Insert your own damned outrages.
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Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.
Peak wingnut was a lie.
Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.
JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?
The GOP couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.
Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.
Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?
Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.
I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.
Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.
I was promised a recession.
Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.
Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.
Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.
rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius
You cannot shame the shameless.
Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.
When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?
A Senator Walker would be an insult to the state and the nation.
Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.
The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.
Their freedom requires your slavery.
The revolution will be supervised.
Technically true, but collectively nonsense
myiq2xu
General Hartmann isn’t sure waterboarding violates the Geneva Conventions, even if the Iranians were doing it to one of our troops!
The guys running this country are fucking embarrassing!
dslak
I’m outraged that the establishment is ignoring Alan Keyes (no doubt because they fear the truth that flows like honey from his lips).
gypsy howell
Democrats once again cave to the WORST PRESIDENT EVAH on Iraq spending. We are still ruled by our Republican overlords. That’s pretty outrageous.
Jen
I’m outraged that I can no longer get to the fascinating RedState discussion about how it is ok for contractors to kill Iraqis but not Americans, because this message results: “the server is redirecting the request for this address in a way that will never complete.” It worked just fine before Jon Swift linked to it…
Michael
What hasn’t the blogosphere picked up on this WashPo article about how former gitmo detainees are being pampered back in Saudi Arabia.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/09/AR2007120901411_pf.html
I thought they were all guilty. Obviously. Otherwise they wouldn’t have been at Gitmo. But back in Saudi, they get a monthly stipend…
LITBMueller
My two big outrages:
1) Anyone who would think that all interrogations including water torture would NOT be taped – if the “target” is high value enough that the order would come down to fill up the bucket, of course it would be taped.
2) Everyone is focusing on the CIA and what they new, when this government has outsourced interrogation and torture to companies like CACI in the past, and has managed to outsource everything else as well. Do we really expect this administration to get its own hands dirty when they can just hire some private thugs to do it through a no-bid contract in an effort to cloud the legal issues?
Elvis Elvisberg
Here’s an example of how to do shallow political reporting:
“Taking a public stand against torture confers little political advantage for members of Congress — and it carries the risk of being branded as soft on terrorism. … Yet because the technique of waterboarding exists in a legal gray area, many members of Congress may prefer a don’t ask-don’t tell approach.”
This is the exact same style of “the GOP looks tough, so Dems better not oppose them!”, facts-and-policy-be-damned reporting that helped get us into Iraq.
So, it’s great to see on this thread that the Republicans, the Democrats, and the media have learned nothing from the whole Iraq invasion thing. That’s encouraging.
over_educated
Anyone else concerned about Bernanke’s new “creative financing” option for the Fed banks? I admit I am a bit ignorant on the ins and outs of financial type stuff but I have been folowing some of the housing blogs, and some of the things I’m seeing look pretty scary.
Cindrella Ferret
NY Post and the lamest headlines. Evah.
Jen
Wow, that’s tasteless in at least four ways I can think of right off the top of my head.
Bob In Pacifica
Did anyone see this:
“I have now received three (3) student papers that discuss Iraq’s attack on the Twin Towers on 9/11. All three papers mention it as an aside to another point. I’ve had two papers on the virtue of forgiveness that argue that if we had just forgiven Iraq for the 9/11 attacks, we wouldn’t be at war right now. I just read a paper on the problem of evil which asked why God allowed “the Iraq’s” to attack us on 9/11.”
http://helpychalk.blogspot.com/2007/12/if-only-we-had-forgiven-iraq-for-911.html
Jen
Boy, that is depressing, Bob. I was hoping high school or maybe middle school students, but no, sadly, these are kids whose parents are paying a lot of money for that private higher education, evidently.
BTB, I sure would pass on Helpy-Chalk as a last name.
Chris
Maybe I’m a little slow. I AM a little slow…
But the realization that the current detention policy is not the result of a military frustrated by terrorism, but instead crafted — literally fucking crafted — by a couple academics in the White House who were certain their guesses trumped 100+ years of military history.
