True Fact: whenever I pick up a pizza at Mineo’s I spend the 20 or 30 minutes listening to Michael Savage. Oppo research? A weird infatuation with clinical insanity? Whatever, it just puts me in the right mood for a pizza. Anyhow his outraged reasonable-guy act is a lot more listenable than smirking bombasts like Hannity and O’Reilly (distinction without a difference? discuss).
For months now Savage has more or less written off president Bush as a chump and a useless gasbag. The Dubai deal set off the nativist in Savage, obviously, but Savage’s real beef comes from his inner thwarted warmonger. Example, Savage spent most of my last pizza trip wondering whether the GOP has any leaders willing to do what it takes to win the war on America’s enemies. In general each talk radio “talent” has his own decent-size army of dittoheads which presumably overlaps significantly from talent to talent, so it seems likely that Savage speaks for a decent swath of wingerdom. Savage and his listeners have decided that Bush just doesn’t have the cojones to take the fight to enemies both outside and (he spends a lot of time on this point) inside America.
As always, talk radioland gets the new meme before the national media:
At a moment when his conservative coalition is already under strain over domestic policy, President Bush is facing a new and swiftly building backlash on the right over his handling of foreign affairs.
[…] “It is Topic A of every single conversation,” said Danielle Pletka, vice president for foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, a think tank that has had strong influence in staffing the administration and shaping its ideas. “I don’t have a friend in the administration, on Capitol Hill or any part of the conservative foreign policy establishment who is not beside themselves with fury at the administration.” […] Former House speaker Newt Gingrich, who is considering a bid for president, called the administration’s latest moves abroad a form of appeasement. “We have accepted the lawyer-diplomatic fantasy that talking while North Korea builds bombs and missiles and talking while the Iranians build bombs and missiles is progress,” he said in an interview. “Is the next stage for Condi to go dancing with Kim Jong Il?” he asked, referring to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the North Korean leader.“I am utterly puzzled,” Gingrich added.
[…] “What they are doing on North Korea or Iran is what [Sen. John F.] Kerry would do, what a normal middle-of-the-road president would do,” he said. “This administration prided itself on molding history, not just reacting to events. Its a normal foreign policy right now. It’s the triumph of Kerryism.”
In sum, the president who many think is batshit crazy has started taking fire from his “side” for not being batshit crazy enough. Keep in mind that these are the people to whom the administration has paid careful attention since before the 2000 election. George Will, to whom they have never paid attention*, comments:
The administration, justly criticized for its Iraq premises and their execution, is suddenly receiving some criticism so untethered from reality as to defy caricature.
In some ways I feel for the Bush crowd. For a short time they let these people live out their talk-radio fantasy world where the brute force of war solves all problems. After a high like that you can hardly blame the denizens of talk radioland for wanting to stay a little longer even after the great White Knight has beat an ignominous retreat to the real world.
It seems somehow poignant that the only caller who answered Michael Savage’s search for a new leader suggested…Dick Cheney.
(*) Maybe because George Will makes a surprising amount of sense. You know, for a conservative.
Marcus Wellby
I voted for Reagan once (second term, my first election), Ross Perot, and Pat Buchanan. I enjoy George Will very much. Yet, in the eyes of my in-laws who worship Rush and Savage I am a “liberal”.
Rush, Savage, and Bush himself have done more to damage Conservatism than true liberals ever could. I hope picking up the “flat Earth” vote is worth it in the long run.
Jay C
I especially like the inclusion of this line:
with the unmistakable assumption that this is somehow BAD.
Oh well, I give this line of thought a week or two’s persistance on Radio Free Starboard, until the frothers figure out some plausible way to blame our foreign-policy “shortcomings” on the Evil Liberals, or the New York Times, or the “biased” media, or anyone else they feel like designating as scapegoat-of-the-week.
Ozymandias
How much wing could a wingnut nut, if a wingnut could nut wing?
Pb
That says it all right there.
As for Savage:
The Nazis of our time? Look in the mirror, you authoritarian nutball.
Sherard
Man I do SO love the reasoned discussion over here.
“clinically-insane reasonable-guy”, “smirking bombasts”, “chump and a useless gasbag.”, “inner thwarted warmonger”, “dittoheads”, “wingerdom”, “batshit crazy” (x2), “great White Knight”
Without the incessant inflammatory hyperbole, I’m not sure you could even make out a point in all this.
Good to see this place embracing it’s inner moonbat. Although I guess the chirade that this is anything other than left-leaning (and leaning further by the second) is fading.
Nutcutter
It’s official, conservatism is dead.
Which is bad news. For everybody. Including us liberals.
Real conservatism was a worthy opponent with whom one could find common ground and seek common goals.
This new strain … how to describe it? It’s as if America had been taken over by a pack of dogs.
Pb
Sherard,
Me too–and you’re free to start contributing to it at any time.
Mmm-hmm.
Did you have one?
I guess not.
So, riddle me this, Sherard… were Savage’s latest comments sane? Reasoned? Reflective of your views? Inquiring minds want to know.
Nutcutter
How DougJ carries on all these conversations at the same time …. beyond me. It’s an impressive act.
Steve
I can’t recall Sherard ever making a civil comment on this blog. Even Darrell occasionally takes a break from calling us “leftist kooks” for a post or two.
Nutcutter
It’s just gas. After it passes, he’s back to his old self.
Even Alfalfa the Decider finds a good fart to be momentarily relaxing.
sglover
SAVAGE: Now, I realize that the American left is cheering today. They’ll probably break open the jug wine and cheer that Jews are dying, and that they’re living and cowering in bomb shelters. One day, the “Deutschland über alles” may be played in Jerusalem, and the American left can tear off their masks once and for all and show themselves to be what they really are—which is the Nazis of our time.
Wait a tic — I thought Tehran was behind Hezbollah. How come nobody told me it was Berlin?!?! Doesn’t this makes W’s attempted shoulder rub raw appeasement? Everybody knows how Chamberlain gave Hitler pedicures and salt wraps at Munich.
Silliness aside, while bitter experience has taught me never to underestimate the Democratic Party’s skill at pissing away a winning hand, I’m becoming cautiously optimistic that November might really bring in a sea change in the Congress. The GOP can’t possibly keep its nutjob coalition happy — nobody in this sector of space-time could. The GOP also can’t manage the most basic functions of government, so there won’t be any happy developments in either Iraq or the economy between now and the election. Reliable polls strongly imply real loathing for contemporary Republicanism, even (maybe especially) within important segments of the GOP coalition.
I’m sceptical that Dems are much more imaginative or capable than Republicans, but at least they don’t go around gratuitously smashing things. And a Dem Congressional majority should at least begin to restore some checks to the checks & balances system. Here’s one big argument for that last point: John Conyers as chair of the Judiciary Committee. It’s long past time that the subpoenas started flying!
Otto Man
For a rebuttal to Michael Weiner — I’m sorry, “Michael Savage! Rrrrroww!!!” — check out this great bumper sticker.
Nutcutter
I think you misspelled “septical.”
Pb
More Savage idiocy:
Er, yeah. Barbara Boxer. *That* Barbara Boxer?
What scares me the most is that I know there are people out there who seriously listen to Savage’s insane, uninformed, hateful rantings and ravings. It’s like they found a crazy bum off the street and gave him a radio show!
Nutcutter
DougJ is a crazy bum? I thought he was a congressional staffer.
