Friday Night Sprites

A few small things:

Our resident online plagiarist has graduated to complete theft of material.  Does anyone still think me wrong for suggesting that this is a Democratic plant of a website, or do you believe that a Republicant shill could truly be so very stupid?  I trend to think the latter.

Over the last day or two, Oliver has been on a gaddamned roll! 

Steve Clemons of the Washington Note is very knowledgeable about global policy and all its ebbs and flows, but he makes the same mistake in this piece for Salon that so many in the foreign policy "establishment" do. Clemons assumes that Bush would not attack Iran because it wouldn't make any sense. The problem is, these are not people governed by sanity. In 2002, as Bush and the Republicans campaigned against Democrats as to how tough they where to whip their genitals out to oust Hussein, I assumed that all the talk about invading Iraq was bravado. I seriously thought to myself: they couldn't be that stupid.

I was wrong. Really wrong. Before this administration there have presidents of both parties who have done things that people can clearly disagree about on policy, but we had a long tradition of not being completely insane in the White House. Things have changed.

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I was trying to think about why I've been bothered by the constant focus, especially among some conservatives, on the Duke rape case and its aftermath. There's no doubt that Mike Nifong is an idiot of the highest order who screwed up those student's lives considerably and he should be strongly punished. But isn't the whole reason why Duke is notable the fact that it's an outlier? We don't have a very long tradition of middle to upper class white males being victimized by the justice system. When it does come to light it does so largely because of its rarity.

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The traditional view, especially from folks on the online left, is that Hillary Clinton is the play it safe centrist while Obama is the progressive fighter.

But the mostly symbolic, silly and time-wasting vote on MoveOn did have an effect. Sen. Clinton and Dodd voted against stupidity (Let me know when the senate votes to condemn pro-administration outlets like Rush Limbaugh - who regularly slurs women, minorities and anyone not on the left while calling for torture and the like. He makes anything intemperate MoveOn has ever said or endorsed look like a southern belle at the spring formal. I wonder when we'll have a single Democratic senator with the balls to push a resolution condemning Limbaugh & Co.) while Sen. Obama simply didn't show up.

ODub talks the talk and walks the walk.  And, Atrios hasn't been slacking either:

All of this was utterly predictable last Spring, and blindingly obvious by August. If people want to pretend that fake media controversies which didn't move public opinion in the slightest are the reason that they're failing to do the jobs they were elected to do they're welcome to do that, but they just reveal themselves to be petty childish mediocrities with fragile egos who don't want to take responsibility for their own failures.

Congrats, losers!

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Reid bad, won't compromise. Of course what really has happened is that the Democrats, including Reid, wanted to find some sort of compromise bill to get "moderate Republicans" on board, but then they realized that moderate Republicans won't actually get on board with anything that could actually achieve anything in Iraq, and even if they did they don't exist in sufficient numbers (60 total or 67 depending on how you want to look at it) for an actual compromise to pass.

And just read this whole thing.

Could somebody rational (not so fast Ms. Malkin) please explain to me what is so farooking awful about Ahmahinejad's will to visit 'ground zero'?  It's a publicity stunt, and the whining mass of wingnut stupid is giving him more than he could have hoped for.  He wants to lay a wreath, for pity's sake.  So what?  What do you really think is gonna happen, wingnuts?  Do you think he's gonna pee on the hollowed dirt (hollowed only because it's the site of one of our greatest ass-kickings)?  After 9/11, Iran promised help, and offered sympathy and support.  A few short months later, some important retard lumped them into a mythological "axis of evil".  That doesn't mean that we have to buy into their anger, or the bullshit from the important retard.  Iran had jack-shit to do with the terror attacks of 9/11.  So I really want someone to rationally explain:  what's the problem here?

Folks, I can't get all worked up about this.  MoveOn put things poorly.  The wingnuts went apeshit.  Tester is correct:  let's not waste a buttload of time concerning something idiotic.  Move On.

On the other hand, the Democrats really did play right into the gambit of Republicants who are banking on the voters being dumb enough to care more about fantasy than they are that the Republicants have chosen:

A)  Our troops will serve without just rest until they die!

B)  Habeas Corpus is some foreign term that don't mean shit to Amurkins.

This war will go on and on, and we will bankrupt ourselves to fight the war without end.

Have a great weekend, folks.

Comments

[Gully]

Wulfgar...it's not hollowed ground because it's the site of an "ass-kicking". It's hollowed ground because 3,000 people lost their lives there...no matter who carried it out.

