Enemy Combatant
Sunday, February 27, 2005
The Wizard Of Ozymandias Hits The Windshield Of History
From bondage to spiritual faith.
From spiritual faith to great courage.
From great courage to liberty.
From liberty to abundance.
From abundance to selfishness.
From selfishness to complacency.
From complacency to apathy.
From apathy to dependence.
From dependency back again to bondage.
-- Alexander Tyler, professor at the University of Edinburgh, 1750
Saturday, February 26, 2005
Go Visit The Poor Man!
The Editors there have posted what may become the definitive essay on Gannon, called
I Have A Vewy Gweat Fwiend In Wome Named Bigus Dickus
Go! Hie thee hence!
Favorite lines -- (God speaking:)I didn't create the universe so I could spend all my time tutoring shaved monkeys in Remedial Cluefulness. . . . God made Jeff Gannon a cock-headed man-whore in order to make a point; Satan made the details of the affair clownish, and made sure that all of his hilariously embarrassing come-on photos were still available on the web, in order to distract you from that point. You must resist every opportunity to turn everything into cock jokes, no matter how irresistable such opportunities may be, even when people named "The Big Trunk" and (God, grant me strength!) "Hindrocket" leap to his defense. Jeff Gannon is just a very sad and silly man of no particular importance, except insofar as he demonstrates the extent to which the White House has corrupted the press corps. It's just a metaphor, dumbass.
Friday, February 25, 2005
More Vigorish For Viguerie?
This makes no sense: Matt Stoler over at ThereIsNoCrisis.com is tracking down the makeup and origins of the latest BushCo incarnation of the Sniffed Goat Bedouins For Truth, the anti-AARP kamikaze pilots at USA-Next, and points out that they're nothing more than an outgrowth of Richard Viguerie's deceptive direct-(junk)mail outfit from the 1980s and 90s.
However, over at salon.com, Richard Viguerie himself is quoted, none too charitably, on Bush's privatization plans:"It's going to be hard for our people to get excited" over issues like Social Security, he says. "How do you get conservatives excited if you ignore our issues?"
What gives? Does Mr. Viguerie's left hand not know what his right hand is doing? (He's still listed as "affiliated" with "United Seniors," one of USA-Next's many apparent hydra-heads.) Did somebody at salon.com not know about the evident disparity, so as to ask him the followup question? (Let's try it in leftwing Gannonspeak for a change: "Mr. Viguerie, why hasn't your head exploded yet, you hypocritical, twofaced lying bastard?")
Tuesday, February 22, 2005
You Can Lead A Horticulture
but you can't make him think.
Buzzword Rollout
"Do we have to consider adding China and Japan to the Axis Of Evil?
Sort of a Rhombus of Ruffians?
A Trapezoid of Treachery?"
-- Stony Curtis, a poster at Eschaton | 02.22.05 - 11:20 pm | #
Sequels Always Suck
During the first term, the Bush administration could be seen as a Hollywood production, working off a script by George Orwell, and directed by Leni Riefenstahl.
Lately, though, it's beginning to look more and more like a San Fernando Valley production, working off a script by Franz Kafka, and directed by David Lynch.
We blew our opportunity to put this production in "turnaround" last November. Let's not make the same mistake, again, in 2006.
Sunday, February 20, 2005
Fear And Loathing: Requiescat In Pace
Hunter S. Thompson has reportedly left this vale of tears, in the same manner as Ernest Hemingway before him.
He will be missed . . .
How Good A Defense Do You Think You'll Get
When the "terrorism" prosecutor gets to listen in on your conversations with your attorney, waiting to indict him or her as your "co-conspirator?"
Saturday, February 19, 2005
Oh Yes! He's Been Polishing The Knob, All Right
Once you've been "Gannonized," you never go back . . .
Thursday, February 17, 2005
Mau Mauing The "Black Bashers"
Howard Dean, addressing the Democratic Black Caucus (his first day on the job at the DNC, I believe), had the following to say:“You think the Republican National Committee could get this many people of color in a single room? Only if they had the hotel staff in here.”
In response, of course, the GOP deployed two members of its tiny Burnt-Cork High Dudgeon Disinformation Squad, to deliberately misinterpret Dean's words, and then feign outrage over their misinterpretation:Maryland Lt. Governor Michael Steele and former Oklahoma Congressman J.C. Watts have issued a statement calling for Howard Dean to apologize over remarks he made while addressing the Democratic Black Caucus last Friday.
From the Steele/Watts release:
We are simply outraged over recent racially insensitive remarks made by Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chair Howard Dean. In his comments to the Democratic Black Caucus, Dean equates African-Americans who support Republicans to 'hired help.' This kind of backward thinking reminds us of a horrible time in history when blacks were only seen as servants.