Pb
Nutcutter,
Who knows, with him–just so long as he wasn’t a staffer for The Senator.
Steve
Hey, if Savage ever needs to take a week off, I think I might have a guest host for him.
Seriously, is Savage’s crazy rhetoric qualitatively different from Stormy and Par’s accusations of anti-Semitism against the Left that I heard just the other day? Seems to me I see this crap every day in the blogosphere, with every commenter trying to out-Limbaugh the last one.
In fact, anyone who makes a habit of reading the major righty blogs might consider Savage rather tame.
Pb
Steve,
No, but on the plus side, no one’s given Stormy or Par R a radio show, either. Although I think I’d actually rather listen to Stormy Nation than Savage Nation, given the choice.
Nutcutter
At least with Stormy Nation you’d get some recipes, some food and restaurant tips, some Texas barbecque.
It would be folksy, even if the politics were all wrong.
With Savage …. all crazy all the time.
DougJ
At least Savage has a plan to win WWIV. Where’s the Democrats’ plan? They won’t even admit we’re in WWIV.
Look, you might not like the idea of nuking Syria, Iran, and North Korea, but you’ll admit that it is an idea. The Democrats just want to hide behind the skirts of Kofi-the-Pimp Annan and hope for the best. That didn’t work with Hitler, did it?
Nutcutter
I wonder what wattage lamp he has in that projection machine?
Pb
DougJ,
Not crazy enough. You’d need to work something in there about cheering over dead Israelis, and jack up the Hitler comparisons a notch or two.
Another Savage quote:
Steve
I don’t see how any of that is as significant as whether some Daily Kos commenter compared Bush to Hitler.
Nutcutter
And people wonder why we are bent on taking the country back from these crazy motherfuckers.
Darrell
Was it really so unhinged, given that he was responding to this typical comment from the ‘reality based’ community?
I love how you leftists single out ‘extreme’ conservative comments without mentioning the context. I think it’s because you’re all so honest and noble
Darrell
Leftist icon Juan Cole says Israel’s response is tantamount to “ethnic cleansing”. Makes Michael Savage seem quite tame by comparison
D. Mason
Thank you! I was beginning to think I was alone in recognizing this. Liberals just want to prove conservatism wrong, these guys want to burn the motherfucker to the ground.
Otto Man
Do these nutjobs really think liberals are cheering on deaths in the Middle East? Any evidence to support it?
There are people cheeting on all the death and destruction there. They just happen to be on the right.
Nutcutter
Bunk. Liberals appreciate responsible conservatism, just as responsible conservatives would appreciate responsible liberalism. Liberals mostly want good government. That doesn’t mean they have all the answers for getting it, but that’s the main objective.
These new authoritarian conservatives appear to be willing to burn the world to the ground, as was already said, to get their victory over liberals. And so far, they seem to be moving in the right direction.
It’s comforting to know that we are being governed by people who will pander to rapturists for votes.
Otto Man
Whoops. Here’s the correct link.
Those people are clearly escatic over the deaths in the Middle East. No doubt about it. Does Savage offer any proof of similar cheering on the left?
Yeah, that was a rhetorical question.
Darrell
Democratic National Committe Chairman Howard Dean:
It’s not just some leftist bloggers and their cherished NY Times, the core fucking leadership of the Democratic party is batshit crazy
Rusty Shackleford
It’s “projection” and misdirection. The folks like Savage and Coulter know what they’re doing, which makes it so much worse.
Punchy
So it’s “batshit crazy” to assume that because Bush has ZERO diplomatic skills (ask a German), we’d be better off with a Democrat who knows how to negotiate? Sounds pretty logical to me.
Steve
Right, cause calling someone a “stupid asshole” is just the same as accusing them of enjoying the deaths of innocent Iraqis. Not your best argument, Darrell.
Not to mention, your paraphrase of Juan Cole is about the most disingenuous I’ve seen.
I think this juxtaposition of the two comments speaks for itself.
Pb
Darrell,
Now, now, you don’t need to get all pissy at us just because we didn’t mention you as a potential guest host candidate as well.
Oh, and you don’t need to audition, either.
Darrell
Yes, so very disingenous of me. Lefist icon Juan Cole wrote:
Juan Cole is calling Israel’s defensive response to Hezbollah attacks fucking “ethnic cleansing”.. and you accuse me of being ‘disingenous’ for pointing it out? How ‘reality based’ of you
Pb
Steve,
Also note how Cole started off that paragraph:
The whole thing is conditional, so apparently Darrell believes the Lebanese press accounts wholeheartedly!
Steve
Gosh. What a crazy thing to think.
But if we’d gone after Hezbollah instead of invading Iraq, obviously nothing would have changed regarding the current Israel-Hezbollah conflict, right? Now THAT is a batshit crazy position.
Darrell
Right here, protesting the “zionists” outside the Israeli embassy last week. Lovely T-shirts for sale there, wouldn’t you agree?
Darrell
Yes, it really is batshit crazy for the chairman of the Democratic party to say” “what’s going on in the Middle East today would be going on if the Democrats were in control”
That you defend such moonbattery demonstrates how fucking insane so many of you leftists truly are.
Pb
Oh, those whacky leftist Palestinian resistance members. How does this logic go again–would that make the JDL a Republican group or something?
Steve
I know. Probably the first politician in history to say his party could have done a better job – particularly when they actually made better suggestions at the time! Perhaps the nuttiest claim ever.
Darrell
truncated batshit crazy Democratic party chairman quote. Should have said
Pb
Darrell,
Seeing as how he started with “If you think,” and followed it up with “it wouldn’t”… Matt Drudge, is that you??
RSA
WWIV? Would Would Iesus. . .View?
RSA
Oops. “What”, of course, to revise a bad joke.
Steve
It’s probably a mark of how disastrous the Bush Administration has turned out to be that even his most insane supporters, like Darrell here, are reduced to arguing “things would still be this bad if the Democrats were in charge!”
Darrell
Steve, do you still defend Juan Cole’s characterization of Israel’s response to be “ethnic cleansing”? Because in your 11:13 am post you definitely appear to be defending that statement
Nutcutter
Probably? Since when has there been any question about the sanity or lack of integrity on the part of Alflafa, I mean Darrell, or any of the righty whackjobs that post here?
These motherfuckers will say ANYTHING under ANY circumstances.
Pb
RSA,
They didn’t have ‘W’ (or ‘U’) in Latin either, so it’d be more like VVIV.
Veni, Vidi, Iesv Vici?
The Other Steve
OH MY GOD!!!!! That crazy Howard Dean. I don’t believe it.
Oh wait, actually that sounds rather intelligent.
Please explain what’s crazy about that Darrell, other than pointing out you were wrong?
Nutcutter
What do you call a strategy of bombing a region to get civilians to flee from it, Darrell?
Darrell
Isn’t it wonderful how the unbiased NY Times embeds itself with terrorists to photograph their attacks on American troops? Isn’t that brave and noble of them?
Steve
I certainly don’t defend your characterization of it. When you figure out what he actually said, you let me know and we can discuss it.
Pb
Nutcutter,
Well, that, and also bombing likely routes of escape, as well as vehicles on the road, fuel sources, food sources…
Steve
By the way, I stand by this point, kinda.
