Saturday, September 29, 2007

Fox News: our generals are betraying our soldiers.

Add this to the Limbaugh legislation on Monday, Harry.


And by the way, I agree with Glenn:
In Comments, several people express the unquestionably valid concern that it is inappropriate, even McCarthy-ite and dangerous, for Congress to start formally condemning private political speech. That is true, and if we had a healthy political system, that would not happen.

But, as the MoveOn vote demonstrated, we have the opposite of a healthy political system, and it is thus far preferable -- for reasons I set forth here -- to ensure that a corrupt standard is applied equally rather than allow it to be applied by one political faction against another. Taking the corrupt political tactics wielded by the war-hungry Right and applying those same tactics to them (rather than ineffectively protesting the unfairness of the tactics) is the only way to ensure they cease.

Exactly.


Glenn Reynolds hearts El Rushbo.

The non-partisan defends Limbaugh's smear against anti-war troops.

Friday, September 28, 2007

Oh, Lordy.

And XM stock takes a tumble:
Pajamas Media is proud to announce PJM Political - our new weekly presidential campaign talk show - premiering Thursday, September 27 at 6PM Eastern/3PM Pacific on XM Satellite Radio’s P.O.T.U.S. ‘08 Channel 130. (P.O.T.U.S. ‘08 - President of the United States - is XM’s new non-subscription channel dedicated to the campaign. Those without XM will be able to get the show as a podcast on PJM or at Blog Talk Radio.)

Participating in the debut one-hour show: Michael Barone, Austin Bay, Bill Bradley, David Corn, Ed Driscoll, Jonah Goldberg, Jack Goldsmith, Jeff Goldstein, Stephen Green, James Lileks, Richard Miniter, John Podhoretz, Glenn Reynolds, Helen Smith and Roger L. Simon.

More of this, please.

It appears that Representative (and Senate candidate) Mark Udall will be introducing a resolution on Monday which would seek to condemn Rush Limbaugh's obscene attack on the integrity and patriotism of American service members.


(via Kos)

...And the Senate gets into it.

Medal of Honor

Putz:

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader James Ivers emails: "I eagerly await Shuster's asking a liberal Rep. if they can name the most recent person to go on welfare in their District. Or the person who most recently died due to 'lack of health insurance.' Until then, he's a hit artist and I'll pay him no attention at all."

I'd settle for Shuster asking the name of the most recent Medal of Honor winner.


Really?


*DUNHAM, JASON L.

Rank and Organization: Corporal, United States Marine Corps
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as Rifle Squad Leader, 4th Platoon, Company K, Third Battalion, Seventh Marines (Reinforced), Regimental Combat Team 7, First Marine Division (Reinforced), on 14 April 2004. Corporal Dunham's squad was conducting a reconnaissance mission in the town of Karabilah, Iraq, when they heard rocket-propelled grenade and small arms fire erupt approximately two kilometers to the west. Corporal Dunham led his Combined Anti-Armor Team towards the engagement to provide fire support to their Battalion Commander's convoy, which had been ambushed as it was traveling to Camp Husaybah. As Corporal Dunham and his Marines advanced, they quickly began to receive enemy fire. Corporal Dunham ordered his squad to dismount their vehicles and led one of his fire teams on foot several blocks south of the ambushed convoy. Discovering seven Iraqi vehicles in a column attempting to depart, Corporal Dunham and his team stopped the vehicles to search them for weapons. As they approached the vehicles, an insurgent leaped out and attacked Corporal Dunham. Corporal Dunham wrestled the insurgent to the ground and in the ensuing struggle saw the insurgent release a grenade. Corporal Dunham immediately alerted his fellow Marines to the threat. Aware of the imminent danger and without hesitation, Corporal Dunham covered the grenade with his helmet and body, bearing the brunt of the explosion and shielding his Marines from the blast. In an ultimate and selfless act of bravery in which he was mortally wounded, he saved the lives of at least two fellow Marines. By his undaunted courage, intrepid fighting spirit, and unwavering devotion to duty, Corporal Dunham gallantly gave his life for his country, thereby reflecting great credit upon himself and upholding the highest traditions of the Marine Corps and the United States Naval Service.

*SMITH, PAUL R.

Rank and Organization: Sergeant First Class, United States Army
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty:Sergeant First Class Paul R. Smith distinguished himself by acts of gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty in action with an armed enemy near Baghdad International Airport, Baghdad, Iraq on 4 April 2003. On that day, Sergeant First Class Smith was engaged in the construction of a prisoner of war holding area when his Task Force was violently attacked by a company-sized enemy force. Realizing the vulnerability of over 100 fellow soldiers, Sergeant First Class Smith quickly organized a hasty defense consisting of two platoons of soldiers, one Bradley Fighting Vehicle and three armored personnel carriers. As the fight developed, Sergeant First Class Smith braved hostile enemy fire to personally engage the enemy with hand grenades and anti-tank weapons, and organized the evacuation of three wounded soldiers from an armored personnel carrier struck by a rocket propelled grenade and a 60mm mortar round. Fearing the enemy would overrun their defenses, Sergeant First Class Smith moved under withering enemy fire to man a .50 caliber machine gun mounted on a damaged armored personnel carrier. In total disregard for his own life, he maintained his exposed position in order to engage the attacking enemy force. During this action, he was mortally wounded. His courageous actions helped defeat the enemy attack, and resulted in as many as 50 enemy soldiers killed, while allowing the safe withdrawal of numerous wounded soldiers. Sergeant First Class Smith’s extraordinary heroism and uncommon valor are in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit upon himself, the Third Infantry Division “Rock of the Marne,” and the United States Army.



I'm not sure Putz actually wants a discussion about the senseless deaths of two Americans. What he really desires, I think, is more cheerleading and endless war -- which is the only conceivable reason he believes it's inappropriate to ask a Congressman to name a dead constituent.

Notice, by the way, that the Army refers to Smith and Dunham as "recipients." Only a callous wingnut like Glenn Reynolds would suggest that they "won" something.

Glenn Reynolds is confused about Marsha Blackburn.

This is Putz's best attempt at correcting the record: (updated) (updated again)

DID SHUSTER HAVE IT RIGHT? Apparently, but the confusion displayed along the way would undercut any claim that Marsha Blackburn should have known what took MSNBC this long to figure out.

Er, the inner-workings of MSNBC aside, the problem -- which Putz avoids addressing -- is that Blackburn couldn't produce a name. Any name. The only "confusion," in fact, was on the part of wingnut bloggers, who claimed -- incorrectly -- that Shuster was wrong. Putz, naturally, led the charge and was quick to demand Shuster's contrition.

Now that Shuster has been exonerated, we put this question to Putz in his own words: "Will an apology be forthcoming?"

But the real point, as I noted before, is that the question was a cheap shot that Shuster wouldn't dare ask Hillary, who also voted for the war.

Nothing like wrapping up the Putzy package with a big, irrelevant, pretty hypothetical bow!


UPDATE

Heh.
So, here's the time line:

  • David Shuster makes truthful broadcast.
  • Member of Congress complains that it wasn't truthful
  • Dan Abrams forces Shuster to apologize for fact which was true
  • Truth of fact is backed up by the Department of Defense.
The guiding principle of modern journalism: just don't piss off the wingnuts.
UPDATE 2

Putz throws a hissy fit:

It's going to get kind of tough for the journalistic industry if they're all trying to feed themselves from an audience made up of one quarter of the population...Good luck with that business plan, guys.