Democrats wonder why they are losing electoral ground among African-Americans and other minorities. They need to look no further than the comments of their newly elected leader.
We are demanding that Howard Dean apologize for his racially insensitive and intolerable remarks.
Funny, I don't remember hearing a peep out of either Steele or Watts when Shannon Reeves -- a prominent California Republican and head of the Oakland chapter of the NAACP -- made precisely these points (both what Dean actually said, and what the GOP pretended he said) back in 2003, in an open letter to the leaders of the state Republican Party:When I travel to speak at Republican conferences and events around the country, wandering through hotels, convention centers and social clubs, as I approach the rooms where I'm scheduled to speak, I am often told by Republicans that I must be in the wrong place. While boarding a shuttle bus to a national convention a few years ago, an attendee who was already on the bus introduced himself to another white guest who was boarding, took one look at me and, in an attempt to be helpful, told me I was on the wrong bus. As a Bush delegate at the 2000 convention in Philadelphia, I proudly wore my delegate's badge and RNC lapel pin as I worked the convention. Regardless of the fact that I was obviously a delegate prominently displaying my credentials, no less than six times did white delegates dismissively tell me to fetch them a taxi or carry their luggage.
Why the selective criticism, I wonder? Could it be that commonsense observations on race are only allowed to be made in public any longer by people of the right party, and the right color?
Mau Mauing The "Black Bashers"
Howard Dean, addressing the Democratic Black Caucus (his first day on the job at the DNC, I believe), had the following to say:“You think the Republican National Committee could get this many people of color in a single room? Only if they had the hotel staff in here.”
In response, of course, the GOP deployed two members of its tiny Burnt-Cork High Dudgeon Disinformation Squad, to deliberately misinterpret Dean's words, and then feign outrage over their misinterpretation:Maryland Lt. Governor Michael Steele and former Oklahoma Congressman J.C. Watts have issued a statement calling for Howard Dean to apologize over remarks he made while addressing the Democratic Black Caucus last Friday.
From the Steele/Watts release:
We are simply outraged over recent racially insensitive remarks made by Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chair Howard Dean. In his comments to the Democratic Black Caucus, Dean equates African-Americans who support Republicans to 'hired help.' This kind of backward thinking reminds us of a horrible time in history when blacks were only seen as servants.
Democrats wonder why they are losing electoral ground among African-Americans and other minorities. They need to look no further than the comments of their newly elected leader.
We are demanding that Howard Dean apologize for his racially insensitive and intolerable remarks.
Funny, I don't remember hearing a peep out of either Steele or Watts when Shannon Reeves -- a prominent California Republican and head of the Oakland chapter of the NAACP -- made precisely these points (both what Dean actually said, and what the GOP pretended he said) back in 2003, in an open letter to the leaders of the state Republican Party:When I travel to speak at Republican conferences and events around the country, wandering through hotels, convention centers and social clubs, as I approach the rooms where I'm scheduled to speak, I am often told by Republicans that I must be in the wrong place. While boarding a shuttle bus to a national convention a few years ago, an attendee who was already on the bus introduced himself to another white guest who was boarding, took one look at me and, in an attempt to be helpful, told me I was on the wrong bus. As a Bush delegate at the 2000 convention in Philadelphia, I proudly wore my delegate's badge and RNC lapel pin as I worked the convention. Regardless of the fact that I was obviously a delegate prominently displaying my credentials, no less than six times did white delegates dismissively tell me to fetch them a taxi or carry their luggage.
Why the selective criticism, I wonder? Could it be that commonsense observations on race are only allowed to be made in public any longer by people of the right party, and the right color?
Monday, February 14, 2005
Outrage Nostalgia
Digby over at Hullabaloo's got a good angle on the Manchurian Beefcake non-scandal scandal:I do know that if this were 1998, we'd be knee deep in congressional investigations into the gay hooker ring in the White House. Every news crew in the DC area would be camped out on JimJeff's front lawn. A wild-eyed Victoria Toensing and panting Kelly Ann Fitzpatrick would be crawling up on the Hardball desk rending their silk teddies and speaking in tongues while Matthews'exploding head spun around on his shoulders.
As the French would say, "Où est l'outrage d'antan?"
Sunday, February 13, 2005
Don't Ask, Don't Tell
Don't throw away perfectly good gay cannon fodder, evidently:
The number of gay and lesbian service members discharged under the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy has dropped by almost half since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and is at its lowest level since the Defense Department began keeping such figures in 1997.
Significant declines have occurred in every branch of the armed forces, according to statistics released yesterday by the Pentagon. The Marine Corps, Air Force and Navy discharged fewer gay men and lesbians in 2004 than in any year since the Pentagon began tallying the number of its "homosexual separations" eight years ago. The Army's discharges represented the lowest number of discharges in five years.
