Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Bark louder, little dog.

Democrats have delivered the Square Deal, the New Deal, the Fair Deal, and now… the Big Joe Biden Deal.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

Trump makes a mockery of the legal system and cowardly judges just sit back and let him.

Russia bombs Ukraine’s maternity hospitals; Republicans in the House can’t sort out supporting Ukraine.

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

People are complicated. Love is not.

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

You can’t love your country only when you win.

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

“The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.”

Books are my comfort food!

The frogs are rarely mistaken.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

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Archives for September 2007

The Petraeus Testimony

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In a move that will surprise no one, General Petraeus will advocate giving the surge more time:

The top American commander in Iraq, Gen. David H. Petraeus, has recommended that decisions on the contentious issue of reducing the main body of the American troops in Iraq be put off for six months, American officials said Sunday.

General Petraeus, whose long-awaited testimony before Congress will begin Monday, has informed President Bush that troop cuts may begin in mid-December, with the withdrawal of one of the 20 American combat brigades in Iraq, about 4,000 troops. By August, the American force in Iraq would be down to 15 combat brigades, the force level before Mr. Bush’s troop reinforcement plan.

The precise timing of such reductions, which would leave about 130,000 troops in Iraq, could vary, depending on conditions in the country. But the general has also said that it is too soon to present recommendations on reducing American forces below that level because the situation in Iraq is in flux. He has suggested that he wait until March to outline proposals on that question.

At which point, there is no decision to be made, because troop strength levels will dictate our actions.

One last thing- I am officially sick and tired of reading and hearing about people calling Petraeus Gen. “Betray us.” This is substantively no different from the disgusting stab in the back bullshit we get from the Hewitts and the Weekly Standard assholes, and I am sick of it.

While Petraeus and the military have certainly opened themselves up to scrutiny by handing out exclusives to folks like Fox news, and having PR shops set up to “sell the surge,” or telling us he “can accept” purely political troop withdrawals (something he should not be doing- his job is to state whether we need the damned troops there or not), calling Petraeus a traitor or using rhetoric that implies treason is outrageous. I don’t think he is lying, I don’t think he will lie to the committee- I think that he is trying to win, and is more likely to focus on the positive aspects of the surge than the negative. That may bring his judgement into question in my book, but it does not make him a traitor.

I understand many of you are frustrated with this war, frustrated with this administration, and frustrated with the spineless Democrats. Taking it out on Petraeus and acting like the scum at the Free Republic who never miss a chance to call someone a traitor isn’t going to fix anything.

*** Update ***

This video, via Sullivan, is instructive. Their judgement- the Petraeus report is little more than a political document.

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Good Mojo

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B-J favorite drug resveratrol (RV) keeps cranking out the hits:

We report here that chronic treatment with RV in a subapoptotic concentration induces senescence-like growth arrest in tumor cells. In contrast to the widely accepted antioxidant property of RV, we demonstrate that one causative stimulus for senescence induction by chronic RV is an increased level of reactive oxygen species (ROS). The ROS formed upon RV exposure include hydrogen peroxide and superoxide and originate largely from mitochondria. Consistently, co-incubation with the antioxidant N-acetyl cysteine interfered with RV-mediated reactivation of the senescence program. Molecular mediators on the way from increased ROS levels to the observed growth arrest include p38 MAPK, p53, and p21. Moreover, we provide evidence that RV-initiated replication stress, apparent by activation of the ataxia telangiectasia-mutated kinase pathway, is associated with increased ROS levels and senescence induction. This is the first report linking cell cycle effects with a pro-oxidant and pro-senescent effect of RV in cancer cells.

We knew that resveratrol has weird cancer preventative properties, but here is the first sign that RV treatment can help kill mature cancer cells. Read through our resveratrol archives to get a sense of the almost ludicrously positive effects of this simple compound.

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Morning Science Thread

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Another study for the pile:

Participants were college students whose politics ranged from “very liberal” to “very conservative.” They were instructed to tap a keyboard when an M appeared on a computer monitor and to refrain from tapping when they saw a W.

M appeared four times more frequently than W, conditioning participants to press a key in knee-jerk fashion whenever they saw a letter.

Each participant was wired to an electroencephalograph that recorded activity in the anterior cingulate cortex, the part of the brain that detects conflicts between a habitual tendency (pressing a key) and a more appropriate response (not pressing the key). Liberals had more brain activity and made fewer mistakes than conservatives when they saw a W, researchers said. Liberals and conservatives were equally accurate in recognizing M.

[…] Analyzing the data, Sulloway said liberals were 4.9 times as likely as conservatives to show activity in the brain circuits that deal with conflicts, and 2.2 times as likely to score in the top half of the distribution for accuracy.

Authors interpret the data to mean that liberals go into new experiences with a more open mind (if you assume that an ‘M’ will appear then you tend to see it). For much more on a similar topic, read Bob Altmeyer and some related research that I blogged a while ago.

Conservative readers feeling sore about abuse from the media-scientific establishment take heart, we’re all a bit nuts.

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Brave Sir David

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Bravely runs to FOX. Hewitt was busy?

Note how Petraeus has set up a bit of a quandary for war critics. Ever since his 2004 op-ed claiming glorious progress in police and army training that later turned out to be about as fact-based as a bad taco dream, David Petraeus has practically begged observers to note that he seems as attentive to the president’s political interests as he is to fixing problems in Iraq. One can hardly disagree with the point that falsely pretending that things are fine usually makes it harder to actually fix them. And yet, criticizing exalted Saint David makes baby supply side Jesus cry.

I guess we’ll just thank him for testifying and leave it at that.

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Newly Relevant

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Washington Post:

President Bush is expected to choose a replacement for Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales by the middle of next week, and former solicitor general Theodore B. Olson has emerged as one of the leading contenders for the job, according to sources inside and outside the government who are familiar with White House deliberations.

Now read this post that I wrote in May. Use it as the basis for a friendly note to your favorite member of the Senate judiciary committee. I think I’m going to get back in touch with Arlen Specter.

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Friedmanesque

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Atrios caught Tom Friedman making one of his unannounced intellectual 180’s (pundits without a comments section are allowed to do that), but this bit from Friedman’s latest caught my eye:

One of the most troubling lessons of the Iraq invasion is just how empty the Arab dictatorships are. Once you break the palace, by ousting the dictator, the elevator goes straight to the mosque. There is nothing in between — no civil society, no real labor unions, no real human rights groups, no real parliaments or press. So it is not surprising to see the sort of clerical leadership that has emerged in both the Sunni and Shiite areas of Iraq.

That is just flat wrong. Iraq had a fairly robust labor union movement which eagerly tried to embrace the American occupation authority. They presented an organizing force that could have augmented the CPA’s ability to influence postwar Iraq. The bushies rejected them because they were a labor union.

Tom Friedman would be a vastly better pundit if he acknowledged his intellectual reversals and/or his gross departures from factual reality. But he won’t, and he really hates bloggers for suggesting that he should.

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