More than two-thirds of the country hate the war and hate Bush, but I don't see that stopping Fox News.

But, anyway, if MSNBC gets only Democrats to watch on any given night, that's actually the best bet in terms of hard numbers as a business plan. Democrats currently outnumber both Republicans and Independents (36-27-24).

Pissy and innumerate is no way to go through life, son.

Things That Make You Go Hmmmmm.

Peggy Noonan:

There were two revealing moments in Ahmadinejad's appearance. The first is that in his litany of complaint against the United States he seemed not to remember the taking and abuse of American diplomatic hostages in 1979. An odd thing to forget since he is said to have been part of that operation. The second was the moment when he seemed to assert that his nation does not have homosexuals. This won derisive laughter, and might have been a learning moment for him; dictators don't face derisive from crowds back home.

It was like the moment in 1960 when Khrushchev's motorcade stalled on Third Avenue and a commuter walked by and gave him the finger. Actually I don't know there was such a moment, but knowing Americans I'm sure there was. Talking and listening to the wicked is the way we always operated in the long freak show that was 20th-century world leadership. And I'm sure before.


'Fake but accurate,' I believe the wingers call it?

The GOP blows off the PBS/minority debate: the fallout.

Huckabee says he was "embarrassed."
Brownback called it a "disgrace."
JC Watts said it was "stupid."

Putz hasn't found time to comment. Would he be so ambivalent if the debate had been sponsored by the NRA?

Baby Steps.



















Kathryn Jean Lopez yesterday:

Coincidence? [Kathryn Jean Lopez]
That the fallen soldier David Shuster used — badly — to bludgeon Marsha Blackburn with, was eulogized on Daily Kos last month.


Today:

David Shuster Was Right? [Kathryn Jean Lopez]


The question mark is cute, but at least Ms. Lopez is open to the possibility.

Now, as for this guy...

David Shuster was right about Marsha Blackburn. Will Glenn Reynolds and Red State post a retraction?

Seriously. Think really, really hard. Take your time. This is a hard one. (updated below) (updated again) (updated a third time)

When was the last time the wingnut bloggers were right about anything?

Shuster's apology [re: Marsha Blackburn] may have been premature. The tiny hamlet of Bon Aqua, Tenn., is where Bohannon lived in the months immediately prior to entering the Army. The Census Bureau places his home in Blackburn's 7th Congressional District.

He lived in Bon Aqua for "close to a year" immediately prior to entering the Army, said Tonya Taylor, 35, who permitted him to stay at her house while Bohannon was dating her daughter.

Bohannon grew up, was home-schooled and was buried in McEwan, which is clearly in the 8th Congressional District of U.S. Rep. John Tanner, D-Tenn. But his last legal address was in Blackburn's district.

I look forward to seeing corrections/updates/mea culpas from Putz, Investor's Business Daily, Red State, the Corner, etc., etc., etc.


UPDATE

Patrick at Media Bistro asks a good question:
Why did MSNBC rush Shuster to apologize? And, more importantly, who made him do so? Or did Shuster and MSNBC just not have the info (or didn't do the research) that Scripps dug up?
MSNBC really screwed this up -- the way they hung Shuster out to dry is just pathetic. I had my doubts from the beginning that Shuster was wrong for the simple fact that it was the Red Staters who were immediately claiming he got the district wrong. Anyone with half a brain knows when the wingnuts break one way, bet the other. Clearly, the person who made Shuster apologize has never heard of Jamil Hussein.

Anyway, heads should roll. At the very least, Shuster should get that slot after Olbermann.

Mr. Abrams? No one's watching your show. Make it happen.

UPDATE 2

Yikes.
FishbowlDC hears that MSNBC General Manager Dan Abrams asked David Shuster to apologize for Wednesday's Rep. Marsha Blackburn incident and even wrote the bulk of Shuster's on-air apology.

We also hear that an on-air explanation of this episode is not expected today, with MSNBC hoping to pretend the entire episode never happened.

UPDATE 3

From the Politico:

The controversy surrounding David Shuster's recent interview with Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) continued Friday, amid revelations that the last legal address the deceased soldier at the center of the back-and-forth—Pvt. Jeremy S. Bohannon—was in Blackburn's district after all.

(Does anyone have an extra yoke-cleaning kit for Shuster's face?)

But egg-face or not, Shuster is refuting claims that GOPers are boycotting his show, pointing to an appearance by Republican Sen. Bob Corker that occurred after the Blackburn interview.

"Our interview with Representative Blackburn was Monday. Republican Senator Bob Corker was on with me on Tuesday at 2pm," Shuster told us.



Chelsea.

Putz:

MICKEY KAUS: "John Edwards is getting grief because the hedge fund he worked for is responsible for some subprime loans and foreclosures in Iowa. But the hedge fund for which Chelsea Clinton has worked is not exactly Landlord of the Year either."


Maybe it's because I'm not a Beauchamp Brogan Distinguished Professor of Law, but I don't see a connection between Edwards, a candidate for President, and Chelsea Clinton, who is, last I checked, a private citizen and not part of her mother's campaign.

Is this from the new/old Republican playbook? Is Chelsea, once again, fair game?

Hey, so long as I'm asking questions, why did The Journal run an article with this headline -- "3Com to Announce Sale to Bain, Huawei" -- and not mention Mitt Romney, even in passing?

Thursday, September 27, 2007

Will the wingnuts demand that Rush Limbaugh apologize?

From Americablog:
Hi Folks,

Sorry to once again "preach to the choir." But just moments ago it was brought to my attention that conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh once again issued an unforgivable insult to those who disagree with his neoconservative philosophy of blind loyalty to George W. Bush's needless war in Iraq.

Limbaugh boldly stated that any troops who call for a withdrawal of troops in Iraq are "phony soldiers."

Not that long ago he made a similar comment about Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, a decorated Vietnam veteran, who has been a long time critic of George W. Bush's reckless Iraq policy. Limbaugh called Hagel "Senator Betray Us."

Surprise, Surprise - there was no outburst in Congress over that remark.

Back to the point -

As an Iraq war veteran who is strongly opposed to this war I am beyond words with this Bush administration mouthpiece Limbaugh who has no clue as to what he is talking about.

People like Limbaugh, who never wore the uniform, never seen combat, and who would never have the courage or the intestinal fortitude to put their own body where their rhetoric is have no right whatsoever to criticize combat veterans who express dissent toward a war that they actually had the courage to fight.

In my perfect world, Limbaugh would be out there right now in Baghdad, in the 120 degree heat, in full "battle rattle" with a an infantry unit getting a dose of what he is advocating for - and I would bet the farm that once he returned he would have a whole different perspective on what war really is. However, I'm not that lucky.

All in all, Limbaugh has absolutely no respect for veterans as far as I'm concerned. He loves to regurgitate Bush's main talking point for Iraq of "where fighting for freedom."

Well with this latest stunt by Limbaugh he obviously has no regard for freedom or those who fight for it. Unless of course you agree with his methodology of total lunacy.

LIMBAUGH IS A DISGRACE.

John Bruhns
Iraq War Veteran
Legislative Representative
Americans Against Escalation In Iraq
www.IraqCampaign.org




Rudy, Mitt, and McCain blow off minority debate.

It does seem like the GOP is going out of its way to alienate everyone but Southern white people.