Punchy
Darrell, you’re officiall the BIGGEST DUMBASS of all time. Look at your blockquote ONE MORE TIME. It starts with “if you think….would be going on…..Democrats in control”…then ends with…SURPRISE!…”it wouldn’t”.
He says this would NOT (“wouldn’t” being the contraction of would not) be happening if Dems were in control.
Do ALL Republican jackasses read on a 2nd grade level?
Pb
Nutcutter,
You can usually tell more from what they *aren’t* saying. Thus far, Darrell has yammered on about Howard Dean, Palestinian resistance members in the US, Juan Cole, The New York Times… basically going down the list of liberal bogeymen. Which, oddly, is not the topic at all.
So It’s very clear that he’d much rather talk about–for example–two heavily qualified words in a conditional paragraph by Juan Cole than the thousands of words chock full of hateful, entirely unqualified, unconditional rhetoric by Michael Savage–which *is* the topic. Go figure.
Darrell
Here is Juan Cole’s comment which you defended in full context:
What’s to discuss? other than another leftist whackjob making extremist over the top characterizations. Israel’s response = ethnic cleansing? Oh my, but “Bush said the word ‘shit’ the other day”..
tBone
Darrell’s projecting so much right now you could probably see him from fucking Pluto.
Pb
Once again, Darrell demonstrates that he never learned to read!
Tim F.
John Boehner said this yesterday:
How can Republicans possibly claim any credibility when they make batshit crazy statements like that? Eh?
(As usual, a soggy biscuit to whoever spots the fallacy)
The Other Steve
I’m curious. Do you have a quote of ME characterizing Israel’s response as ethnic cleansing?
Just curious. Because you see when we make arguments here, we’re pointing out the stupid shit you say.
But you can never seem to find a way to respond to what we say. Instead you try to slap down things others say and accuse us of saying them.
A common game you play, and I’m curious if you realize how intellectually dishonest it is?
Steve
He clearly didn’t say “Israel’s response = ethnic cleansing.” Feel free to read it again.
Pb
Guess… it’s impossible to ‘sustain’ a veto, just to override it?
Darrell
More from leftist sage of the middle east, Juan Cole:
Such balanced commentary. I can see why Juan C. is so popular with the ‘reality based’ community.
skip
If Israel’s bombing isn’t ethnic cleansing it is a kissing cousin. The very mildest tactical interpretation would suggest that Israel wants to take 1/2 a sovereign nation and turn it into a buffer zone.
The captured soldier was a handy pretext for a plan of long-standing. One in a series of plans, by the way, all of which are directed at removing nearby hostile elements displaced and left over from past cleansings of the West Bank and Israel proper.
1982 was much the same, albeit more transparent. But here too Beirut is paying the price.
Pb
Incidentally… ethnic cleansing – “refers to various policies or practices that result in the displacement of an ethnic group from a particular territory.”
Now, Juan Cole:
So if you conclude that an aim of Israel’s bombing campaign is to force civilian populations north to Beirut (and Juan Cole doesn’t even go so far as to make *that* conclusion), then that would fall under the definition of ethnic cleansing. So there’s the issue to debate.
RSA
Wow, that’s actually a very plausible rightwing slogan.
tBone
How dishonest of you, TOS, to pretend that the Left isn’t a hivemind and that all Leftists don’t share exactly the same opinions and ideas. That you seriously expect us to believe such moonbattery just demonstrates how fucking insane you are. You can’t help it, it’s just who you are
Rusty Shackleford
I half expect Darrell to start smacking himself in the head like Rainman when he gets too close to a bathtub with Charlie Babbit.
Take a reading comprehension course already, for chrissakes.
The Other Steve
Oh, I get it.
You’re defending Michael Savage, by trying to show how he was right.
Interesting, tactic Darrell. But how does defending Savage make you appear anything less than an extremist?
Steve
I can see why Tony Snow is so popular with the wingnut community, after he told Helen Thomas “thank you for the Hezbollah view” during yesterday’s press conference. I’m not even going to ask if Darrell agrees with that comment, since it’s a virtual certainty he’d say Snow didn’t go far enough.
Nutcutter
1. Your characterization of it is a lie, as usual.
2. You haven’t answered the question: What do you call a a strategy of bombing a region to get civilians to flee from it?
Tkae back the lie, and answer the question, and we won’t have a problem. In other words, pretty much like every other day with you around ….
Pb
Now, Michael Savage (remember him?):
‘Doc Savage’? He doesn’t sound like a ‘doctor of life’ there…
Pb
RSA,
Yeah, it worked out better than I had anticipated. :)
SeesThroughIt
Awesome.
Steve
I thought the “smallpox” thing was a lie that only leftists like Ward Churchill spread. I guess I have no real idea if it’s actually true or false, but it takes a wingnut’s wingnut to not only accept it as true, but then wear it as a fucking badge of honor.
But remember, Howard Dean was far crazier when he said the Democrats would have had a better policy for the Middle East than the Republicans! YEEEAAAAARRRRRGGGHHHHH!!!!
fwiffo
No. Some, like our poor Darrell, haven’t gotten that far. The sad part is that he’ll never know that he can’t read, because he’d have to be able to read to find that out.
Nutcutter
I wonder if Hitler talked while spitting his mouthful of food on other world leaders?
Steve
I shouldn’t go there, but Hitler and Bush have very little in common.
Nutcutter
Funny as hell …. and accurate!
Pb
Nutcutter,
Just so long as he didn’t try to give Churchill’s mistress a backrub…
Faux News
Zifnab
No, stupid. They read the Bible. Why do you hate America?
Darrell
Not as interesting as you attributing a blockquoted statement to me which I never wrote or endorsed.
Tsulagi
Oooooohh…so the Purple-Heart-bandaid patriots are pissed? They’re beating their Republican manly man chests for action are they?
You just know if their shit hit the fan in more places and a draft had to be instituted how they would step up. They’d follow the lead of their action figure heroes. Half would be pouring over the fine print in any deferment process as they would have more important priorities. The other half with any money or connections would run crying to daddy to fix it. They’re bold like that.
The Other Steve
LOL!
Classic projection.
tBone
I agree, Darrell. What a despicable tactic. Good thing you never resort to that, huh?
Nutcutter
Which is nothing compared to you holding all “lefties” responsible for every word said by every person on earth you don’t agree with …. a hundred times a day, every goddam fucking day …
Nutcutter
Markos’ excellent summary of our situation today.
aka World of Shit.
Pb
*Once again*, Darrell demonstrates that he never learned to read!
The Other Steve
There’s this really cool website for us programmer types called the The Daily WTF. Each day they post a snippet of code that some reader has encountered and has to fix. Like yesterdays A Function to Quit For.
Anyway, I’m proposing we create a Daily Political WTF.
The Other Steve
Oh crap, I had too many links!
Ohwell… nutcutter beat me to the punch
Nutcutter
I think their algorithm is wired so that the more you post here, and the longer the period of time, the fewer links you can embed without going into moderation.
Clever. Very clever.
ats
I note that Ken “Cakewalk” Adelman has re-surfaced and is being quoted today. I’m sure his wise counsel will one again find a wide currency among Darrel’s Sturmabteilung, readying the Israel Anschluß in southern Lebanon.
Former AIPAC higher-up Wolf Blitzer is already warming up a chair for Ken at the CNN roundtable. Be still my heart!
Tim F.