I’m not just outraged because I’m an engineer, right? I mean, you guys can tell how that’s totally fucked up, right??
(crafted. arrrragght makes me want to punch a cactus!!)
Cindrella Ferret
Christmas good.
Come all ye merry Pastafarians! Time to get a letter writing campaign going so we can get our props from Congress. Time to rally round the FSM.
Merry chrisFSMas!
The Other Steve
I think it’s about time the government bailed me out.
Chris
That is depressing, but I think that’s normal. I’m pretty sure immediately after World War II there were a bunch of people that got the roles of the Japanese and the Germans confused… I bet there was a lot of people accusing the Japanese of anti-Semitism… etc.
I have some hope for this one. Give it time for people to go “Wait, really, Iraq wasn’t connected to 9/11?? I would’ve sworn I read somewhere…”
WV Animal House
I’ve been lurking for a while and enjoying this site immensely (h/t to Daily Kos for steering me here).
Try this: I’m outraged that the Bushies won’t share whatever drug they’re giving Dana Perino! How else can she get through those press briefings so calmly, w/o either collapsing at the podium or running screaming offstage?
Whatever she’s on, I want to try it – might help me get through these last 13 months! (Though I bet it’s not covered by my insurance…)
cleek
yes. you’ve likely been banned, as i have, from even seeing their site. it’s based on your IP address.
PaulW
I have people who go out of their way to come to the library, AND THEY DON’T BRING THEIR LIBRARY CARDS! DUH!!!! (massive amounts of hair-pulling and screeching noises inserted here)
…well you said to insert your own outrages here and all…
Wilfred
Another entry into the Annals of the ‘dumbest fucking guy on the planet”:
Knowledge of anything other than the wishes of the Decider is unnecessary.
Jen
They really have to go to some lengths to keep that bubble sealed, don’t they? I guess it helps keep the wisdom in.
D-Chance.
Waking up to Memeorandum, I see Conservative Blahgistan has found its voice. It’s all those liberal moderators’ faults the Republicans came off looking bad yesterday.
But… I did find out something interesting. If a moderator is a “twit”, then I would be “presidential” if I told him off.
Of course, if you tell off the moderators on these same message boards making that claim… you won’t be “presidential”, you’ll be “banned”.
Jen
Maybe, in the spirit of conservapedia, they will someday get their very own internets. Conservanet. You have to check the box for the loyalty oath and answer some sort of obscure question about homosexuality to get in.
libarbarian
It REALLY pisses me off when I read Republicans say that one of the Presidents mistakes was “listening to the CIA about Iraqi WMDs” as if it was their fault for misleading him into a decision he didn’t already enthusiastically desire.
libarbarian
The holy Apostolic Church of Americonservatruthinessapedia.
Steve M
In non political news, Roger Clemens will be named in the Mitchell Report. Big surprise. Ha!
–bitter Red Sox fan
Chris
You have no idea how right you are. “Wisdom” is the new slang term for fumes coming off the products used in huffing circles. XD
or um … so I hear …
Chris
Jesus Christ, Wilfred, that’s the holy grail of Teh Stoopid. Post link now! Do want! Sauce!
Andrew
Like, where are the best airport bathrooms?
Zifnab
Public Service Announcement.
grumpy realist
Bernanke’s touted method at triage to find the appropriate population to have mortgage rates extended for five years is a huge smoke-and-mirrors game designed to convince Joe Six-Pack (and even more important, the congresscritters of Joe Six-Pack) that the gummit is Doing Something and All Will Be Well. I look it as their chess play to keep the politicians from interfering. From this viewpoint, they’re right. A lot of mortgage was issued by idiots to cover another set of idiots who should have never gotten the mortgages they were issued in the first place at the pricing they were charged and the only thing you can do is let the whole stuff crash and go back to REAL market prices and equilibriums. Trying to prop up the market doesn’t work–we saw that in Japan with the collapse of their real estate bubble.