Shorter Dr. Helen.

Dr. Mrs. Putz: Despite what those bitchy women say, men aren't lazy and selfish -- they do less than half of the caregiving -- and no one cares.

Will someone from Tennessee take look at this list?

By my count, 13 soldiers from Tennessee have been killed in Iraq this year.

Will someone who knows the state see how many from this list are from Marsha Blackburn's district? My guess is it's a number that shouldn't be a strain on her memory, if she cared as much about the troops as she does an ad in a newspaper.

UPDATE

Thanks to Actor212, we've got a list:

Germantown
Secher, Robert M. Captain 08-Oct-2006

Franklin
Buerstetta, Richard A. Lance Corporal 23-Oct-2006

Clarksville
Winkler III, Harry A. Private 1st Class 12-Nov-2006
Cerrone, Michael A. 1st Lieutenant 12-Nov-2006

Only four soldiers from Marsha Blackburn's district have been killed in Iraq this year. I'm sure she can name four loyal well-heeled donors. I'm sure she can name four lobbyists. I'm sure she can recite four DC eateries she's dined in the past year. And I'm quite sure she can rattle off four reasons the MoveOn newspaper ad is bad for America.

But she can't, when asked, name the most recent of four men who died for Bush's mistake -- the mistake she continues to support.

Indeed.

It's amazing that the Democrats in the House and Senate don't know this:

Just as it is not the business of Columbia University to declare some views "right" and other views "wrong," it is not the business of the United States Senate to enact resolutions condemning the constitutionally protected expression of private citizens. To be sure, many of us sometimes find the constitutionally protected expression of others offensive. Some of us may despise speech that espouses racial inferiority; some of us may find odious speech calling abortion murder; some of us may dislike the views of presidential candidates on the issue of gay marriage; and some of us may be offended by claims that torture is sometimes moral. In this nation, we are all free as individuals to "condemn" the views with which we disagree, and individual senators, acting in their individual capacities, are similarly free to declare their distaste for certain expression.

But it is not a legitimate role for the Senate of the United States to pass formal resolutions condemning the expression of constitutionally protected views.

Bill Orally.

Turns out, he loves black people! (via HuffPost)

Clinton on MoveOn.

Fan-fuckin'-tastic.

More of this, please.

(h/t Sullivan)

Civility.

The punchline to the joke -- "the Soros Media Gestapo" -- is that Putz happily linked to Bruce's ravings.

Is it safe to assume Glenn Reynolds has no problem equating a Holocaust survivor to the Shutzstaffel?

Charming.

[via]

Attention Democrats in the House and Senate:

This is why allowing a vote on the MoveOn ad was really, really stupid:
We are watching the return of the "San Francisco Democrats," the blame-America-first Democrats. MoveOn.org's attack on General Petraeus was just the most obvious manifestation of the radicalism that has seized the Democrats from top to bottom.
Right wing partisans and the corprorate media don't care that you voted to condemn MoveOn. They will use it to flog you, anyway.

Glenn Reynolds: Blackwater controversies prove Iraq is "safer than you think."

Leave it to Putz to turn a story about overzealous mercanaries run amok in Iraq into media-bashing gold:

LOOKING AT THE NEW YORK TIMES' ARTICLE ON BLACKWATER, A SURPRISING DISCOVERY: Iraq is a lot safer that you might think:

I don't know about you, but I find those figures – both for Blackwater and DynCorp – staggering, even allowing for the fact that there must be other incidents where convoys come under attack, but keep going without returning fire.

I was under the impression that every time a convoy left the Green Zone it was like the scene in Mad Max II where the fuel tanker (no spoilers in case you haven't seen it) driven by Max leaves the good guys' compound. I pictured insurgents leaping off buildings on to the roofs of SUVs, IEDs going off left, right and centre, and suicide car bombs and RPGs coming from every direction.

Where did I get this impression? From watching the TV news and reading the mainstream news websites. It's almost as if… as if… the media is exaggerating how bad things are in Iraq!

Read the whole thing. It reminds me of when the Soviets used to show newsreels of Vietnam protests as evidence of how bad things were in America, only to have the audience think, "hey, everybody in these films has new shoes!"

Here's a few of yesterday's exaggerations:

HUNDREDS DEAD AND WOUNDED IN WAVE OF VIOLENCE IN IRAQ

McClatchy reports that a wave of bombings shook Iraq on Wednesday. In double bombing in the Baghdad market of Baya` left 32 dead and nearly that many wounded. From Sinjar in the north to Basra in the south, the country seemed consumed in a paroxysm of violence.


Reuters reports that on Wednesday,


' BAGHDAD - Two car bombs killed 32 people and wounded 28 shortly before dusk in Bayaa, a mainly Shi'ite district in southwestern Baghdad, police said. . .

SHIRQAT - Two car bombs killed seven people and wounded five in the town of Shirqat, 300 km (190 miles) north of Baghdad, police said. The first one targeted a police patrol in a crowded market and the second exploded near a police station.

MOSUL - A suicide truck bomber targeting a court under construction killed three workers and wounded 47 others in Mosul, 390 kilometers (240 miles) north of Baghdad, Nineveh police chief Major-General Wathiq al-Hamadani said. '

Noted Without Comment

We Have a Winner!
















And it's not Althouse!

Late last night, InstaPutz interns discovered 24 invalid votes, allegedly the handiwork of Ron Paul supporters. (Tom Hilton's vote was legitimate.)

So, despite valiant efforts from Doghouse -- and piss-poor showings from Candidates Jay B. and J--, respectively -- the new The Left is...

...Three Bulls!

3B! could not be reached by press time, but we were able to obtain this artist's rendering:













In the words of TehEds, "You will tell you grandkids about this day."

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Glenn Reynolds on David Shuster's "cheap shot."

Totally predictable. (updated below) (updated again)

OOPS: David Shuster's cheap shot backfires. Will an apology be forthcoming?

UPDATE: An apology: Follow the link for details and video. It's a pretty grudging apology, though, leaving out the cheap-shot angle. Would Shuster have asked Hillary that question?

To review, Shuster asked if a Republican Congresswoman -- who appeared on the program solely to engage in political attacks over the completely inconsequential MoveOn phony outrage -- could name the last KIA in Iraq from her district. Should've been an easy question for her.

She couldn't answer the question, to her shame.

How is that in any way "cheap"? Does Putz think the names of the troops killed in Iraq from her district is trivial information, which the Congresswoman can't be expected to know? And how in any way does Shuster getting the name wrong mean that his question "backfired"?

Shuster made his point: the Congresswoman's priorities are seriously out of whack.

PS
Here's the latest poll results from her website. She might want to stop talking about MoveOn and start working on how to get our men and women home -- the men and women who are apparently unfamiliar to her.



UPDATE

Flopping Aces pretty much sums up the wingnut attitude. The troops are less important than an ad in a newspaper.
The liberals are crying that the fact is she didn't know the name of the last soldier killed but you know what? Her job isn't to know the name of every soldier killed, its to fight the liberal nimrods who put up traitorous ads in newspapers.
UPDATE 2

Putz:

MORE: A reader asks why it's a cheap shot to ask a member of Congress to name the last casualty from his/her district? That would seem to answer itself. But -- as noted plainly above -- I strongly doubt that Shuster would have asked Hillary that question, even though she voted for the war. It was a trap.

