Billmon:

I think I hear that same sound coming from the Rovian machine right now — a doomed, crazed animal in its final death throes.

Road Kill

Billmon:

We’ll know soon enough which explanation is correct.

Paranoia Watch

Billmon:

Why "declare victory" in Iraq just so you can "declare victory" a little bit later in Afghanistan?

Well, I guess it is a British tradition of sorts.

Declare Victory and Go Home

via Healing Iraq:

– a video filmed by a doctor showing the daily life in an Iraqi hospital (klick on "Latest Programme" on the right)

A Shia women in an ambulance (33:00):

Where is Saddam Hussein? Bring back Saddam! It wasn’t like this under him. Let him starve us and kill us! We just don’t want it to be like this!

– a happy Eid bonus by Iraqi Konfused Kid: a "tribute for the four friends who were killed in a roadside explosion week before their graduation"

Thought you might care …

Billmon:

[N]o jolt to the old conservative limbic system.

That is, not unless Rove pays some gay hookers — or better yet, racially mixed gay hookers — to go French kiss in front of the Supreme Court building in Trenton.

Jersey Barrier

Billmon:

300 million people, and about 300 million working brain cells among them.

Amnesia: The All American Disease

Q Would you agree a dunk in water is a no-brainer if it can save lives?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: It’s a no-brainer for me, but for a while there, I was criticized as being the Vice President "for torture." We don’t torture. That’s not what we’re involved in. We live up to our obligations in international treaties that we’re party to and so forth.
Interview of the Vice President by Scott Hennen, WDAY at Radio Day at the White House, October 24, 2006

Defendant: Asano, Yukio
Docket Date: 53/ May 1 – 28, 1947, Yokohama, Japan
Charge: Violation of the Laws and Customs of War: 1. Did willfully and unlawfully mistreat and torture PWs. 2. Did unlawfully take and convert to his own use Red Cross packages and supplies intended for PWs.
Specifications:beating using hands, fists, club; kicking; water torture; burning using cigarettes; strapping on a stretcher head downward
Verdict: 15 years CHL
Yokohama Class B and C War Crimes Trials (emphasis added)

Billmon:

V. Forked Tongue
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IV. Jungle Boogie
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III. The Lunatic Fringe
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II. A Fresh Diagnosis
—

Commissars? To quote Homer Simpson: Did we lose a war or something?

I. The Commissars

Billmon:

Now it’s the Rovians who potentially are standing in the oppressor man’s shoes. Would they really have the stones to try to steal an entire congressional majority, wholesale instead of retail? I guess that would depend on how narrow the Democratic margin was on November 8, and how many close races there were — close enough to make a challenge seem at least halfway plausible.

Some Like It Hot

Billmon:

Considering how razor-close the Missouri race appears to be, Rush may have just single-handedly booted away a Republican Senate seat.

Go Rush! Go!

Expert Testimony

Billmon:

III: Birds of a Feather

II: RSVP

I. The Boxer

Billmon:

[M]aybe Howie just needs to get his eyes checked.

The Mr. Magoo of Journalism

Billmon:

[A]fter banging his head on his podium several times in frustration, Snow also gave full credit for "Iraq’s miraculous turnaround" to House Republican leaders, calling it "proof positive" that "Denny Hastert really knows how to bring home the bacon."

Campaign Promises

Something must have hit me – I agree with National Review. At the Corner Kathryn Lopez posts the transcript of an interview the Philadelphia Inquirer had with Democratic Senate candidate Casey.

She says:

All that’s pretty clear here is that it’s a deeply depressing state of affairs when this man could be elected to the United States Senate …

I agree. Here is part of the interview:

Interviewer:  Well, it might have been misreported this morning, but it certainly seemed to me as if you were endorsing the NSA program which is warrant less wiretapping without court oversight.

Casey:  Well, I think, look, my position all along has been you’ve got to have the ability to wiretap known or suspected terrorists, and I am going to make sure that everything I do in this area is focused on anti terrorism and making sure that we are being as tough as possible to ferret out any kind of plot or and kind of terrorist activity.

Cont. reading: Depressing State of Affairs

news & views …

Billmon:

The irony (or sadness) of it is that Lieberman got his start in politics as an anti-Vietnam War liberal …

The New Dick

Billmon:

[A] warm glass of milk and a few choruses of Hail to the Chief ought to make Mr. Grumpy feel better.

Everything He Knows He Learned in Kindergarten

Billmon:

I realize that made absolutely no sense whatsoever, but I was just trying to think like a Republican.

It’s All Clinton’s Fault

Billmon:

Bernhard over at Moon of Alabama took a stroll through the White House web site and found no less than eighteen of them (all of which no doubt will be scrubbed from the site by morning.)

Course Work

I disagree a bit with Billmon over this one. First, not me, but the whitehouse.gov search-engine did find 153 occurrences of "stay the course" – all in official documents and all caught with one simple search. About a third to half of those are direct utterings of Scrub, his wife or Cheney. I only copiedy 18 of those. There are many more of these. But just how long can you bear to walk through such crap?

Unlike Billmon I don’t think they will scrub the site. They’ll just further try to redefine the meaning of "stay the course". Dan Froomkin documented today how that effort is proceeding:

And on Friday, in what I suspect is the first time in briefing-room history, Snow banged his head against the podium in exasperation with a reporter who was trying to get him to confront some of his own contradictions.

Nobody said it’s easy, but banging his head will not deminish Snow’s abilities for a real debate like the above with the usual press room trash – so why shouldn’t he continue to so so?

As long as the media keeps reporting the official talk without taking a position in favor of reality, no facts will matter. If "stay the course" now suddenly means to dissolve the US Army, who would dare to report otherwise?

—
BTW:

Where is that Repub victory party on Nov. 8 taking place? I could use a free drink by then …

Billmon:

Another way to put it would be that Shrub has finally, at long last, completed the process of failing upwards.

The Price of Failure