What Bernanke et al. are (clumsily) trying to do is make it a little easier to renegotiate one’s mortgage. It used to be that if you had problems with your mortgage, you’d go to your bank, you would talk things over, and you’d re-negotiate the mortgage. Because of the collateralization of so many mortgages and the present difficulty to figure out exactly who owns what (let alone getting everyone on board), the Fed is trying head off stockholder’s lawsuits, etc. (And for all those who scream bloody murder about “renegotiation of contract!” oh go soak your heads. Renegotiation of contracts, write-downs, and similar occur every day in business.)
What Bernanke et al. are more worried about right now is keeping enough liquidity in the system that people who need to raise cash can get it. I think they’re going about this the wrong way and we’ll just have “contamination by dodgy debt” getting linked to the new stuff, but anyhoo….
mark
If you’re an intelligence official who speaks Arabic you’re probably gay.
TheFountainHead
Today I’m incredulous at the idiocy coming out of the Clinton campaign these days. They don’t have much to sell in the first place and they’re making the sell even harder on themselves by letting people like Sheehan open their idiot mouths. More and more the Devil I know is looking worse compared to the Obama I don’t.
Michael D.
Can you say “Batshiat crazy?“
edmund dantes
Can’t wait to see if Roger gets villified like Bonds if his name is really on the list in the Mitchell report.
Dreggas
“First of all, I don’t think we are,” he said. “I think if we are, we shouldn’t be. We’re in a war with people who aren’t…good men have to know how to do bad things to do good.” – Col. David Hunt (Fox News Analyst)
There really are no words…
Michael D.
I really like George Mitchell a lot, but can someone who is a Director of the Red Sox, and once ran the company that owns the Angels really be impartial here? I mean, would he really say something like “Management is partly responsible”??
Anxious to see the report.
Chris
Am I the only one that felt a small tectonic shift when the tapes we’re destroyed? I can tell everyone is now admitting it’s torture…
Anyone else feel a draft?
Dreggas
No you aren’t.
Jen
Dreggas’ link is really worth reading for all the different flavors of crazy that it has. You know, if Fox could figure out how to configure TVs to get the equivalent of IP addresses, then maybe it could block liberals from watching its broadcasts and solve this problem of the blogosphere being aware of their crazy, er, the wisdom they’re trying to keep in.
Does “Fox and Friends” strike anyone else as a really weird name? It sounds like a cartoon, like a spinoff of the Fox and the Hound or something.
Prospero
Take that, you corrupt moral relativists on the left!
Zifnab
Please. Anyone who wasn’t already admitting waterboarding was torture was either a daytime/prime time TV host delicately prancing about the issue in rhetorical question form, or an outright liar who was booked last week to lie about global warming and the week before to lie about Larry Craig’s sexuality.
No one who isn’t be deliberately daft or dishonest believes we weren’t committing torture crimes. But if the right people deny it often enough, fewer people ask why these thugs and fascists aren’t impeached and in jail.
jcricket
Oh, the thing the Republicans fear more than anything is a reckoning. The American public can be fooled for a while, but in every past instance, when the government acts very badly, and it comes to light within a year or so of the incident, there’s a long dark winter for whichever party was in control at the time of the acting badly.
You can see it in their desperate plea to game the justice system, stymie the ethics committee, obstruct justice (see Scooter Libby), avoid investigations by claiming executive privilege, etc.
And unlike investigations into Clinton, I have a feeling fireworks are at the end, not whimpers.
Dreggas
We all knew it Zif, but since tapegate they are now publicly, and cheefully, admitting that yes we are torturing people. The sad part, to me at least, is that there’s no real reaction of outrage to this. Instead people wring their hands, shake their heads and wait to vote.