Interestingly, though, it's a trap that, in its nature, underscores how historically low casualties are in this war. You wouldn't have heard that question in World War II, not only because the press would have been ashamed to ask it, but because casualties then were such that nobody could possibly keep track. That it can be asked in this war demonstrates not only the cheap-shot tendencies of a hopelessly partisan press, but also the small scale of the actual warfare.

Well, let's start with the first part. The question does not answer itself, despite what Putz says. The fact that the Congresswoman didn't know the answer to the question says as much about her as it does Shuster.

It speaks to her priorities (memorizing every last wingnut talking point on MoveOn vs. not knowing who's dying in her district for the unpopular war she supports). It speaks to her seriousness. It speaks to her compassion.

Hillary is a red herring. But it was a trap, obviously. A trap that exposed the Congresswoman's unseriousness and callousness. Putz is only ticked off because it worked. Does anyone doubt that if Blackburn had gotten the name right Putz and the wingnutosphere would be dancing in the endzone? Of course they would.

As for the "small scale" of the deaths in Iraq -- that's a pretty disgusting formulation that speaks for itself.

Word of the Day

Courtesy of Dan Riehl: "dimplef~&ck"

Until now, Dan has gotten by on his good looks and a writing style that would make John O'Hara jealous. But let's face it, the wingnut sinecure clock is ticking.

Being white will only get Dan's gaseous ass so far. One day soon he must learn to spell. For now, though, he remains nothing more than a poor man's La Shawn Barber.

The WATBs at Red State.

Red State has the vapors over the Shuster/Blackburn smackdown.
...the only reason David Shuster knows Jeremy Bohannon's name is because it was convenient for Shuster to use Bohannon's dead body to score points against a Republican.
A Republican who's sole purpose in appearing on the show was to score points against Democrats over MoveOn. And Shuster wouldn't have scored any points at all if Blackburn had known the answer to the question.

She should know the name of the last soldier killed in her district is, shouldn't she?

Anyway, read the comments. The nutters are spinning conspiracy theories about how the soldier Shuster mentioned actually isn't in Blackburn's district, how the whole thing stinks, etc.

Blackburn is in good company. Ari couldn't name the soldier in his own ad.

Why is Glenn Reynolds so PC?

Why do those, like our friend Putz, who consistently decry political correctness, keep referring to mercenaries thusly?
THOUGHTS ON WHAT TO DO about private military companies like Blackwater.
"Private military companies" or "security contractors" or "military contractors" have a name: mercenaries. Really simple.

People like Putzy who believe political correctness is wrecking America need to walk the walk and call a spade a spade.

Hanson.



VDH, washing his hands:
All wars see mistakes. But what is strange about Iraq is that almost all of our lapses only became evident as such in hindsight.
Bingo! No one could've imagined...

Hanson then goes on to chide Democrats on their supposed inability to candidly take responsibility for the war.

No, seriously.

Bill Sammon Is a Catty Bitch.










"STEP OFF, GREGRY! BUSH IZ MINE!"


In an interview with Examiner reporter Bill Sammon, Hugh Hewitt says that the White House press corps is "generally speaking, selected for their telegenic capabilities and not for any ability that they bring to analysis."

Replies Sammon:

I’ll go on Air Force One or on the trips with the President, or on the press charter, and you’ll see David Gregory kicked back, and he’s got the big…he makes a big show of he’s got the latest Bob Woodward book, big 500 pound tome, he’s making a show of reading it. And they all do it, and they’ve got the New Yorker out, which I just can’t stand, and they think that when they come up with a story idea, or when they frame a story and present a story, that they are sort of representing, you know, middle America, because their sensibilities much reflect middle America.


Meow.

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

You Have Only Yourself to Blame...
























Vote!

Bed-wetter Nation.

Indeed.

Dolchstoss update.

Courtesy of Michael Ramirez.

Dean Barnett Suicide Watch, Day 3

















Over the past month, Mitt Romney has "lost ground" in Florida among primary voters and has yet to pull ahead of McCain -- perhaps because the former POW is the only GOP candidate who doesn't despise Spanish-speakers.

¡Adios, pendejo!

David Shuster slaps a Republican around.

And just as a bonus, she's from Putzland. Give the guy his own show. Now. (via Atrios)


UPDATE

This poll is from Marsha Blackburn's website. These Bush Republicans might wanna pay a little more attention to their districts and a little less to their Phony Outrage projects.

Bobo.

I was going to blog about David Brooks' column today, but then I saw Greenwald did.

Thus, this is what we hear: The Democratic controlled Congress has reached new depths of unpopularity, but what they are doing is politically smart. Most Americans really want us to stay in Iraq. Bloggers are espousing views that most Americans hate. Views held by most Americans are the province of the "radical angry Left." Democrats can only win elections by supporting the popular President's policies, avoiding any real differences, and scorning their own base. The only hope Democrats have is to adhere to prevailing Beltway orthodoxy.

That is the only real point of what David Brooks and most of his pundit comrades say and do over and over and over. And as their assertions become more and more transparently false, they just increasingly invoke misleading and deceitful tactics in order to maintain them.

One does tire of the oh-so-2003 left/right analysis of Iraq.

Obama and Iowa.

It seems to me this isn't a trivial development. Polls indicate a tightening in Iowa, and it's clear from the national polls that Obama will need to win at least one of the first three or four states if he's going to be the nominee.

Glenn Reynolds: Glenn Greenwald is a hypocritical traitor.

"I still like the Glenn Greenwald photoshop..." - Putz
The photosphop Putz refers to features Glenn Greenwald sitting next to The New Hitler. You see, because Greenwald thinks the right wing hysteria over The Next Hitler speaking at Columbia was misplaced, Eric at Classical Values says that makes him a traitor.

And the fact that he's gay, well, that makes him a hypocrite too!

Feel free to drop by Eric's place and tell him what you think of these smears in comments.

Monday, September 24, 2007

Hitler.

Gingrich just told Van Susteren that Mr. You-Know-Who is "like Hitler."

It really is impossible to parody these people.

The New The Left (Update)

The eminently sensible Roger Simon asks

Will the left respond to Ahmadinejad's homophobic insanity?

It's a good question. The problem, o' course, is that The Left is no more. With that in mind... (Polls will close in a couple of days. To my dismay, J--, J.B., 3B! and Doghouse are doing poorly. Don't you people read Edroso's and S,N!'s comment sections? Anyway, at this rate AA will be the new The Left. Color me dismayed, but one can't ignore the will of the people!)

The Ghost Writer

Freddoso:

If Obama were white, then I'm sure he'd be praised for not knowing what's in his own book, five days after it was published.

I wouldn't blame him, though. If he's like everyone else in Washington — regardless of race, party or ethnic background — he hired someone else to write it for him.


That's news to me. From James Merriner:

In an interview last winter, Obama told me he was busy writing a then-untitled book about national issues. "One of the things about having written this first one is, the threshold is a little higher. People know what my voice sounds like. I can't fake it with a ghostwriter," he said.


You, sir, are no longer my hero.

This is why it was a good idea to have Ahmadinejad at Columbia.

So we could hold him up to scorn and ridicule:
"In Iran we don't have homosexuals like in your country."

With the audience laughing derisively, he continued: "In Iran we do not have this phenomenon. I don't know who's told you that we have this."


Heh.