Um, no. There is nothing ridiculous at all in Boehner’s statement. The question that I asked combines the fallacies circular reasoning and begging the question, thus rendering it less than meaningless. Keep that in mind when thinking about how to reply to Captain Composition.
Darrell
Oh Canada, our ever so liberal (terrorist appeasing?) neighbors to the north:
Members of Al Queda can fly on Air Canada. Special frequent flier miles for terrorists? One dead infidel for every 25,000 miles.. Eh, Canadians? Jeezus Canada is fucked. But George Bush said the word ‘shit’ the other day.. and that’s what’s really important
Pb
The Other Steve,
Oh man, regarding ‘A Function To Quit For’, that’s hilariously horrible. Something I noticed (and others in the comments there did as well):
Darrell
How many of you ‘reality based’ community types support ats’s view?.. one of your fellow leftists comparing Israel’s response to that of the Nazis.
Davebo
Well obviously we need to nuke Canada.
It’s a good thing we are much smarter with our list he?
HH
“…it seems likely that Savage speaks for a decent swath of wingerdom.”
And yet Sheehan and Moore are out of bounds for people like, well, John Cole and those further right to bring up. The mind boggles.
HH
“…basically going down the list of liberal bogeymen. Which, oddly, is not the topic at all.”
No, it’s conservative bogeymen. Stay on topic, dammit!
Nutcutter
We in Phoenix are constantly on the lookout for baby-faced midgets who could be terrorists.
Pb
Darrell,
I don’t speak German, and I don’t know ats from Adam–do you? Or did you just pull that ‘one of your fellow leftists’ thing straight out of your ass, as usual?
And that, my friends, almost brings us back on topic! Maybe ats should come on Michael Savage’s show, to add some faux balance to it.
Nutcutter
Well first, they aren’t conservatives. They are neocon lunatics. Big difference.
Second, they are the ones currently ruining the country and the world. That’s why we focus on them.
Nutcutter
Five and half years into his Ptoemkin presidency, this asshole vetoes his first bill … one that would possibly save lives or reduce human suffering.
Classic.
Darrell
From the article:
That is some funny shit, as the terrorists wouldn’t become a “demonstrable threat” until after takeoff, would they hosers? Canadian idiots eliminating themselves from this world via Darwin’s law
Pb
Wow, I’m amazed that he actually went through with his veto–perhaps the world’s stupidest veto ever. I guess he was just waiting for the perfect time to use his first veto.
Good job, President Bush, for standing up for the disposal of those embryos through normal means, instead of allowing them to be used for potentially life-saving scientific research. Those frozen embryos will rest easy tonight, safe from experimentation, at least until they take out the trash tomorrow.
Steve
Let us not forget which party comprises the government of Canada.
Yep, good job electing the wingnuts, Canada. Cause it’s fun to have the whole world laugh at you, take my word for it.
Krista
Well, seeing as Darrell brought that up out of the blue, and is obviously looking for some sort of response, what with the gratuitous insults he’s flinging around, I suppose I’ll go againts my better judgement and oblige him.
Oh, and there’s also this:
I think that last one will be where aviation officials will be allowed to actually use their commmon sense.
capelza
Darrell…you do know that Canadian soldiers have been dying fighting terrorists in Afghanistan? Right? You do know that?
Savage is despicable, Kristol is fucking nuts.
Tim F.
The accusation of hypocrisy is even more remarkable when you recall that I have written posts condemning Cindy Sheehan.
If Hugh’s point is that Savage does not represent rightwingers, all that I can say is read the linked and blockquoted article. Gosh, it sure looks like he does. Says one respondent not named Savage:
Or maybe there was a point that only dogs can hear. Who knows.
Krista
Disregard the strikethrough…don’t know how that happened.
And yeah…Harper’s done some okay stuff. He’s not completely incompetent, but that whole media thing just strikes me as wingnut paranoia, particularly as the media actually warmed up to him a LOT prior to the last election.
Nutcutter
It hasn’t been demonstrated that any particular approach to a “no fly list” is effective or useful.
Also the story is meaningless unless we have information about what constitutes “membership” in a terrorist organization. Are we talking about people who know the secret handshake? Carry membership cards?
I also think the story is just generally poorly written. What appears to be the issue is whether a big list of ambiguous names is a really useful tool, compared to a short list of actual identities … not just names … that represent an obviously larger threat.
Or we could employ the Darrell strategy, which would be to deny boarding to anyone who has ever actually read a Koran, or kneeled toward Mecca.
Perry Como
Darrell drools:
Hey jackass, do something about the $8.5 trillion debt then you will gain some credibility. (I can toss out random topics too)
Perry Como
The Other Steve Says:
“create overloads for the following function so that developers don’t need use zeros if they don’t need all of the 600+ parameters …”
Oh. My. God. Awesome site TOS. Thanks.
And this post is just about on topic as anything Darrell has said in the entire thread. I bet a liberal wrote that code. ‘Cause he hated Israel. And babies. All liberals hate babies.
Pb
Krista,
Probably because you had two dashes in a row.
-test-
\-test-
/test/
\/test/
*test*
\*test*
etc.
Slide
Darrell on Juan Cole:
Actually Cole seems pretty balanced to me
Darrell you DO understand the meaning of balanced don’t you? And no, balanced doesnt’ mean Ann Coulter’s opinion on one side and Mike Savage’s on the other… fucking moron
Pb
heh. that didn’t quite work. Anyhow, two dashes (-) around something do strike through it, and two asterisks (*) around something do bold it.
Punchy
Each shiny new garbage truck….is actually a traveling abortion clinic….
Somebody go protest Waste Management…looks like they’re killing people every single day.
Krista
Pb – eh, probably. I still wish we could write more than one exclamation mark in a row without having it turn into a weird symbol.
Darrell
Of course, especially this passage you quoted:
Ah yes, the ever so balanced “wholesale indiscriminate destruction and slaughter” of Lebanese by the Israelis. What was your point again Joe?
LITBMueller
So, c’mon folks!!!! What do you think of Turkey? If its OK for Israel to bomb the shit outta Lebanon because of attacks by Hezbollah, wouldn’t it be OK for Turkey to start bombing/invade northern Iraq to deal with the Kurdish separatist militants that have been attacking them?
Don’t they have a right to defend themselves, too?
Sure does suck when what seems like a reasonable argument comes back to potentially bite you right on the ass.
Nutcutter
What’s your term for killing hundreds of innocent people ostensibly over two captured soldiers, Darrell?
And you still haven’t answered this one: What’s your term for bombing a civilian area to get the civilians to flee?
Darrell
This hairbrained policy was drawn up not by elected conservative Canadian politicians, but by unelected bureaucrats at Transport Canada.. undoubtedly liberal bureaucrats, as they are the ones most concerned about offending the terrorists.
capelza
LITBMueller…
That will be an interesting twist of pretzel logic.
All I can say anymore is that I am grateful that my husband put his foot down when his last son wanted to join the Marines a couple years ago. To quote him..”Not for this shit”!
demimondian
Absolutely: Turkey does have a right to defend herself, and, to the extent that Kurdistan is providing sanctuary for the terrorists who operate in Turkey — who are, by the way, quite real, and quite vile — the Turks have the right to act.
There, LITBM — does that make things look worse?
Darrell
How would you or anyone else know with any degree of certainty how many of those killed were “innocent”.. that is, unless you’re a clueless dupe for Hezbollah propaganda
Pb
LITBMueller,
…and don’t even get me started on India / Pakistan.