Dreggas
In this instance I would prefer electric chairs…maybe a few waterboards…
Bombadil
It gets even better — Andy Pettitte is on the list as well.
cleek
maybe. but they’re well aware that the Party of the Sternly-Worded Letter isn’t about to do a fucking thing to even approach that reckoning.
jcricket
The new meme is that it’s torture, but it helps us gather intelligence. That we allow anyone to actually argue either is mind-boggling.
1) If it’s torture (which it is), it’s wrong on a moral and legal level (both in the US and international treaty-wise).
2) As we’ve all talked about, torture has an extremely high false-confession rate, so there’s that practical matter.
3) And this is the biggie, just on practical matters. Blowback. If you think that our torturing of many, many, many innocent people is going to win us friends and allies anywhere, it’s not. What do you think happened to all the people we released from Gitmo after torturing them? Did they go back and tell happy tales of their American captors who treated them well?
Again torture is legally, morally, tactically and strategically wrong. Of course if you put people in charge who can’t think out farther ahead than the end of the 2-hour action movie they think they’re in, this is what happens.
libarbarian
FROM FARK: Another battle in the War on Christmas
Muslim student comes to the aid of Jews who were attacked for saying “Happy Chanukah” to some Christians wishing them a “Merry Christmas.” It’s a Kwanzaa miracle
The Other Steve
This has got to be the hardest job in the world. I knew someone once who was public relations for an oil company who got caught leaking gasoline into the ground water. She just about had a nervous breakdown.
jcricket
I’ll settle for the fragmentation of the Republican coalition with their wedge politics. Let the independents, moderates and generally fiscally sane people permanently become Democrats. Republicans can have the fundies, isolationists, xenophobes and racists.
That’s why I say they actually fear a reckoning. They know that if the Democrats ever realize the public is on their (Democrats) side, the Democrats will feel emboldened enough to make the shit stick. And Republicans have a lot of shit stuffed behind their doors.
Dreggas
I remember seeing interviews with guys who were in the Gulf War (part 1). They were saying that when they asked why the Iraqi’s were surrendering without a fight the Iraqi’s said because they knew we’d treat them well (most hadn’t eaten much and were treated worse than cannon fodder by Saddam). How we have fallen.
Dreggas
Hucakbee is gettin’ it big time and the producer of this video? A republican with a conscience
jcricket
I think you mean “Eid” miracle. Muslims don’t celebrate Kwanzaa. I know, those “darkies” holidays all look alike.
Scotty
I’m outraged at the immense profits asterisk manufacturers are going to make on the Mitchell Report.
jcricket
Remember Kerry, who was pilloried for saying that the GWOT was really an international police effort? Well, guess what, he’s right. And international police efforts require international cooperation, sometimes with countries with which we only have tenuous relationships.
How much you think these places, and especially the general populace, are going to help out when we ask them to turn over “suspected terrorists”?
I suspect we’re about to see a global “stop snitching” movement the likes of which we’ve never experienced.
Fucking short-sighted Republican morons.
Jen
I assume it was tongue in cheek. I’ve never met anyone who celebrates Kwanzaa, except I think they do in the Curtis comic strip…
Dreggas
The irony being that this admin has pushed and pushed for people to snitch on their neighbors here going so far as to train firefighters to report anyone making statements that express disdain for the gov’t.
David Hunt
For me there are a words. To wit: I am NOT the jerk that said that. Although I am only an occasional commenter to this blog, I read it every day and enjoy it thoroughly. I would not want that enjoyment diluted because somebody confused me with that collection of pig mucus that I have the misfortune to share a name with.
So, my outrage: Some Republican talking head has the same name that I do.
Jen
Well, you could go by Dave, but then again, why should you change your name? He’s the one who sucks.
(Geek credentials rearing their ugly head again…)
ThymeZone
I have, a coworker whose family was really into it.
Dreggas
That really does suck.
