the hell off his lawn.

The debate began with prepared remarks from the three speakers. Professor Reynolds argued against MSM predictions of blogging’s demise, noting that blogging shouldn’t be dismissed just because it’s not a viable way of making a living for most people. With respect to the non-remunerative nature of blogging, he paraphrased Microsoft: “That’s not a bug, that’s a feature… People blog because it’s fun. We are hard-wired to share our opinions and views with others.”

Joe Trippi (at left): “So I told Howard, ‘As your campaign manager, I strongly advise against screaming out the names of some random states at the top of your lungs.’”

Trippi echoed many of Reynolds’s remarks, describing the rise of the internet and blogging as a communications shift comparable to the invention of the printing press. He expressed envy for Reynolds’s great book title, “An Army of Davids,” and said: “The question for the big guys is: The army of Davids is out there. Do you want to be Goliath — or the slingshot?” Interesting — we’ll reflect on that tonight…

Trippi added: “We are in a critical period where the bottom is gaining in power.” (Is he predicting a Tom Malin victory?)

Barry Lynn: “I’m this worried about the rise of global oligopolies.”

Then Barry C. Lynn showed up to rain on everyone’s parade, warning darkly of oligopolies, as well as waves of consolidation in the industries of razor blade, syringe, and canned soup manufacturing. (That’s fine with us, since we don’t like to shave; but it’s bad news for all of you intravenous drug users and Campbell’s Soup addicts.) Lynn also warned about “monotony power,” which quite fittingly has something to do with Wal-Mart.

This was followed by a question-and-answer period. Reynolds accurately diagnosed our mixed feelings as bloggers about this whole working-from-home thing: “Oh great, I can work from home! Oh no, my work is taking over my home!” Trippi predicted that for 2008, some candidate will raise half a billion dollars. (Cough cough, Hillary.) Lynn talked about grain trading, ethanol, and WalMart, leaving us even more confused than we were before. (Maybe some pro-Wal-Mart bloggers can clear things up for us?)

“I can’t believe we’re actually meeting someone who writes on the Internet!”

After all this, we definitely needed a drink. Thankfully, the debate and book signing were followed by an open bar. As our host Nick Gillespie put it, “This is a celebration of open source, so we have an open bar. Please take what you want — but drink what you take.” So we took, and drank, and took and drank some more…

We’ve said it before, we’ll say it again: Getting drunk with libertarians is fun!

Nick Gillespie: “Here I am in this stupid leather jacket and ribbed sweater. Where can I get a reindeer sweater like yours?

“We are ecstatically happy together. This is no Brokeback Marriage!”

We met some interesting people during the post-debate reception. We chatted for a while with Trevor Butterworth, the charmingly cynical journalist who wrote that long piece on blogs for the Financial Times. Butterworth didn’t share Joe Trippi’s enthusiasm for Glenn Reynolds’s book title, An Army of Davids. Butterworth said sourly, “David didn’t stay David. He graduated. It’s a dumb metaphor.”

“So you really think I look like Woody Allen, huh?”

“So you don’t see the Brad Pitt resemblance — you know, from his Kalifornia days, when he had the beard?”

The baby is actually the front-runner in the ‘08 Libertarian Party primaries.

“…someone’s trying to regulate something. I can feel it.

In what seems to be a pattern for us, we met another Fun and Charming Lobbyist. FCL said he was so busy this time of year, it being earmark season and all, and he confidently predicted that “earmarks aren’t going away anytime soon.” FCL noted that many of lobbying reforms contain exceptions for “pre-existing friendships” between lobbyists and Hill staffers. “So I’ve been going around to all the staffers and saying, ‘So, we have a pre-existing friendship, right?’ And they’re all like, ‘Yeah, we sure do!’”

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Can we have another round of drinks over here? Our lobbyist friend is buying.

“Whaddya mean ‘what’s in the water bottle?’”

Actual reporting? On Wonkette? No! Because we didn’t pay anyone! And it’s not really news, so much as an obsession with an oft-soused media whore! We didn’t go anywhere, obviously, but we did send Wonkette Photographer Liz Gorman, Intrepid Girl Reporter!

And freelance writer Mike Sanderson, responding to our call for “unemployed all-purpose contrarians,” sent us a full, first-hand report of the proceedings:

I just left the Hitch-Sully Denmark solidarity anti-protest. A perfect counterpoint, in tone, to the violent anti-Denmark demonstrations: about 75 men and women in black coats, milling listlessly at the end of a tree-lined cul-de-sac, holding little flags or homemade Danish paraphanalia, making small talk with each other awkwardly for an hour in the cold wind. Sully didn’t show up until 12:50, but Hitch was there the whole time. You’re right that he ignored his readers, and instead devoted his attention to the print and television media reporters present. Who were desperate for something to report on.

More of his report, and the rest of the gallery of pictures (Liz got all up in Hitch’s grill!), after the jump:

There were several Hitch-followers attempting to step into the breech and rally the crowd, though preparation seemed lacking. “Show us your pastries!” one exhorted, holding up a cream-filled plastic-wrapped Danish (get it?). Several other people held up other convience-store pastries, “in solidarity for Denmark!” followed by a half-hearted hurrah.
“ **** . I’m totally at the wrong rally.”
Also illustrated was the importance of deciding what to chant in advance. Initally the organizors tried “Denmark! Denmark!” “Free Speech! Free Speech!” “We’re Danes Now! We’re Danes Now!” and We’re all Danes Now!” This last one came out rather sing-songy. These didn’t last more than six or seven chants among a dozen people, but at least they punctured the monotony. I tried to speak to some of the crowd. One woman said she came from North Carolina; I didn’t have the heart to ask “why?” Another rapid Hitch fan said he flew in from California to see him.
Once the Wash Times editorial board shows up, you got yourself a party.
By the time 12:35 rolled around things got more desperate. Hitch had moved on to the print reporters, and the quasi-organizers had apparently brainstormed longer chants. They tried (I’m not kidding) “Ho Ho He He / Freedom of speech has got to stay!” Then back to “We’re all Danes now!” and “We Love Denmark!” followed by “We elska Denmark!” (We love Denmark in Danish, I was told. Apparently there were some Danes in attendance.) Then there was “No Dhinnis in Denmark!” Dhinnis, I was told, are non-Muslims who are restricted by Islamic law in Muslim counties (“dhimmis”? —ed); I didn’t get it either, and it didn’t last. Finally someone tried leading a chant of (again no kidding) “Land of Lego, We love you!”
That was the last attempt. At 1 p.m. Hitch got up on a rock, addressed us as “Comrades, brothers and sisters,” made some pro-forma remarks about protecting freedom of expression in all places, and told us he’d promised the Danish embassy we’d disburse at 1 (hahaha —ed). He also said he would like to lead a march to the Iraqi embassy to show solidarity with that country, but there wasn’t time (hahahahaha —ed). And so our mob politely disbursed, back down Whitehaven Street to Massachusetts Ave. Who says the best lack all conviction?
Is that — OMIGOD! CLIFF MAY! PINCH ME!
Not part of the rally, just really excited that his kid got an ‘A’ on his geography report.

Vital Perspective has video, former Wonkette guest-ed Glenn has more pics. They aren’t as awesome as ours.

And according to Crossing Wall Street, our correspondents missed Hitch’s brief run-in with the cops, who asked him for his permit and what the name of his “group” was (Hitch: “Um, Citizens for Denmark.” That’s a brilliant mind at work, folks).