Nutcutter
What the FUCK is the matter with you?
You need to be banned, you fucking piece of shit.
You’re a disgrace.
Perry Como
Because if they are brown and live in Lebanon, they must be guilty. Jackass.
Darrell
You know what, if those Kurds are engaged in Hezbollah-type terrorist attacks in Turkey, then absolutely the Turks have every right to defend themselves
Bruce Moomaw
Regarding Bush’s Dumbest Veto Ever: Combine this with his impromptu backrub of Merkel, and his endless goings-on about how he was “really looking forward to that pig”, and I think we have mounting evidence that Bush has now decided that there’s one way he can definitely get into the history books. It may never be possible now for him to be remembered as one of the most intelligent or decisive Presidents, but by gum he can be commemorated for all time as the DUMBEST President this country has ever had. (He still needs to work on that a bit more, though; Andrew Johnson continues to provide competition.)
Pb
Darrell,
Oh yeah, I forgot. Because terrorists are totally indistinguishable from civilians. Especially the young children. You disgust me.
Which would be, what… any actual evidence that counters whatever you’re being a clueless dupe for, this week? Like, say, casualty reports, pictures, video, news, factual information…
Pb
Darrell,
It’s nice to see you take a consistent moral stand on this. Of course, The Darrell Doctrine might end up getting a lot of people killed, but at least it’s even-handed.
jaime
How many of these right wing pieces of shit would kick thier mothers in the face to be the first in line to benefit from the Embryonic Stem Cell research they rail against? Probably the seame percentage of right wing pieces of shit that would kick their mothers in the face to escape fighting in a war they cheerlead.
Perry Como
Speaking of jackasses… Bush hasn’t met a spending bill he didn’t like, but his first ve†o is aimed at pandering to the Christianists. I’m looking forward to the outright ban on in vitro fertilization and the subsequent round up of all the IVF murderers that have been killing snowflake babies.
This post is still more on topic than Darrell drivel.
LITBMueller
Well, I guess I can’t fault people for being inconsistent. But, if you really wanna see Iraq fall to absolute pieces, and see any hope of an Iraqi unified government, let Turkey start bombing northern Iraq. So much for promoting democracy!!! heh heh.
Darrell
A good number of Lebanese that I’ve seen and known are very light skinned, not “brown”. But carry on with your low life racist insinuations. It’s who you are. It part of how the left distinguishes itself.
Nutcutter
About 100% of them.
capelza
Wingers Rise Up
Are they rising out of they chairs to sign up for WWIV? Yes, I’m calling them chickenhawks. God I am so pissed off.
Went to Totten’s blog, what a bunch of chest beating assholes that are leaving some of the comments.
And Darrell, you have surpassed yourself, really, I didn’t think that was possible. Shame on you, shame, shame, shame.
Darrell
Just because you wish it true doesn’t make it so.
Darrell
No they’re not, you can tell exactly who they are because of their uniforms, and because they live in separate military barracks.. oh, wait
Krista
And how would you know with any degree of certainty that those killed were NOT innocent….that is, unless you’re a clueless dupe for neocon propaganda?
Slide
Asswipe:
My point was balance. Something that is incomprehensible to you. See, to me and many others in the reality based community, the world is not black and white. It is not about good and evil. That is comic book idiocy that morons like you spew in lieu of intelligent dialogue. Balance. Israel is guilty of horrible acts against innocent civillians. Hizbulla is guilty as well. Both sides can points to prior grievences to justify their actions. Balance. Reason. Thought. Not just reflexive regurgiation of moronic talking points. But then again I’m talking to Darrell and we all know how balanced you are..
Darrell
I’m not the one screaming my ass off over the “hundreds of innocent civilians” killed by ‘indiscriminate’ Isreali attacks, now am I? Given Israel’s track record, I doubt they’re as bad shots or reckless as is being asserted here. I’m suggesting that the numbers of reported “innocent” civilians be taken with a grain of salt. Sorry you find that position so ‘controversial’.
Punchy
US Diplomacy at it’s finest….
“Kill the fags! THEY’RE causing all the trouble in the ME!!”
Perry Como
Ah, the bait and switch tactic from good conservatives like Darrell. Hey jackass, how’s that debt doin’ it for ya’? Happy that we are up to our ears in debt that will take generations to pay off? Glad that Bush uses his first. veto. evah. to protect snowflake babies, instead of vetoing the assinine earmark bills coming out of your Republican Congress?
Steve
“I can’t be racist, because I’ve seen Lebanese people”
jaime
Darrell doesn’t give a fuck because HE gets HIS tax cuts NOW.
Emile
Turkey is sending a shot across the bow with this.
tomtom
New to the site, but DougJ is a parody. Right?
Sorry, I can’t tell the difference anymore.
Zifnab
And with that, I think Darrell just defended a Turkish carpet bombing of US troops in Iraq. Happy Birthday, Darrell is a traitor to America.
Tim F.
If Turkey enters Iraq then so will Iran. For example. Boy howdy, a four-way face-to-face standoff between the US Army, the Turkish Army, the Iranian Army and the Kurds sure sounds fun. Can’t imagine that anything bad could come from that.
Of course the Turks and Iranians have every right to preempt terrorist groups taking shelter in Kurdistan. It would be nice if America, the military force supposedly keeping a lid trouble in Iraq, could do something to settle things down. You know, send a division up north to let the Turks and Iranians know that intervention won’t be necessary. Sadly, given our current military posture, unless the PKK decides to take shelter in a Forward Operating Base parking lot we can do little more than watch.
Perry Como
No, but Darrell is.
Pb
Perry Como,
Actually, the sycophants over at Red State are jizzing in their pants over the fact that this *cuts spending*! As if the President cares about that–apparently Red State didn’t listen to his reasoning on this veto, which had nothing to do with spending.
Incidentally, I’d have to find the text of the bill, but my understanding is that this bill doesn’t allocate any funds at all. If so, then–as usual–Red State is full of it.
Pb
Darrell,
Israel’s track record includes the current conflict. Now open up a newspaper, you ignoramus.
Zifnab
Yes, because by-and-far the biggest problem in the Middle East right now is all that rampant gay marriage. Sometimes I wonder why we’re at war over there and then I take a look towards Mecca and see all that sodomey. Run that Congressman for President.
Steve
I agree with this. It’s good foreign relations to remind the Arab nations that we dislike gay people as much as they do.
Seriously, while Darrell whines about the audacity of Howard Dean claiming the Democrats would have done a better job in the Middle East, I have to wonder if there are any limits at all to the Republicans’ ability to pimp tragedy for political gain. Gee, crisis in the Middle East. Missiles are flying and people are dying. What a great excuse to make the case for gay marriage!
I’m reminded of Senators Kyl and Sessions combing through the wreckage of Katrina hoping to find a dead hurricane victim who got hit with estate tax, so they could put a dead person’s face on their case for repeal. To some, ghoulish would be an understatement; to others, just another day at the office.
Pb
Steve,
Man I hope not. Iran will be thrilled, though.
Zifnab
It’s the sort of thing they write books about. Now if only we could get the Giant Eagles in on this fight, we could make Peter’s Jackson’s job alot easier if he ever wanted to film the Hobbit.
rjudel
I guess he has been waiting for a few days to slide this one in, or he isn’t as current on his Malkin/Powerline/FreeRepublic as he should be. As has been pointed out ad nauseum, the photographer is a Portuguese South African stringer for the Times, and didn’t sign any loyalty oaths to the USA.