Indeed:
Skepticism of government officials? Media objectivity? First Amendment freedoms? Due Process and Habeas Corpus and diplomacy? Ahmadinejad is Hitler, Our Enemy, and We are at War -- with him and forever. That's all we really need to know.

Juan Cole is Wrong.

Cole writes:

...the U.S. State Department denounced Ahmadinejad as himself little more than a terrorist. Critics have also cited his statements about the Holocaust or his hopes that the Israeli state will collapse. He has been depicted as a Hitler figure intent on killing Israeli Jews, even though he is not commander in chief of the Iranian armed forces, has never invaded any other country, denies he is an anti-Semite, has never called for any Israeli civilians to be killed, and allows Iran's 20,000 Jews to have representation in Parliament.


Sorry, Mr. Cole, but it requires a big fat suspension of disbelief to assume that MA isn't anti-Semitic. Yes, there's allegedly room for scads of Jews in the Parliament. Um, so what? There's just one, for one thing; but, anyway, Henry Ford, of all people, employed 3,000 Jews in his factories, and I'd bet the ADL won't light a yahrzeit candle for him anytime soon. Also, yes, MA says he isn't, but since when is a verbal assurance enough -- especially in the face of evidence that suggests otherwise? (It's hard to read Holocaust denial any other way.)

Cole has overreached here and, in doing so, has undercut his premise.

"Want to kill free speech? Then expose and punish the people at the lowest levels of a bureaucracy. "

What Leonard Witt said. While he's still preferable to Dan Okrent, Clark Hoyt is indeed a gutless weasel.

Libertarian.

Hard to believe, but some people still actually believe that Putz is a libertarian.

And...?

Putz:

WELL, HE DOES HAVE A BOOK OUT CALLED WORLD WAR IV: Norman Podhoretz reportedly urged Bush to bomb Iran.


If Reynolds wants to use his platform to be a publicity ho for N-Pod, that's his business, but it'd be nice to know if he thinks bombing Iran is a good idea.

Ron Paul beats Giuliani in Michigan.

Libertarian Ron Paul finishes third in the Michigan straw poll!

I bet those libertarians Putz and Dr. Mrs. Putz are besides themselves with excitement!

[crickets]

McDonalds sells more fries; therefore, Bush and America are beloved around the world.

Yay! A Don Surber link!
DID BUSH MAKE THE WORLD HATE US? Don Surber comments...
Surber's theory is that because sales are up at McDonald's, that proves the world loves Bush. Some poor reader named Matt tried to point out that McDonald's sales and Bush's/America's popularity are two different things, and linked to this Pew poll, which objectively shows a) Bush is one of the most hated figured around the world and b) that America's popularity has fallen drastically since Iraq.

Surber replies...
Yes, actual sales numbers are anecdotal while a public opinion survey is “science."
Which just proves, yet again, what an innumerate moron Surber is.

UPDATE

Heh.



Sunday, September 23, 2007

Glenn Reynolds, high school junior.

Putz says that Ahmadinejad "doesn't like" Bush -- which is just about the most shallow and naive comment he's ever made about foreign affairs, and that's saying a lot.

Bush's blunder in Iraq has been a threefold victory for Hitler, Jr.: the non-stop neocon threats to bomb/invade Iran has propped him up at home, the Iraq debacle has made his nation the most powerful in the region, and we disposed of Saddam, a bitter enemy of Iran for decades. Bush has actually been extremely heplful and good to Ahmadinejad, and the Iranian isn't stupid.

Whether or not he "likes" him on a personal level -- who the hell knows/cares? But it's hard to imagine a better President for Ahmadinejad than Bush. What's not to like?

Saturday, September 22, 2007

Attention Senate Democrats.

Pete Stark (D-CA) shows 'em how it's done:
"I commend MoveOn for their ad and for speaking truth to power. ... Up is not down, the earth is not flat, and the surge is not working. General Petreaus betrayed his own reputation by standing with George Bush in opposition to the timely withdrawal of all of our brave men and women from Iraq. I thank MoveOn for their patriotic ad and call on Petreaus to help Bush end a war the President should have never started."
(via Kos)

Right wing masculinity update.

Putz, defender of Traditional Masculine Virtues, appears to need a refresher on the Dangerous Book for Boys:
SO I SAW THIS Waring wine chiller at Williams-Sonoma the other day, and it looked cool.

Shrinking violets.

Look at Hew and Hanson, fretting about Columbia's "decency."

Says Hanson:
You just get the feeling that people in American universities, especially their administrators, are out of touch with common sense.
Man, that is some rich, creamy irony.

UPDATE

On the Rumsfeld/Stanford story, Putz writes,
Plus, the San Jose Mercury News on Stanford's McCarthyism. "Universities should be paragons for the open exchange of ideas, even if they're controversial or unpopular. And all connected with private and public university communities should protect that ideal."
Which is it? Open exchange of ideas or not?

It's so funny when the wingnuts start tripping over each other.

Friday, September 21, 2007

Classic Ackerman

The whole Ahmadinejad broublahblah reminds me of SK SA's line, "Let's say you're an antisemite. Why would you deny the Holocaust? Wouldn't you consider it the most awesome thing that ever happened?"

It Burns...

Roger Simon, who has apparently been hibernating since 2005, bemoans the sight of "Sean Penn opining on Katrina, sailing about New Orleans like some junior Ahab..."

Um, yeah:

Sean Penn has added to his reputation as the conscious face of Hollywood by launching his own rescue effort in the submerged streets of New Orleans.

The acclaimed Oscar-winner was so frustrated at the official efforts to rescue stranded citizens that he took to the streets in his own boat. However, there was one slight problem - his vessel sprung a leak.

Penn bailed the water out using a red plastic cup only to find his motor wouldn't start.

Undeterred, he and his crew paddled through the streets by hand and managed to rescue several people who had been trapped since Katrina hit. Penn took many of the rescued victims to hospital and even gave them money. According to The Guardian one man, Johnnie Brown, 73 told his sister over the phone: "Guess who come and got me out of the house? Sean Penn, the actor. The boys were really nice."

Penn told the assembled journalists: "I'm doing whatever I can do to help. There's a lot of people out there. There's bodies everywhere. We could only do so many houses."


Roger, quietly and expeditiously, go fuck yourself.

Glenn Reynolds blames Democrats for not stopping the war.

The non-partisan frames the Iraq debate thusly:

HARRY REID: "Frustrated Dems will keep pushing for end to Iraq war." But not hard enough to actually succeed in ending it, because then they might be held responsible.

Can someone please explain precisely how the Democrats end the war without 67 votes?

MoveOn isn't the issue.

I think it's important to note that the "conservative" or "right-leaning" Democrats who voted for the Cornyn measure are just shooting themselves in the foot. They are attacking progressives with a Republican frame: that is, liberals hate the military. Indeed, Bush said that was the case. And in doing so, they are not scoring points with moderates. They are diminishing the Democratic Party's brand, ultimately to their own detriment.

There are obvious tactical reasons why you should never attack your own side using the other guys' frames, and you never, ever see Republicans doing this because it's so obviously self-defeating.

It's incredibly frustrating that the Democrats don't get this and don't see why it's such a mistake. And it's not just the new Democrats. Kerry and Durbin caved to similar pressure, after the same smear was used against them.

Someone has to put a stop to this.

Atrios is exactly right.