Cindrella Ferret
We already voted. Jay Rockefeller, Jane Harman, and Nancy Pelosi and many others appear to have been compromised by their prior knowledge that torture was being used by our government. I submit what we have is a bunch of Vichy Democrats, and Harry Reid is the Marshal Philippe Pétain character in this sorry excuse for a Congress.
Barney Frank for Speaker!
Russ Feingold for Majority Leader!
ThymeZone
My big outrage right now is that the press and the public are sitting by and letting one of the two major political parties in this country turn the presidential campaign into a religious contest, with people openly jockeying for Best Christian status and talking about Jesus as if it were an electoral requirement.
We are trashing Article 6 of the US Constitution, wherein was fashioned a proscription against just this kind of religious pandering, for the very reason that the Founders didn’t want the government tangled up in religion, or vice versa.
I believe that the risk of factionalization of the country along religous lines is the greatest present risk to the American Experiment, and we have an entire machine of politics and information that is aiding and abetting this disaster.
Where are the fucking blogs in standing up to this?
Elvis Elvisberg
With respect, Chris, that’s been clear for a long time.
Resistance to torture was deeply embedded in the military’s DNA. Only a false, black-and-white, “tough vs. soft,” fact-averse mindset could lead to the acceptance of torture.
So of course it was Bush appointees, not experts, not the military, not anyone who actually knew anything about anything, who crafted the policy.
John DiIullo’s point about there being no policy shop in the White House applies at all levels to all things this administration has done.
We’re torturing people, breaking US and international law in the process, because it makes George Bush feel tough. It has nothing to do with actually accomplishing anything.
Dreggas
“I’m gonna kick his ass all over the middle east.” – George W. Bush
And let’s not forget the words of Cheney
“We’re going to push and push until someone makes us stop”
dnA
Hey Libarbarian,
The attackers were white you dumb racist fuck. And not only that, but a Muslim kid nearby jumped into the fight to help the Jewish guys who were being attacked.
cleek
it’s already a religious contest: the majority of Americans say they would not vote for an atheist, no matter how qualified.
no religious test, my ass
Dreggas
dnA,
He wasn’t being racist, he was just working another holiday into the mix get it…Chanukah, Christmas, Kwanza. Sheesh.
Dreggas
Some people should not be allowed to breed…or sing
Darkness
Re: Redstate. The thought that I may be blocked from seeing something, of course made me go look. I think if I wrote like this I’d block all IPs but my own:
Bah ha! Ah, that’s good. But it begs the question of: does anyone reading it know what the heck any of it means, or do they just pretend they do? Later the poster uses the word “bespeaks” which I thought only meant “custom-ordered” and was used stricty by shops catering to the plutocracy of our former colonial overseer, so I learned something new today. Well, that and redstate isn’t worth reading, even purely for entertainment.
Cindrella Ferret
Here’s a little tribute to a Reverend Huckabee Arkansas Christmas. Make sure you start the music if it doesn’t start automatically.
(h/t Andrew Sullivan)
jcricket
Remember the “I am John Doe” post?
Yeah, that was awful, and if the RNCC (RNSC? whatever) thinks that’s going to close the funding gap, they’re fucking morons. Tax hikes, make fun of woodstock, blah blah blah.
I think what we’re seeing is that the GOP is realizing their previous fear & loathing attacks aren’t working anymore (tax n’ spend, liberals, feminists, oh my!). So now they’re forced to ratchet it up (mushroom clouds, illegal immigrants raping your children, etc.).
It’s like when you’ve watched so many violent movies you’re inured to their effect, and you’ve got to start watching people get disemboweled in slow motion to even care.
Jen
Whoa, it’s like Yoda meets Machiavelli, translated into Farsi and then back into English using babelfish.com . . .
I don’t think *anyone* knows what the heck that means.
Dreggas
I saw that picture and all I could think is, “I wonder if the Huckabee boys will lead the charge in the war against obesity”
cleek
i love when wingnuts mistake $10 words for $1M ideas
LITBMueller
I swear Hunt was about to say “human,” but then quickly changed his mind to keep teh crazy from gettin’ out.