Nutcutter
How many innocent civlian deaths are acceptable, you worthless piece of human feces?
Pb
I still want to know how many of those young children Darrell mistook for terrorists. It’s true, they weren’t wearing terrorist uniforms, they were wearing diapers!
tofubo
the michael ‘savage’ show : daily schedule
problem : (insert daily rant here)
solution : if it isn’t those insane liberals, it’s those nasty gays or them uppity women
repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat
The Other Steve
It’s amazing to me just how desperate the Republicans are to justify their existence, that they would cheer for a complete collapse of everything into WWIII. To read redstate, malkin, powerline, etc., never have I heard so many people cheering for war.
Most people try to avoid war until there is no other alternative.
What’s even more amazing, is that quite unlike say Teddy Roosevelt, these modern war cheer squads are the last to go to the front lines.
DougJ
Let’s see if John takes the bait on this comment
https://balloon-juice.com/?p=7164#comment-179887
If he doesn’t, we’ll know a part of him has truly died.
Darrell
Not much can compare to Dems using flag draped coffins of fallen soldiers to raise campaign money.
Tim F.
Using the smoking ruins of the 9/11 dead to raise campaign money? If you haven’t seen those ads I can post a link.
Nutcutter
But as Boehner said, the difference is as plain as night and day.
Surely we can all agree on that.
jaime
I’m sure he has, and I’m sure he knows he’s being a hypocrite, and I’m sure he doesn’t give a shit.
Perry Como
I’ve got 8.5 trillion comparisons. Would you like to discuss them?
DougJ
Straight spoof, homey.
SeesThroughIt
I fixed it for you, Darrell. If you want to read more about it, knock yourself out. Or I’ll just quote you the money excerpt here (emphasis mine):
One of [the Bush/Cheney ads], called “Safer, Stronger,” draws a strong link between patriotism, Sept. 11 and the president. Following the words “an economy in recession . . . a stock-market in decline . . . a dot-com boom gone bust,” the on-screen message changes to read, “then . . . a day of tragedy.” This is quickly followed by glimpses of a destroyed World Trade Center tower, firefighters carrying a flag-draped body, a man raising an American flag and Bush speaking at a lectern.
Steve
I actually agree with this. It was a very good ad.
Darrell
Are you referring to Dems pimping the wives of 9/11 victims to score political points? I think John Cole was complaining about that too.
Steve
Do you not even know that three 9/11 family members spoke at the 2004 GOP convention?
capelza
Darrell, you slid right by the question….is it alright for the GOP to use the dead of 9/11 for THEIR campaigns?
As for the widows, they are living breathing people with their own opinions. Just ones you don’t like. The dead bodies of soldiers OR 9/11 victims are different. If it isn’t okay for the Dems to use dead soldiers, then ithas to be equally wrong for the GOP to do so…right?
Pb
Another Darrell dodge, another Savage quote–here’s a classic:
Perry Como
You are operating under the assumption that modern Republicans are not giant hypocrites.
Steve
I really don’t see anything in that Savage quote as bad as Howard Dean claiming the Democrats would have had a better foreign policy than Bush.
ats
It was not my intention to liken Israel, even Likud Israel, to Nazi Germany. That would be in bad taste. Rather, I meant to draw a parallel the between Michael Savage/Darrell rationale for this Israeli war and the bellicose rants of Joseph Goebbels.
Lots of Israelis who embrace the current lunacy would nonetheless utterly reject the Savage/Darrell rationale for it.
tBone
Man. After this thread, I think Darrell’s got a big award coming to him at the annual Jackalopes Forever banquet. He’s almost single-handedly* responsible for the proliferation of the species.
*Because his other hand is, uh, busy.
Darrell
But what, 95%+ of you leftists here support Markos “Screw them” Moulitsas right?
Darrell
There is a distinction between using photos of smoking ruins, and photos of individual coffins of fallen soldiers.
Darrell
Murdered American veterans in Iraq strung up publicly on a bridge, and Markos says “Screw them”. The result? DKOS is the most popular leftist blog on the internet and lots of advertisers eager for more of this “message”
Perry Como
Kind of like the difference between being a jackass and a wanker.
Darrell
Remember, conservative talk show hosts = haters. Markos “Screw them” Moulitsas Zuniga = Guiding light
Darrell
Since you mention me by name, explain for us my “rationale” for this war.. and please cite what I’ve actually written about it so that we can all see how full of shit you are
Tim F.
oops:
Tim F.
You hurt my feelings when you don’t understand what I write. Think of me, Darrell, and maybe invest in glasses.
Steve
Sure, because most people understand that a single hotheaded comment, that the guy has long since apologized for, doesn’t condemn him forever. Remarkable that you believe he should be relegated to obscurity for a single repudiated comment, when you defend people who unapologetically say far worse on an ongoing basis. Well, not remarkable, really. Whatever liberals do is bad, whatever conservatives do is good, and whatever meaningless distinction you can come up with to differentiate the two is good enough.
Ooh, it’s bad to use individual coffins of fallen soldiers… oh, wait, until it turns out the Republicans used an actual flag-draped body in their ad, while the Democratic ad was apparently nothing more than a row of empty coffins on their way overseas! Now you need a new talking point. So it goes in the land of faux outrage.
capelza
Darrell, you mean the Blackwater employees that Markos was talking about? The ones he saw as mercenaries that got paid to be there? The statement he apologised for? (I’m sure you don’t know or blow off Kos’s childhood spent in a country bloodied by mercenaries.
Do you express the same outrage when one of your wingnut sites talks about “pancake breakfasts” when referring to Rachael Corrie? That one is always a knee slapper..yuck, yuck.
Perry Como
Tim F. Says:
Do glasses help with dishonesty?
Darrell
Actually, that post wasn’t directed at you Tim, but more in general toward the decidedly leftist tendency to demonize the other side while ignoring the same or worse behavior of those they idolize. Highlighting over-the-top statements made by Savage to paint conservatives? Savage speaks for a significant size swath of right wingerdom is what Tim wrote. Hey, free speech.. Just don’t cry foul when someone points out the same or worse on your side
The Other Steve
Actually, he won’t apologize. He hates mercenaries. Most soldiers do because they get in the way and queer the mission.
And you were right. That was a very good ad.
Sorry Darrel.
Tim F.
Oh my god, imagine if every pundit who ever said anything stupid and apologized was stripped from punditry. We would have to recruit mute people out of high school and teach them to talk.
The Other Steve
Well you did spend most of this thread trying to defend him.
So is Tim wrong?
Darrell
Yes, those Americans who were killed while providing security for delivery of food. Those “mercenaries”, right? And yeah, I read his ‘apology’. It was bullshit excuse making in which he didn’t take much responsibility, blaming his environment while growing up to make a dishonest analogy between the wrongs in Central america and those Americans who were killed and strung up on a bridge.
capelza
So you do like the “pancake breakfasts” then…cause that’s different. Right?
Tim F.
In all honesty I can understand your reaction to the post, just bear in mind that Savage’s goodness/badness has little or nothing to do with what I actually said. Insofar as I had a point, Savage’s example was meant to illustrate how disgust with the Bush administration has filtered out through talk radio first and then the mainstream media. It is true that I cannot help taking my digs but let’s be honest, the guy’s radio persona is a fruit loop.