Seems to me the very fact that the military's "homosexual separations" drop to near-zero every time there's a war -- or two -- on, pretty much blasts their "gays-are-a-national-security risk" argument all to hell -- but that's just me . . .
It also seems to me that the way to get conservative courts to accept gays in the military is to frame the argument thusly: "Don't you think gays have a fundamental right to take up arms to defend their country?"
In fact, that may be the best way to make progress on gay-rights issues -- talk about how it's a given that gays and lesbians should get all their "fundamental rights" in America. Let conservatives dispute that notion -- it's not a winning argument for them, even in the Red States. ("What --- are you saying gays aren't protected by the Second Amendment, Rush? Or the Fourth? Or their opinions by the First Amendment?
"What fundamental rights would you deny gay people, Rush?")
Every time the GOP brings up gay marriage, we should bring up (and link it to) gays in the military. Let's talk about the wholesale discharge of Farsi interpreters during the last four years because of suspicions of their homosexuality -- oh, yes, by all means, let's talk about insuring this nation's security.
With 9-11 and Iraq, the GOP gave us the template for how "linkage" can be done, relentlessly, in the media. Even better, though, Democrats can use "fundamental rights" to link gay marriage with gays in the military without having to lie or appeal to people's ignorance or hysteria.
Thursday, February 10, 2005
From Now On, Her Name Is Pronounced, "CondiLiar Rice"
Susan Hu, over at dailykos, reportedly found this in the Aussie press -- but our crack 'Murican press hasn't caught onto it yet (being too busy defending poor "Jeff Gannon" from the mean bloggers).
Wednesday, February 09, 2005
Gives New Meaning To The Term "Presstitute," Doesn't He?
Ah, "Jeff Gannon," from "Talon News." I ask you, doesn't a Potemkin pResidency deserve its own fake press?
(Still, it would be poetic justice if this "Deep Throat" brought down yet another corrupt Republican administration . . . )
Good Thing They Kept This From Us For The Duration Of Bush's "Referendum" Last November
In the months before the Sept. 11 attacks, federal aviation officials reviewed dozens of intelligence reports that warned about Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda, some of which specifically discussed airline hijackings and suicide operations, according to a previously undisclosed report from the 9/11 commission.
Among other things, the report says that leaders of the F.A.A. received 52 intelligence reports from their security branch that mentioned Mr. Bin Laden or Al Qaeda from April to Sept. 10, 2001. That represented half of all the intelligence summaries in that time.
Hell, who had time to read reports? There was brush to clear . . .
Friday, February 04, 2005
The Soft Bigotry Of Low Expectations Administration (Second Edition)
Let us fervently hope -- for our sakes -- that the Muslims are right, and that Allah is truly merciful.
Thoughts Of Chairman How: Why I (Still) Support Dean
A while ago, a colleague of mine gave a deceptively simple explanation of the trick to succeeding at partisan politics. (Okay, he was actually talking about "the trick to succeeding at litigation," but I think the point applies equally well to partisan politics):
Keep the turd in the other guy's pocket.
Whatever your ultimate goal, short- or long-term, you've got to maneuver the discussion/frame the issue in such a way as to keep your opponent off-balance, and hence off-message. The more time and effort he spends swatting away flies, and discussing before the public and press what that awful stench might be, the less he's able to move forward on his own agenda. Bill Clinton -- with all his faults (and despite a few consequent missteps) -- was an absolute master at this, and Howard Dean seems to be pretty damn good at it, too.
Which is why -- right up until the moment when he got "punked" by the news networks, with a sound-engineered "scream" that nobody in the room actually heard at the time -- plainspoken, honest Howard Dean was well on his way to making mincemeat of the Cowboy Cretin. I believe Dean's message would have gone over well, even in the Red(neck) States. In contrast to Dean's candor, Bush's "fertilizer salesman" act might well have emboldened the press to begin comparing the latter's career successes -- and not favorably, either -- with those of Scott Peterson.
Only Dean has the courage and the will to tear the deadwood out of the Democratic Party -- raze the structure right back to its foundations, and start over. We missed the opportunity to have him try to do this while simultaneously trying to win a presidential election; as Chair of the DNC, Dean can focus laserlike attention on this goal, with no distractions.
And I fully understand why Dean's DNC candidacy has the Democratic fatcats quaking in their boots: They're much more comfortable lecturing (rather than listening) to the Party faithful. But it's high time we stop imitating the "soft bigotry of low expectations" we find in the Bush administration, where repeated, spectacular failure earns you promotions and praise. Dean fully understands that that business model doesn't really work in the "reality-based community" we call planet Earth.
Wednesday, February 02, 2005
" . . . And So We Must Join Together To Strengthen And Save Social Security"
said the biggest profligate spender in the history of the known Universe.
