Billmon:

Remedial Education

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III. Dear Prudent

II. Sinking the Bismarck

I. Hot Republican Studds

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Nothing like a good bar fight to get the squad pumped up for a little political street action. Those liberal untermenschen better watch out. The boys are back in town.

Brown Shirts Fighting Brown Shirts

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IV. The ‘Real Issue’

III. Breaking Even

II. If It Bleeds, It Leads

I. The Many Faces of Mark

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I Hate Pat Buchanan

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The Republicans may lose this election. They’re certainly trying hard. They may even lose the next one. But it’s going to take more than one or two scandal-boosted victories to persuade me the Dems have a future that doesn’t involve being the ornamental decoration on a functionally one-party state.

But of course, if the Dems lose next month, despite the GOP’s best efforts to hand them the House and quite possibly the Senate, then I guess we’ll know that’s where they’re heading. And unlike the Whigs, I don’t think they’ll be coming back.

The Way of the Whigs

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Reading The Note right now, one gets the impression of a barely contained hysteria …

The Last Refuge of an Idiot

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This has a bizarre nightmare-like logic to it.
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I mean, l
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Unnatural High

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It would, in a totally perverse way, be carthartic (in both senses of the word) if the real October surprise turned out to be a tactical nuclear strike on Isfahan. At least the uncertainty would be gone. We would know beyond a reasonable doubt that the United States is no longer a constitutional republic, at least not in any meaningful sense, and could respond as our consciences and courage dictate. And I could finally stop worrying about whether I’m being too paranoid.

Like I said, I don’t expect it happen. War with Iran may be and probably is coming, but I doubt it’s coming on Karl Rove’s timetable.

Still, given the hole the Rovians now find themselves in, and the stakes they’re playing for, I’m going to be nervously paranoid each and every day until the polls close on November 7.

Fall Classic

The standoff in Georgia is over. Saakashvili has set free the four Russian officers he had detained for alleged spying. There is some truthiness in various media accounts on why he did do so.

Cont. reading: Who Blinked First?

Just in time for the US election, North Korea announces a nuke test.

"What has this Republican Congress, what has this President done to make us save?"
Cand. Whoever – (D.Anywhere)

Good question …

Cont. reading: NoKo Nuke

Billmon:

Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit blogging.

How I’m Feeling at the Moment

Billmon:

More likely, this is part of some half-hearted, fumbling effort to peel away the Taliban "moderates" and "bring them into the process," like the attempt to bring the Sunni into the big tent in Iraq — a ploy which, we now know, almost worked too well.

Either way, I think we can take a guess at the larger motive: To shore up (or at least simmer down) the Afghanistan front in advance of the attack on Iran.

Mullah Omar Come Home: All is Forgiven

Billmon:

I don’t know what Ben Veniste’s story is, but now would be a good time for him to tell it. As for Rice, well, I’m not sure even Uncle Ben could make her taste good now.

It’s a funny thing — Tenet being such a loyal team player and all, even while they were filling the tub with cement and letting it dry around his feet.

It’s like my grandfather used to say: A mule will work for you twenty years just for the chance to kick you once. It looks like Tenet aimed straight for Condi’s head.

Arroz Con Pollo

.. say the crazy green hippies of consultancy giant PricewaterhouseCoopers. A study by John Hawksworth, head of macroeconomics of PWC, shows that Carbondioxide emissions can be pushed back under todays level for a reasonable price.

bigger

While "staying the cause" would more than double the output of CO₂ over the next 50 years with catastrophic results, an adoption of several strategies could easily avoid the dangers of glabal warming.

Cont. reading: It is Cheap to Save the Planet

News & views …

by Monolycus
lifted
from a comment

"How do activists enable the reich-wing to get away with immoral/illegal activites?"

We’ve tried to discuss this before. Short answer: by being idiots.
By being as divisive as humanly possible while pursuing
counter-productive courses of action. By turning people off of doing
the sensible thing and appearing as insensible as possible. By thinking
that chanting and holding a picket sign is going to make people think
about your cause and not simply shake their head in disgust and walk
away. In short, by repelling anyone who could support us. By being the
kinds of people nobody would want to be associated with.

Cont. reading: Activists

Billmon:

Sound Bites