Darrell
TOS, can you show me one post where I ‘defended’ Savage? No?
Steve
As usual, Darrell employs scare quotes to inform us he doesn’t actually know the meaning of a term. Ohmigod, “ethnic cleansing”!!!
Darrell
I’m not going to disagree with that. Savage often has good insights, but he goes “fruit loop” too often for my tastes. I do agree with him though that liberalism is a mental disorder :)
Darrell
I used ‘scare quotes’ in that case to highlight what bullshit it was to characterize those killed workers as mercenaries. They were providing security for food delivery. Many on the left dishonestly refer to them as mercenaries to excuse the despicable comment Markos made about them.
Steve
Uh, the private security contractors in Iraq are, in fact, mercenaries. They’re private individuals filling the role of soldiers (for a considerably higher salary). But I know better than to ascribe any actual meaning to your use of the word “dishonest.” Everything any liberal says is “dishonest” on Planet Darrell.
Perry Como
More workers in Iraq.
John S.
Name one.
capelza
Darrell…focus…pancake breakfasts…I’m still waiting for your answer. :)
Perry Como
Workers guarding a convoy of cotton candy and kittens.
jg
Do you also believe that blaming everything you hate in life on liberals is also a mental disorder?
Perry Como
No, that’s rational discourse.
Darrell
“In fact” mercenaries Steve? I know you like to call them mercenaries in order to excuse the inexcusable comments made by Markos, but they were no more a mercenary than the rent-a-cop outside my building or a private bodyguard for Madonna. They are not mercenaries in the commonly understood definition (French foreign legion anyone?) or by the Geneva conventions definition of mercenary:
They are not fighting alongside our soldiers, they don’t take orders from our military, and many/most don’t take any part in the hostilities. They were providing security for delivery of food like Brink’s provides security for cash transfer from banks. And yes, I think you’re definitely a dishonest lowlife sack of shit for what you’re doing, characterizing them as mercenaries to provide cover for your fellow lowlife Markos.
Darrell
No they are not. Unlike soldiers, they don’t take orders from the military or fight along side them. They don’t follow the military’s rules of engagement or adhere to the military’s rules of conduct. They are like security guards at a bank, or a private bodyguard. In this case, providing security for a food delivery.
jg
I’ve never read a word on Kos.
They’re mercenaries. Get over it. I know people who want to join up. They want to get paid to fight rather than re-enlist. They know full well they’ll be mercenaries and are damned proud of it.
capelza
Perry Como…I can’t believe that those assholes would actually put that on youtube. Screw’ em.
John S.
Do you ever read the shit you quote?
That describes Blackwater et al very accurately. Not only are those guys motivated by financial gain, but their compensation is FAR in excess of that which the armed forces receive. Therefore, the are mercenaries by the very definition YOU provided, you fucking nitwit.
Steve
Yeah, like security guards at a bank… in a war zone!
We don’t have enough soldiers to provide security for everything the US Army would like to provide security for in Iraq, so we outsource security to private companies like Blackwater who employ former Special Forces soldiers and such. That’s just the way things work. It’s just a word, stop flipping out over it.
Perry Como
Here’s Blackwater not fighting alongside out soldiers in Iraq.
Darrell, you’re an idiot. (cue dissembling about how they aren’t taking orders, blah blach drool)
Pb
More Darrell hackery, more Savage quotes. Note that Michael Savage–unlike Darrell–has about 10 million people listening to these insane rantings every week.
Darrell
They are trying to AVOID hostilities, not take part in them.
That would describe every private contractor in Iraq and Afghanistan.. “screw them” too, right?
Steve
By the way, I don’t really know if the Blackwater mercenaries fit the technical, Geneva Convention legal definition of “mercenaries.” My sense is that they operate in a grey area. The reason I don’t really know is that Darrell didn’t say “these weren’t mercenaries by the technical, Geneva Convention legal definition,” he simply said “these weren’t mercenaries, you dishonest leftist” which is straight-up bullshit.
But they’re only “providing security.” Gee, as if that’s not exactly what our uniformed military is doing!
Darrell
Capelza, if I understand correctly what happened to Rachel Corrie, she has FAR more culpability in her own death than those contractors who were killed and strung up in Fallujah. Didn’t she stand in front of a moving bulldozer and that’s how she died? Don’t people hand out Darwin awards for that kind of thing?
Perry Como
Just like a security guard at a bank.
Darrell
They are not only NOT mercenaries by the GC definition, they are not mercenaries by commonly understood definitions.. like the French foreign legion is what most people would consider an example of mercenary.
You and others distort the definition to provide ideological cover for despicable comments made by Markos “Screw them” Moulitsas. That is/was your intent and purpose, which makes you pretty scummy too, doesn’t it?
capelza
Darrell…two things. Rachael Corrie died, and the right wing celebrates with “pancake breakfasts”. So she was stupid perhaps, but is that cause for snide humour? No, but it hasn’t stopped the unhunged right from crowing over her death. Or the death of anyone NOT BEING PAID who has gone into these war zones, trying to help and paid the ultimate price. You all love to heap vitriol on them..and then…
…the mercemnaries were very well paid to be in a country at war, a dangerous place. Wow, they got attacked. They died. Are they so much better because they were being PAID? Or because they were just “on your side”?
Secondly, what is your response to the vid Perry Como put up?
Tim F.
Don’t get too excited about that part.
Perry Como
Bank guards have a very cool job flying around in helicopters firing machine guns.
jg
JC, whats the deal? You lash out at DougJ for queering a thread yet you do nothing as Darrell spends hours debating the definition of mercenary queering the hell out of this thread.
Steve
No, not really. They’re obviously mercenaries, and you’re being silly to insist to the contrary. The fact that you want to invent motives and ascribe them to me really illustrates nothing other than a strange obsession on your part.
I’m pretty sure people referred to these folks as mercenaries well before the Fallujah incident. I wonder if they did so just to provide ideological cover for the comments they knew Markos would make in the future? You better be careful before you malign the motivations of lefties with time machines.
Anyway, I don’t agree with the spirit of Markos’ comment, which I’ll remind you again he apologized for, so enough with the pretense that I’m trying to defend him. My only “defense” is that no, one bad comment doesn’t make someone a reprehensible human being that no one should ever listen to again. That’s a silly standard that you would never, ever agree to apply to someone whose politics you agree with, so enough clowning already.
Perry Como
Did you know you can make up to $1000 per day as a bank guard?
Steve
Tim made a post about extreme right-wingers who say ridiculous and offensive things. I hardly see how a single one of Darrell’s posts could be off-topic.
Richard 23
Darrell, you’d be celebrated and cheered over on Little Green Shitballs. Don’t walk, run.
jg
Good point Steve.
Perry Como
PROTECTIVE SECURITY SPECIALIST (PSS)
Unless someone is going to try to argue that Iraq is not and armed conflict, I think this points to merc.
Check any of the videos I posted.
Their salaries can be as high as $US1000 a day, the news agency AFP recently reported. Erwin, a 28-year-old former US army sergeant working in Iraq, told AFP: “This place is a goldmine. All you need is five years in the military and you come here and make a good bundle.”
From the “$1000 a day” link above.
A number of the bank guards don’t fall under this definition. However, the bank guards from Santiago most assuredly do. There are also mercs from South Africa in Iraq.