Sez Duncan:
I certainly agree that obstructionism in and of itself isn't really something politicians should fear, but of course one has to look at how the press covers these things. Peoples' perceptions of whether "Democrats failed" or "Republicans obstructed" depend on large part on whether the press reports that "Democrats failed" or that "Republicans obstructed."

Though, of course, not all of the blame is with the press. The Democrats aren't pushing this narrative aggressively. It is unclear to me why exactly that is. But I'm just an idiot with a cable modem and they're members of the Greatest Deliberative Body in the World so maybe I should just be quiet.
The headline in the American-Statesman a couple days ago was exactly that, "Democrats' Iraq Strategy Fails" or something along those lines. Really bizarre.

Why wasn't the headline, "GOP blocks change on Iraq, backs Bush"?

I'm quite sure that if Democrats were in the minority and blocking an immensely popular piece of legislation, the headlines would be different and there would be 24/7 cries of "obstructionism" and Rush Limbaugh would be calling for the dissolution of the Senate.

Here's the list.

I am extremely disappointed in Feinstein and Webb. They should know better than to be used as pawns in a Republican-staged phony outrage bonfire.

Really, really stupid.

Baucus (D-MT)
Bayh (D-IN)
Cardin (D-MD)
Carper (D-DE)
Casey (D-PA)
Conrad (D-ND)
Dorgan (D-ND)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Johnson (D-SD)
Klobuchar (D-MN)
Kohl (D-WI)
Landrieu (D-LA)
Leahy (D-VT)
Lieberman (ID-CT)
Lincoln (D-AR)
McCaskill (D-MO)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Nelson (D-FL)
Nelson (D-NE)
Pryor (D-AR)
Salazar (D-CO)
Tester (D-MT)
Webb (D-VA)








Still pissed.

When was the last time:

A) a right wing media figure or organization said/wrote something controversial and then;
B) it was denounced by the President;
C) it was universally denounced by Republicans;
D) it was formally denounced by the entire Senate

Answer: never!

Thanks Harry!

The Most Disgusting Thing I've Ever Read. I Mean it This Time.

What would I do if were 25, world famous, unimaginably wealthy, and no one could say no to me? Well, first, I’d sleep with Dick Cheney. (It’s my World. Welcome to it.) I don’t know what it is: the commanding voice, the crooked smile, the possibility that at any moment he might have a heart attack and I would save the lives of thousands…whatever it is , this would be my priority.


Nasty, right? What kind of demented, wingnut boot-licker could think otherwise?

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Dr. Mrs. Putz:

"My first thought as I read this passage," she writes, "was that Cheney is probably more man than this lady can handle and she might be the one having a heart attack..."

Kill me now.

Thursday, September 20, 2007

"Pro-lifers and gays are both fighting for civil rights."

Says Ramesh Ponnuru's penpal.

The latter makes complete sense. The former, eh, not so much. Unless, sez I, the imperative to be an asshole is a civil right.

Can't anyone play this game?

Can someone please explain why Harry Reid allowed this atrocity of a bill to pass today?

Can anyone imagine Bill Frist and the Republicans passing an ad condemning The Club for Growth or the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth?

Idiots.

George Bush, Liar.

From today's White House presser:

Q Mr. President, back to the economy for a moment. The Fed took its half-point rate cut the other day. Do you think that was enough to stave off recession? And if not, are there other steps you're prepared to do financially?

THE PRESIDENT: Roger, I do not comment on the decisions made by the Fed.


February 22, 2001:

Q -- your tax and budget package, how can you be sure that, as you put it, there will be money left over? All it would take would be a less than one percentage point drop in productivity for that out-year surplus to dwindle, or maybe even vanish. And also, nobody, including Alan Greenspan, thinks that it would provide much of a current stimulus.

THE PRESIDENT: First of all, I think given the choice between increasing the baselines of the budget, to the extent to which it had been increased the past, and passing money back to the people, I think Mr. Greenspan -- not to put words in his mouth -- but it seems like -- why I don't just put some words in his mouth -- (laughter) -- it seems like what he said in his testimony is he would rather see tax relief rather than increasing the size of the budgets beyond the needs of the country.

Lileks Killed Teh Funny

Take it away, Jim:

HH: Did you ever listen to Lenny Bruce? People made that…they don’t make it anymore, I think, because they revere only Bruce’s memory. But was he this repugnant?

JL: He was more interesting. He was a little bit more, he was more hepped up, shall we say. He was throwing so much stuff at you that there was something in there bound to tickle your funny bone. Toward the end, when he sat on the stage and read excerpts of his trial, he was in Maher territory. But at his best, he was funnier than Maher, yeah.


Somewhere in Greenpoint, Roy Edroso is trying to strangle himself. (And he'd have every right...)

Obstructionism.

The filibuster: no longer evil!

Just for kicks. This was almost 2 years ago.

Greenwald v. Ledeen.

Heh.

GG to ML

Mr. Ledeen - I'm writing a piece for Salon on your new book. I am curious about one issue in particular -- if, as you frequently say (including this morning), "Iran declared war on us in 1979 and has been waging it ever since," do you consider it to be an act of treason for those in the Reagan administration who helped facilitate the sale of highly sophisticated weapons to Iran during the 1980s, during the time when they were waging war against the U.S.?

Isn't it the ultimate act of treason to help a country at war with the U.S. obtain weapons? Any thoughts you have to be included in the article would be appreciated.

Glenn Greenwald

GG to ML
While I have you - one other question: yesterday, you indicated that Gen. Abizaid had "suppressed" evidence of Iranian acts of war inside Iraq. Do you have any ideas as to what motivated him to do so?

Glenn Greenwald

ML to GG (re: arming Iran)
As I wrote at the time, quoting Talleyrand, "it was worse than a crime, it was a blunder."
ML to GG (re: Abizaid)
it's all in the book, which i'm sure you are memorizing.
GG to ML
But was it treason to work to provide arms to a country at war with the U.S.?
ML to GG
listen, i've answered you twice. you've slandered me from pillar to post, please stop being rude.
GG to ML
It's true that you responded to my emails, but you didn't actually answer the question. I'll include the email exchange and let the reader decide if you did.

Glenn Greenwald

That wasn't very constructive. Ledeen is perfectly content to urge war with Iran based on the moronic slogan -- now a right-wing article of faith -- that they have been "at war with us since 1979," but he is completely unwilling to account for his own behavior or that of the Reagan administration towards Iran during that time. And he's eager to leave all sorts of dark innuendo about Gen. Abizaid ("suppressing evidence" of Iranian acts of war) but refuses to state what he means or why he thinks Abazaid would engage in such treacherous behavior.

Hmmm.

Maybe Roger Simon, who not only "had the pleasure of having Pellegrino" with one Judith Miller, but in fact had the disgraced reporter keynote his Pajamas Media kick-off, ought not lecture Columbia University on what constitutes an appropriate speaker.

Here's a perverse thought: Does Roger get off on being mocked?

Glenn Reynolds has advice for the White House.

This is really what Putz thinks their "best strategy" is?
I'VE SAID BEFORE that the Bush Administration's best strategy is to get Democratic members of Congress on TV and let them talk as long as they want.
Genius idea! Let the Democrats talk on TV!

OK, that, and not manage to lose two wars at the same time.

UPDATE

Aqualung's response in comments is funny enough to deserve posting here:
After careful consideration I have come to the conclusion that Reynolds is just about as empty a suit as Commander Guy. And that's empty like the vacuum of outer space. The White House is supposed to arrange TV time for Dems? What, does the White House run a network or something?