Forget that "wingnuts" - as you call them - are going crazy over it. Let's look at why Ahmadinejad is not worthy of visiting Ground Zero.

1. It's disingenuous. You don't call America "The Great Satan," and espouse "death to all Americans" and then say you want to lay a wreath where 3,000 of them died. Who is he trying to kid? Here's an official Iranian TV video of how they treat 9/11.

http://switch3.castup.net/cunet/gm.asp?ai=214&ar=1403wmv&ak=null

2.The human rights violations in Iran alone are enough to bar the man from our country. Women are routinely killed for looking at men on the street by directions of the Sharia, and the rights of women in Iran are beyond reproach.

3. The World (ie the UN, EU, et al) has declared Iran a state-sponsor of global terrorism. Just because they didn't plan or execute the attacks on 9/11 doesn't mean they aren't terrorists. I don't know about you, but as an American I don't want a terrorist punk visiting a spot where his brothers in arms killed 3,000 of my fellow countrymen.

4. Iran is not frowned upon because the Dunce W. put them in the "axis of evil." They are denounced world wide because they sponsor terrorism, breed terrorism, and continue to spout the most anti-Semitic speech in the world. They deny the Holocaust and call for the extermination of Jews worldwide. You don't see a problem with that?

Look, I think you're taking your political dissatisfaction with current mess of an administration we have and confusing it with the core issue here. Ahmadinejad is a bad dude...whether you're a Democrat or a Republican. Maybe some some are using his asinine world view for their own political agenda, but us Americans (regardless of political affiliation) all know this guy is a nut-sack.

You can't really tell me you believe Ahmadinejad was sincere when he offered his "help" after 9/11.

There is a reason why even the UN keeps them at arms-length.

I can agree with you on the war, Bush and the rest of the current clueless leadership. But actually defending Ahmadinejad is out there bro.

[GeeGuy]

What he said.

[Wulfgar]

No Gully, I don't believe that Ahmedinejad was sincere in offering help in 2001 ... since he wasn't elected President until 2005. In 2001, he was a professor at the University of Tehran.

I see being a real man doesn't make you immune to propaganda, but it does apparently mean that you can make hard decisions without facts.

[Gully]

Do tell...which propaganda are you referring to?

You make an accusation but don't back it up. Explain please...I am open for the discussion but a cryptic response with no explanation isn't like you.

Hard decisions?

Did you see the anti-American rally he lead today in Tehran?

[Wulfgar]

As I've already indicated, this entire thing was a manipulative stunt on the part of the Iranian leader. It was propaganda, geared only to get a tough guy screeching reaction out of Americans. It worked. We'd have been better off to let him lay the damned wreath, and taken pictures of him looking somber and sorrowful at the loss we have recovered from. We could have looked strong, resilient and beneficent. Instead we look like tantruming children.

It's not a hard decision to express anger at those you've been told are your enemy. It is to express superiority. There is a great discussion to be had about Iran, but I haven't the time right now, and you don't appear to have the facts. Meanwhile, ABC is employing liars to ramp up the war talk about Iran. Fox news celebrated a Presidential candidate singing a jaunty little ditty about bombing them. I suggest, for the future, that people think before they act. But that's a hard decision to make ... hard indeed.

[Hully Gully]

"This war will go on and on, and we will bankrupt ourselves to fight the war without end."

Um, seems like a little contradiction there, O Most High and Profound Logic Master of the Universe. I rather doubt the war can go on and on if we bankrupt ourselves.

One other item you might want to consider: We’re already bankrupt. We charged the whole damn war, and we’re gonna skip out on the bill!

[Jon]

"Could somebody please explain to me what is so awful about Ahmahinejad's will to visit ground zero?"

General principle. Simple as that.

Ahmahinejad is currently the planet's #1 bigoted, racist homophobe. You don't let a Nazi-ish sack of shit like him stage some publicity stunt at one of our national monuments.

[Eric Brooks]

Ahmahinejad is the new Saddam. He's a powerless assclown (the Ayatollah runs the show) who enjoys notoriety as we're looking for an excuse to annex the Iraq war into Iran.

Meanwhile this keeps Osama free to taunt us with more videos for another year or six.

I am glad he got to speak at Columbia University though. He got a good dose of American laughter from an intelligent audience as he spewed his crazy anti-semitic/homophobic/"oh the media twists my words" conspiracies. He should do stand-up comedy. He does a better Borat than Sasha Cohen!

[Ed Kemmick]

Wulfagr and Gully: You're both calling Ground Zero "hollowed" ground, which makes it sound like a crater. The word is "hallowed."