This is obvious. Private security forces are not members of the US military.
Obvious too.
Conclusion, we are using mercenaries in Iraq.
jaime
Why bother? You staple to the truth to Darrell’s forehead, he’ll just cut out eyeholes and pretend it ain’t in front of hiim.
Sojourner
Oh dear. I think Darrell just wet his pants.
How embarassing!
Steve
Kudos to Perry for doing the heavy lifting on this truly stupid sub-sub-sub-argument.
Perry Como
Because watching him foam about dishonesty is funny.
tBone
I know you wrote a Greasemonkey script to block Darrell; how about one that would simulate him? You’d just need an algorithm that would produce variations of the phrases “leftists, lefties, the Left, kooks, whackjobs, dishonesty, dishonest, scumbags, shout it to the world, you can’t help it, it’s just who you are.” And, of course, it would need to omit the final period in the post.
Personally, I don’t think anyone would notice even if it was a shoddily-written script.
Perry Como
Hmmm. Nothing about helicopters, sniper rifles or machine guns in that post. No $1000/day salary either.
Pb
We should start a pool where we try to guess the subject or contents of Darrell’s next ridiculous dodge / thread queering attempt. I’m going with immigration and/or New York Times, with a bonus if I can source it to Horowitz.
Pb
tBone,
I’ve got enough text dissociation programs around that I could come up with a Darrell Jr given enough source material. But you’d probably do better if you pulled links and headlines from one of the many clinically insane far-right sites out there, and tacked on a (possibly related) Darrellism to that.
Perry Como
I’ve been meaning to play with Markov Chains, but I keep getting distracted by other shiny things. A Bushbot would be trivial to write. It doesn’t even have to be as good as ALICE.
Sample:
Not Bush supporter: I think the President has bungled the war in Iraq.
Bushbot: Hello there. Why do you hate America?
Not Bush supporter: I don’t hate America, but I think that spending $1 trillion dollars on a war is a waste of money and American lives.
Bushbot: No you do hate America. Why is Micahel Moore so fat?
Not Bush supporter: I don’t hate America and what does Micahel Moore have to do with anything?
Bushbot: Howard Dean is angry and screams alot.
Not Bush supporter: Okay…
jg
I sometimes wonder if guys like Darrell (there’s at least one at every lefty site) are sitting in their chairs whereever they are laughing their asses off because we keep responding to their crap?
Tim F.
For one thing, it’s my thread. For another people don’t piss on me anywhere near as relentlessly as some piss on John. So far the ones I really manage to tick off just get disgusted and leave.
Pb
Perry Como,
Sometimes it seems like everyone and their brother has written some sort of text gobbledygookifier with Markov chains, so it isn’t too hard to find one. JWZ wrote one a while back called dadadodo, and I found a decent one written in C called chan… Of course, half of what comes out of it is utter nonsense, but that’s still better than Darrell, on average…
HH
“Well first, they aren’t conservatives. They are neocon lunatics.”
First of all, learn to recognize sarcasm. Michael Savage is a far-right lunatic, and openly supported Pat Buchanan, and has had little to say positive about Bush for many years. Israel is just about the only thing they have to disagree about. So he’s not remotely “neocon.”
demimondian
Pb, Perry Como: the granddaddy of Markov chain spoofing algorithms is the dissociated-press.el minor mode for Gnu Emacs. It’s a great toy for using on wingnut screeds — back in the day, I used to treat Clayton Cramer’s homophobic tripe with it. Improved legibility, and provided a convenient way to express the total content of his work…
Pb
demimondian,
Yeah, I haven’t used dissociated press much, (Emacs not being my editor of choice) but my understanding is that it’s somewhat unique in that it acts on chains of letters, not words, making its output that much more surreal. It’d probably be just perfect for my corpus of Bush speeches.
tBone
Well, come on then, code-monkeys. Get cracking on the Darrelltron 2000. It can’t be worse than the real thing.
SeesThroughIt
Well, he has often pointed out that Sean Hannity is a vapid twit with no redeeming value. Of course, that’s mostly out of jealousy of Hannity’s success, but his point remains valid.
Andrew
If we pose questions to Darrell and Darrelltron 2000 via Balloon Juice, and we are unable to tell the difference, have we produced an equivalent stupidity?
I call this the unTuring test.
tBone
I think both Darrell and the Darrelltron 2000 would fail based on the Lady Lovelace objection.
Perry Como
PotD!
Pb
Gotta love it.
John S.
And like clockwork, Darrell vanishes from another thread he attempted to hijack after having his latest objectively dishonest argument (hired guns in Iraq aren’t mercenaries!) completely torn to shreds…
Darrell
Yes, you halfwits really “tore to shreds” my argument, particularly after I provided common sense examples of mercenaries as well as the Geneva convention definition. Even Steve acknowleges that those security escorts killed and strung up at Fallujah don’t meet the GC definition of ‘mercenary’
Only the most dishonest insist that those security escorts were mercenaries. Mercenaries are like the French foreign legion, fighting under orders from the military. Those security escorts are no more mercenaries than some Joe with a gun watching over Halliburton workers while they repair a pipeline or a pothole.
One thing I have noticed which is a common tendency on the left, is the need to declare that they “kicked ass” or “tore to shreds” another argument, no matter how delusional that claim may be. As the sole judge and jury of who “won” any given argument, you leftists should keep on patting yourselves on the back for your undefeated win streak.
demimondian
Umm…Perry, do you have Gnu installed on your box? Since I moved to TheDarkSide(tm), my boxes don’t typically include dissociated-press.elc, and MAY NOT include dissociated-press.el, but, you know, I think that this most recent contribution from Darrell might be improved by transformation…
John S.
Darrell Says:
Thanks for that excellent rejoinder. As always, your input on matters is much appreciated.
Because of course you missed where Steve told you:
Only the most dishonest insist that those “security escorts” sniping from rooftops aren’t mercenaries.
One thing I have noticed which is a common tendency by you, is the need to pretend that you didn’t get your “ass kicked” or have your arguments “torn to shreds”, no matter how delusional that claim may be.
We love your tasty little lies, though. Please keep posting.
Steve
I’m sure Darrell wouldn’t lie, but maybe we should look at what I actually said:
But remember, leftist kooks, unless you can get Darrell to ADMIT that he simply makes stuff up, no one has a right to say who has “won” the argument. He says I acknowledged the GC definition isn’t met, I say I didn’t acknowledge any such thing, gosh, who can say which of us is right or wrong?
John S.
The funniest thing about this whole little charade is that Perry Como deconstructed the GC definition that Darrell posted line by line and succintly showed that, in fact, many of the hired guns do fit the description.
Naturally, Darrell did not respond to Perry’s post because he prefers to trumpet that his mere posting of these definitons somehow prove that he is right – even though Perry clearly showed he is wrong.
ats
Darrell says : “Since you mention me by name, explain for us my ‘rationale’ for this war.. and please cite what I’ve actually written about it . . .”
Right you are. Etymologically, a rationale should be derived from reason, of which your postings are remarkably free. What you and Savage advance, usually from the Kach fringe of Likud, is all froth and foam, puncuated with vulgarity.
I may be “full of Sh**” but you aren’t full of anything at all, unless you measure Phlogiston by the neutrino.
Matthew
‘True Fact’ is redundant. Facts are true by definition. If it’s not true then it’s not a fact.