Maybe he means Fox, where they'll air a few seconds of a Dem before turning down the volume and cutting away to a play-by-play sniggering analysis by the Fair and Balanced team. Sean Hannity calling the Dems traitors and Ann Coulter calling them fags. Hardy har har. That shore wud be funny! It'd show them DhimocRATS a thang or two! Heh heh heh. Wooooooo doggies! Hunny, get me ‘nother beer outa the fridge, will ya?

Occasional episodes of stupidity are understandable, but with these fucking guys it is a seamless flow of stupidity, a boundless harvest of ever-increasing stupidity.

I’ve kinda gotten used to the seamless flow, but it still surprises me that the stupidity just continues to get stupider. How is that possible?

We musn't let the infidel defile sacred ground.

What a bunch of hypocritical phonies.

Where was all this outrage when it came out that Dick Cheney's Halliburton had done business with Iran?

No Surrender.

John McCain has a little problem:

It was not until the president was safely re-elected that McCain announced he had “no confidence” in the secretary of defense. Even then, he declined to call for his resignation. Bush, he said, “can have the team that he wants around him.”

Follow the thinking here:

A) Disaster if we mess up in Iraq

B) Rumsfeld is messing up in Iraq

C) Only Bush can decide to get rid of Rumsfeld

D) Bush wants to keep Rumsfeld

E) Support George Bush.

Collins is right. If failure in Iraq is the End of Western Civilization As We Know It, McCain certainly didn't act like it in 2004. He could've run on a bi-partisan ticket with Kerry. He could've resigned the Senate in protest and run as an Independent.

McCain instead put his political ambitions above the Great War To Save These United States.

Can't have it both ways, John.

Mitt Romney, Asshole.

Pass it on.

A crowd of more than 1,000 turned out for a long wait in the rain, and many stayed at Lake Sumter Landing after his speech hoping for a handshake.

"We're under attack from jihadists," Romndy [sic] said, calling it one of the great issues of our time. While Romney did not mention the war in Iraq by name, he cited the report by Gen. David Petraeus that Americans are making progress helping the Sunnis reject al-Qaida.

"Thank heavens Barack Obama wasn't president," Romney said. "We'd have been out of there, and al-Qaida would be dancing in the streets."


The Romney campaign probably hopes no one will notice this slimy quote; indeed, it seems to have been picked up by only one other local paper.

Replace "Rudy Giuliani" for "Obama" and "Hillary Clinton" for "Romney" -- the outcry would be deafening.

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

"Just because [Hugh Hewitt]'s a partisan fanatic doesn't mean he doesn't have some good ideas."

Says Mr. Sullivan.

I disagree. Extremists, which is what Hewitt is, do not, as a rule, have good ideas.

Townhall putziness.

Matt Lewis, total idiot.
Following up on his brilliant "Moveon" maneuver, last week, Rudy Giuliani has performed yet another PR coup, by taking his campaign to ... London.

...

Not only does this trip show him as as a statesman -- and remind folks he of his "Chuchillian" 9-11 image -- it also allows him to dominate the headlines for yet another week.
So Rudy takes a trip to England and that makes him "Chuchillian" [sic]? And he's "dominating" the headlines?

Really?

Speaking of polling.

It sucks to be a Republican when the top 3 issues for 2008 are, in this order, Iraq, the economy and health care.

Bush has lost Iraq, produced a lousy economy for the middle class and done jack about health care.

Good luck Rudy!

29%.

Just last week Putz enthusiastically declared, "BUSH GAINS IN THE POLLS."

Alas, the latest CBS has him at 29%.

Hanson.



VDH still thinks Saddam had WMD:
What are we to make of these reoccurring stories of various weapons of mass destruction incidents in Syria, whether the accident in July of Iranians and Syrians arming Scud missiles with mustard (or sarin?) gas, or recent Syrian nuclear depositories being bombed by Israelis.

A number of issues arise: are the Gulf monarchies, Turkey, Egypt, and Jordan essentially staying mum, with the quiet understanding that Israel is too be given a green light, if it acts stealthily, to contain these threats?

Is there a link to Saddam’s former arsenal and fugitive technicians—the now taboo missing WMD?
Nuttier and nuttier every day.

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Petraeus!

AP:

BAGHDAD: Three U.S. soldiers were killed Tuesday following an explosion near their patrol northeast of Baghdad, the military said.

The Task Force Lightning soldiers were killed and three others were wounded in Diyala province, the center of a series of U.S. operations against al-Qaida in Iraq and other militants.

The military statement announcing the deaths provided no more details.

Another Task Force Lightning soldier died Tuesday in a vehicle accident in the northern Ninevah province, the military said separately, adding the incident was under investigation.

Identities of the deceased were not released pending notification of relatives.

The deaths raised to at least 3,786 members of the U.S. military who have died since the Iraq war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

"Rudy says he's liberals' 'worst nightmare'"

Yeah, maybe. Or a speech therapist's...

Wow.

Don't piss off Atrios.

"Few sounds are sweeter than broken English."

Somebody's not invited to the Malkin(s) Christmas party!

Glenn Reynolds and Dr. Helen, non-partisan libertarians, interview Laura Ingraham.

Words cannot describe this atrocity. But I'll try.

Laura Ingraham sez: "Today, if you have a big family, you're considered, kind of -- a freak."

Um, by whom? Why, those librul New Yorkers, Angelenos, and environmentalists! I wish I were making this up.

Another revealing exchange:

Dr. Mrs. Putz: "What's your complaint with porn?"
Laura: "It destroys families."

Naturally -- no discussion at all on the economic challenges middle class families face today that they didn't in say, 1960: housing, health care, child care, etc.

No, Just the same old tired Kulturkampf. Network teevee should be more strictly regulated by the government! Rap is killing our kids!

Oy.

Giuliani to Social Conservatives: Drop Dead!

















(Above: Rudolph Giuliani, not attending the values debate.)

Daily News:

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - Self-described "values voters" gathered here Monday to grill Republican presidential candidates, but the forum was most notable for its empty lecterns and its unanswered questions.

The biggest GOP names -- Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, John McCain and Fred Thompson -- sat out the Values Voter Presidential Debate, citing scheduling conflicts. That didn't stop questioners from addressing the front-runners who didn't attend.

[snip]

Though all four front-runners cited scheduling conflicts with the debate, Giuliani was in Fort Lauderdale just hours before the debate and Thompson was in Florida over the weekend and is due back Tuesday.


Miami Herald:

Giuliani was slated to meet with supporters at a Tampa cafe and attend a fundraiser.

Asked why he wasn't attending the debate, Giuliani said, ``I wasn't aware of it.''



Hmmm. Not exactly the same thing.

No Kidding?

"If there was an online magazine or newspaper that had James Lileks, Mark Steyn, Bill Kristol, Andrew Ferguson, John Podhoretz, Bill Simmons, Terry Teachout and Michael Yon contributing daily, I’d pay for it."

Monday, September 17, 2007

I Was Wrong.

I've occasionally mocked Dean Barnett's analytical prowess.

I am truly sorry. Behold:

The best golfer ever. By a mile....

In golf, there obviously has never been anything like him. ... Even Nicklaus in his prime, as great as he was, didn’t dominate as Tiger does.

[snip]

The non-golf obsessed view Tiger as a similarly Ruthian figure, but this isn’t quite accurate.

