Being a mostly closed loop, the rightwing blogosphere amplifies some things that deserve it and many things that don’t. The often lamentable circle jerks that result usually come to an unsteady end when the House Seargant-at-Arms explains why Nancy Pelosi uses a bigger plane or a reporter interviews Jamil Hussein. Surprise, two nuggets from today’s news knock down a couple more.
Did Kathleen Sibelius exaggerate that Iraq slowed down the Kansas Guard’s response to a catastrophic hurricane tornado (conceptual dyslexics untie!)? No, she didn’t. Honestly, sensible people can figure out without much effort that sending our best equipment to get blown up in the middle east leaves the Guard with less gear that doesn’t work as well.
Separately, the same CIA who can’t get anything right (just ask Pat Roberts!) predicted fairly accurately what would happen after we removed Saddam. This is even more funny given that yesterday Bush declared, “I’m credible because I read the intelligence.” Logically that means that a president who doesn’t read the intelligence lacks credibility. Apologistas can claim that the pres read this particular bit of intel as soon as they deal with the obvious consequence that the president held his job in ridiculous contempt that he knew about Iraq’s potential to for ethnic chaos but failed to pick up the phone and ask his Defense Secretary to plan for it. Our decider-guy leader looks like a chump either way.
It is fairly easy to understand why the president’s supporters still attack the CIA with such vehemence. Pretty much everybody now sees that every single thing rightwingers said about Iraq in 2002 and 2003 turned out wronger than a Gigli sequel. Iraq had not a thing to do with al Qaeda. In fact, and this is not a small point, the two hated each other. The massive, terrible WMD programs turned out to be a couple of rusted mustard gas shells lost since the Iran-Iraq war. We failed to cow neighboring countries like Iran into submission. Now four years later, every sunny prediction by neocons and their online supporters has proven so off the mark that in retrospect their ideas (cakewalks, candy, flowers) seem practically demented. When you add it all together it seems scarcely possible for a group of human beings to be more collectively wrong about anything. Short of self-medication, the only way to escape a credibility crisis that deep is to pretend that everybody else was just as wrong as you were. Better luck next time, guys.
***Update***
Weird. I call neocon ideas demented and not one minute later I see a report about real candy and (I imagine) real flowers being thrown in Iraq. Self-ownage? I’d hang my head in shame if thought the 2003 neocons were talking about Muqtada al-Sadr.
Zifnab
It really wasn’t that bad of a movie. They hype, and the fact that neither of those two goofballs could act, just made it seem that way.
Furthermore, Tim, you have my giant stamp of approval for including awesome YouTube videos in your posts. If you could get a few clips of Office Space, Early 90s SNL, or Debbie Does Dallas in here, that would be cool, too.
demimondian
Really, Gigli wasn’t that bad a movie. It was, for instance, more fun than being a victim of ethnic cleansing. It compares favorably with a Clorox enema. And, despite all claims to the contrary, it really was no worse to experience than internal decapitation.
demimondian
Oh, and by the way? Gov. Sibelius (gotta love that name; I wonder if she’s related to the composer?) was talking about a catastrophic tornado.
ThymeZone
Compared to The Wire, Gigli was great.
Dug Jay
I LOVE the smell of IDIOTS burning in the morning air.
Dug Jay
I LOVE the smell of IDIOTS burning in the morning air.
ThymeZone
Compared to The Wire, Dug Jay is very interesting.
jake
As could anyone who was semi-sentinent when the USSR went kablooie. This is not to dis’ the CIA, this is merely to point out that anyone who says things like “No one could have possibly foreseen…” is a filthy fucking liar.
Fixed.
mclaren
Now that the Republican Party has mutated into Ingsoc from the George Orwell novel 1984, what do we call the Demos? “The Torture Lite” party, maybe. Their 2008 platform: “When we kidnap you and hold you naked in a cell without charges or a trial, we’ll only gouge _one_ of your eyes out.”
Or maybe: “When we force you to form a naked-guy pile and take photos, we won’t give a thumbs-up.”
Or how about: “After we kill your sons and daughters for no reason in Iraq, _we’ll_ pose for photo ops next to the aluminum coffins in Arlington.”
Let’s look into the crystal ball, shall we? Hillary gets elected in 2008 and promptly escalates the Iraq War…
Did I miss something over the last 10 years? Did some highly infectious outer-space brain parasite infect 90% of the American population and destroy their IQs…?
jake
As could anything that was semi-sentinent when the USSR became Russia and a bunch of countries all fighting like cats. This is not to dis’ the CIA, this is merely to point out that anyone who says things like “No one could have possibly foreseen…” is a filthy fucking liar.
Fixed.
Actually, I don’t understand this one. If I say A + Y = X and someone else says No, A + Y = Z and that person is right, I say thanks, feel a bit stupid and move on. If I spent several years insulting people who say A + Y = Z, I’d apologize profusely and shut the hell up for a very long time. I would not keep screaming NO IT’S X YOU BASTARD!
But then, I am not a batshit fucking crazy wankmaster who takes his cues from the batshittiest wanker on the planet. I guess it makes sense to those folks.
And am I the only one who thinks its a little strange that Bush and his followers spend so much time trashing Daddy’s old agency?
Tim F.
Good question. Maybe you should ask Oedipus.
Perry Como
Barbara Bush the elder? Errrm, arrgh, ewwww. DO NOT WANT
jake
That’s a tad harsh on Oedipus. He unwittingly whacked his old man and married mummy to illustrate the fact that if the gods decide to fuck with a man, that man is fucked.
Compare this to B43, who seems to be acting with intent,* perhaps in order to illustrate that the gods are also quite good at fucking with several million people at once.
*I’m only talking about the father stabbing part of the equation because the Iron Babs half … What Perry Como said.
LaraAriadne
I’m always amazed by how some diehard Iraq war supporters view the CIA. A while back, I was considering moving to a new job. I have a foreign policy background, and several of my right-wing friends suggested with the most sincere earnestness that I apply to the CIA, according to them, “I’d fit in perfectly there.”
Let’s see, I’m a tree-hugging Pagan liberal who likes to wear jeans and tennis shoes in the office (if I can get away with it) and I have a stuffed Cthulhu in my office, along with a bunch of other toys. On personality alone, I don’t think there’d be a chance in hell I’d be a good fit for the CIA, they’d laugh me out of the building. But according to my friends, “Everybody there is like you, it’d be a great organization to join.” Ah yes, the CIA, well-known as a bastion of liberalism and defender of hippies everywhere.
Sometimes my conservative friends make me think I’m in the twilight zone.
demimondian
Um, Lara? Actually, you *would* fit in at the Agency.
LaraAriadne
I’ve known several retired analysts that used to work for the agency. Most were staunchly Republican, all were personally very conservative, in dress and demeanor. Not to mention completely and utterly brilliant.
I know they’re retired, and maybe the CIA really has become infested by fifth column surrender-lovin’ hippies like my conservative friends believe, but I seriously doubt it.