more on war, or moron war

We have a lot to learn.

In the NYT Ross Douthat argues for permanent war in Afghanistan ... I mean, staying until we "succeed," which in the context of his article just means until the Taliban are guaranteed never, ever to rule again, Al Qaeda are eradicated in Pakistan, and the Middle East is no longer volatile. Then we can go home!

Maybe we can hope to be as successful there as we were in its sister-warzone, Iraq, where after 4000 soldiers' lives and hundreds of billions of dollars we have "succeeded" in finally establishing the Islamist state with strong ties to Iran that we've always dreamed of.

And look here! Here's Joe Klein in TIME, one of the major liberal voices in the press, referring to the antiwar base of the Democratic party as "vestigial," as in a useless, degenerate extra part inherited from a prior age. It is notable that those who are considered "antiwar" are considered deserving of such open contempt -- by a liberal pundit!

Just as with Iraq, however, we can at least take heart that the people are smarter than their chickenhawk pundits.

an oldie but a goodie to take down a baddie

A brutally effective ad from last cycle is finally, finally being used against the vile Saxby Chambliss in Georgia:

Chambliss, you may remember, is the guy who beat former Senator Max Cleland by accusing him of being a coward and releasing an ad that slowly morphed Cleland's face into Osama bin Laden.

That would have been pretty low in itself, but Max Cleland gave both legs and an arm for his country in Vietnam.

the George W. Bush reality distortion field

From Reuters (via Matthew Yglesias):

In a videoconference, Bush heard from U.S. military and civilian personnel about the challenges ranging from fighting local government and police corruption to persuading farmers to abandon a lucrative poppy drug trade for other crops.
...
"I must say, I'm a little envious," Bush said. "If I were slightly younger and not employed here, I think it would be a fantastic experience to be on the front lines of helping this young democracy succeed."

"It must be exciting for you ... in some ways romantic, in some ways, you know, confronting danger. You're really making history, and thanks," Bush said.

I guess we know what's wrong with our foreign policy now: nobody bothered to tell G-Dubs that "Dulce et Decorum Est" was meant as an ironic title.

It also goes without saying that the president didn't have quite the same reaction to being on the front lines of helping a certain young democracy succeed when he was himself "slightly younger and not employed here."

does not compute

I've written before about Chris Matthews' peculiarities as a pundit, specifically his tendency to ingest months', or even years', worth of talking points uncritically and then suddenly come to the epiphany that they were never true in response to some off the wall quip by some random wanker in the middle of a segment. Playing the role of "wanker" today is Joe Scarborough:

right wing mythopoiesis: an example

Here we have a picture from "Fort Apache," starring Henry Fonda (left) and John Wayne (right). Both of these men played manly man roles in the movies, and both also had the opportunity to fight in World War II, being in their mid-thirties at the time.

One of these men, to quote Wikipedia, "enlisted in the Navy to fight in World War II, saying, "I don't want to be in a fake war in a studio."^[14] Previously, he and Stewart had helped raise funds for the defense of Britain.^[15] [He] served for three years, initially as a Quartermaster 3rd Class on the destroyer USS Satterlee. He was later commissioned as a Lieutenant Junior Grade in Air Combat Intelligence in the Central Pacific and was awarded a Presidential Citation and the Bronze Star."

The other one decided not to participate and never spent a day in the military, opting instead for a family deferral and said fake wars in studios. He later became a strong supporter of McCarthy's House Committee on Un-American Activities and even had producer Carl Foreman black-listed.

Can you guess which is which, and who is who?

Then again, since you're reading this post on my dirty f**king hippy blog, I suppose you can guess easily enough that John Wayne, uber-conservative Republican, famous Vietnam War supporter, and right wing folk-hero frequently cited as "an American patriot" was the second description, while liberal Democrat Henry Fonda chose to put his career on hold to fight the forces of fascism.

American Chickenhawks presents:

This week, Mitt Romney, who was too busy braving the dangers of fresh-made coq au vin (it's alcoholic, ya know!) to be bothered with such trivial threats as the Epic Cold War Against the Global Communist Threat.

Reading the NYT article, is it just me or does young Mitt Romney sound like the nerdiest little rich kid ever? Writing like a cartoon character... at 19? What's that about?

Ted Nugent: chickenshit pantswetter

Why am I not surprised? From Richard Roeper at the Chicago Sun-Times:

So Ted Nugent roams a concert stage while toting automatic weapons, calls Barack Obama "a piece of -----" and says he told Obama to suck on one of his machine-guns. He also calls Hillary Clinton a "worthless bitch" and Dianne Feinstein a "worthless whore."

That Nugent, he's a man's man. He talks the talk and walks the walk, right?

Except when it was time to register for the draft during the Vietnam era. By his own admission, Nugent stopped all forms of personal hygiene for a month and showed up for his draft board physical in pants caked with his own urine and feces, winning a deferment.

Check out his new album artwork, proudly displaying his view of women (as if the quote from his concert wasn't enough) here.