[snip]

What’s most amazing about Tiger from a golfer’s perspective is how great he is at everything. ...
Tiger is the best at everything. He’s the best off the tee, the best from the fairway, the best around the greens, the best with the putter, and most of all the best when it comes time to scramble and grind....

[snip]

Tiger, quite literally, is the best at all the disparate talents that his sport demands...

[snip]

Some people might argue with my assessment that Tiger’s the best golfer ever. That’s not an argument worth having. A more fitting topic for debate is the following: Is Tiger Woods the most dominant athlete ever, regardless of sport?

I’d say yes.


The genius of Dean's post is that Tiger Woods can be exchanged for David Petraeus and, by golly, Peggy Noonan is moist as a used dish rag.

UPDATE: Edited for clarity. Not, apparently, for taste. (Fwiw, I feel a little bad about the last sentence. But not, you know, bad enough to delete it.)

This One's for BT. (I'm Nauseated.)

Somebody Needs a Neck Tuck...

















"You get sprung!"


I've seen Thanksgiving turkeys with smaller wattles.

Great White Dope Losing to McCain!!!!














I'm sure there's an item on this by Hewitt and Barnett forthcoming...

...Hewitt, Sept. 4: "Romney Rising; Thompson Chilling"

Fuck You, Glenn Reynolds.

I apologize for the uncivil language, but this is simply unacceptable:

GOOD THING WE HAVEN'T abandoned them yet. "American commanders in southern Iraq say Shiite sheiks are showing interest in joining forces with the U.S. military against extremists, in much the same way that Sunni clansmen in the western part of the country have worked with American forces against Al Qaeda."


"GOOD THING WE HAVEN'T abandoned them yet." Ha ha. That's funny!

Iraq's refugees fled to urban areas in neighboring countries, instead of gathering in tents or makeshift camps. But by early 2006, as the bloodshed intensified, the trickle became a flood, with up to 40,000 Iraqis leaving each month. Today, the UN estimates 1 in 10 Iraqis lives outside the country. The advocacy group Refugees International calls it "the fastest-growing refugee crisis in the world."

In addition to 2.5 million refugees, another 2 million Iraqis are displaced within their homeland. It's the largest mass migration in the Middle East since hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were forced from their homes after the creation of Israel in 1948. ...

More than 2 million of Iraq's refugees have fled to Syria and Jordan, two of the Middle East's poorest countries whose infrastructures are already overburdened. The refugees are driving up rents and food prices; overcrowding schools and hospitals, and using up meager water and electricity resources. These social and economic pressures are fueling resentment of the Iraqis in Syria and Jordan.

[snip]

The UN is urging the United States and European countries to permanently resettle more Iraqis and to send aid to ease the financial burden on Syria and Jordan. UN agencies classify most Iraqis as having only "temporary protection status" -- rather than as permanent refugees -- because most are expected to return to Iraq once the fighting subsides. Only a small fraction of Iraqis will be eligible for resettlement in the West. ...

But few Western countries are eager to accept Iraqis. Until a few months ago, U.S. officials downplayed the extent of the refugee crisis. That made the problem worse, according to human rights groups, who accuse the United States of failing to honor its moral obligation. After being criticized for granting asylum to only 466 Iraqi refugees since the war began in March 2003, the Bush administration raised the quota to 7,000 for this year. As of March, the State Department had admitted only 68 Iraqis.


So please, Putz. Get off your fucking high horse.

Alan Greenspan = Michael Moore?

There seems to be a lot of BDS going around these days. But we'd expect that from Greenspan, dirty hippie that he is.
Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, in his new book, bashes President Bush for not responsibly handling the nation's spending and racking up big budget deficits.

A self-described "libertarian Republican," Greenspan takes his own party to task for forsaking conservative principles that favor small government.
But surely as a libertarian Republican, he sees the importance of defeating Islamofascism in Iraq, though, right?
"I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil."
How unserious! The no-blood-for-oil cliche!

So to recap: Cato's taken Bush to task for his abuse of the Constitution. Now Greenspan, yet another libertarian-leaning Republican (see also O'Neill, Paul), takes Bush to task for his fiscal policies, and his foreign policy.

What kind of libertarians still support Bush?



Sunday, September 16, 2007

Pajamas Media: Redefining "News"
























Why is Pajamas Media pushing a video from 1991? For Christ's sake, it's got a timestamp.

I mean, yeah, I get it. Let's invade Iran and give Michael Ledeen that six-hour boner he so richly deserves!

But comrades -- and I do mean this sincerely -- won't it be easier to gin up support for democracywhiskeyboomboom with grainy snuff films from this decade?

Friday, September 14, 2007

No one but the Bush koolaiders believe Petraeus.

Only 35% of Americans believe St. David.

But good luck with that apology campaign Rudy!

Hit 'em back, harder.

This is getting beyond ridiculous:
"It's disgraceful, it's got to be retracted and condemned by the Democrats and MoveOn.org ought to be thrown out of this country, my friends."
If the GOP thinks that stomping around and demanding apologies is going to work, they've got a rude awakening coming.

Further Proof That Alcohol Kills Brain Cells

Bush met with ten dead-ender winger bloggers. If N.Z. Bear's notes are reliable, our President -- intellectually speaking -- still lags behind the late Alex the Parrot:

On the new Iraqi government's need to gain the trust of their people: "Does the average cat understand... this is a government for the people?"

"Hey, do you like these pumps in amber or celadon?"

Written by Leonard Pierce, sung to the tune of "Folsom Prison Blues":

I hear them trolls a-comin’
They’re trollin’ round the bend
I ain’t oppressed a colored
Since I don’t know when
I’m stuck in the Atlantic
My column’s draggin’ on
Hey, do you like these pumps in amber or celadon?

When I was just a baby
My mama told me “Meg,
Don’t be a libertarian
Or your face will fill with egg”
But I made a poll on Thursday
Just to fill some space
Now the only red in my state
Is the red on my face

I love them rich folks eatin’
In a fancy dinin’ car
I love that bottled water and Dominican cigars
I hate that regulation
I like my market free
But it won’t support my dress size
I’m almost six foot three

Well, if I was the mayor
If I wrote them zoning laws
I bet I’d gerrymander
And I’d answer just because
Far from all them coloreds
That’s where I want to stay
Hey, have you seen my monogrammed sweater?
I had it yesterday



I love Johnny, but that's better than the original.

At Last!

Kiddies, Christmas has come early.

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Memo to Bill Crawford at All Things Conservative.

Do you guys remember this?
Unlike the last Commander-in-chief, is there any doubt that the men and women who serve our country love President Bush.
At the time, I couldn't help but point out to Billy and his wingnut readers in comments, that in 2004, John Kerry had tripled the military vote Gore received in 2000.

Billy simply had no explanation for that, and accused me of "lying."

So how's this taste, Billy?
Since the start of the Iraq war in 2003, members of the U.S. military have dramatically increased their political contributions to Democrats, marching sharply away from the party they've long supported. In the 2002 election cycle, the last full cycle before the war began, Democrats received a mere 23 percent of military members' contributions.* So far this year, 40 percent of military money has gone to Democrats for Congress and president, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. Anti-war presidential candidates Barack Obama and Ron Paul are the top recipients of military money.
Now why would that be, Billy? I'm sure it's because they all love Bush and they all believe that we're winning the Great Patriotic War Against Islamofascism, right?