Jen
I hadn’t been to Wonkette in about four years. It’s gotten funnier, the comments are a hoot. And even though my work computer has no sound, I appreciated the link in silence, Dreggas. Thanks.
Dreggas
jcricket,
for a minute there I thought it was an advertisement for a special holiday episode of the Half Hour News Hour…
Wilfred
Not true, it has in fact accomplished exactly what its designers wanted: an unbreakable bond with our peace-loving ally that routinely does the same and always gets aways with it:
Genuine political criticism of American policy, including the murder of thousands of innocent Iraqis and Afghans would entail the same of Israel, which is why it never happens, nor will it ever emerge from a Democratic Party subordinate to the same interests as the Republicans.
The link is to Haaretz, btw: here
Dreggas
No problem, I still go there occasionally but removed them from my list of must reads once my own sense of snark had matured.
Chris
Gotta disagree with you there. People who act before thinking are predisposed to assume that their stupid actions were justified, and they do it to the point that definitions get moved greatly. “If I did it, it wasn’t torture. Why? Because I’m not a torturer.”
The thing missing here is an understanding of history and an understanding that no one, not even the preznit, is special and over-capable. We’re more likely to understand it, being under history’s thumb. But has Precious George ever been under duress?
libarbarian
Actually, the quote was from Fark and it was probably put there because most Americans have heard of Kwanzaa but have no idea what Eid is.
Jen
Are you saying I have an underdeveloped sense of snark there D?
It’s better here, it is.
But the comment about, I gouged my eyes out after the second verse, does anyone show their tits? made me laugh.
cleek
of course. his life is that of a great painter or musician who is ahead of his time, and who unveils one masterpiece after another to a reception that, when not bored, is hostile.
how could that not be torturous ?
Michael D.
Are you Hitler’s long lost child? Or do you know who they are? If so, call The Sun!
Chris
Oh, you just had to post that again. Now I have to go get lunch and people in line will be looking at me like I’m some touched weirdo.
*muttermutter* genius painter my ass *mutter* jackson pollack wannabe chimp-with-a-paintcan *mutter*
jcricket
Sad to say, but these days Republicans can only be funny in unintentional and ironic ways.
Dreggas
Actually all things considered I think this place is where those with advanced degrees in snark come to enlighten one another. It’s good elsewhere, no doubt, but I really think the cream of the crop is here.
dnA
Is it wrong that I thought you meant the NY Sun, and that it had something to do with Hillary Clinton? Because I think they just finished a weekly series on Hillary being a communist.
The Other Andrew
I’m outraged–but not surprised–about how women are being treated in Iraq. (Link in my name.) It truly is a model of conservative values.
I’m also outraged by the (unfortunately effective) tendency on the right to paint their opponents as “elites”. “Secular elites!” “Those elites who want amnesty!” It’s part of maintaining their facade of populism, and it’s getting less feasible every day.
grumpy realist
Don’t think it’s an “outrage”, but has anyone else been much amused by the Keystone Cops pratfall mess the Clinton campaign has been turning into?
Start yelling about “drug usage!” by a black man, while having remained conspicuously quiet about investigating similar prior activities by the present inhabitant of the White House and by the white male Republican candidates.
Are they TRYING to convince particular groups to not vote for them?
Johnny Pez
I’m taking a break from the outrage to do some blogwhoring: my predictions on who the Republican presidential nominee will be can be found on my blog. Do you dare discover the awful truth?
Dreggas
They’re doing a good job of it. People in NH are PISSED over the insinuation that Obama was a dealer and Clinton keeps trying to say they had nothing to do with it when just the other day (according to accounts) they were pushing a whisper campaign about this very thing.
Zifnab
Erza Klein on something vaguely sounding like the “Fair Tax”
He’s for it. Chew on that ya’ll.
Cyrus
The Watergate scandal began on June 17, 1972. According to Wikipedia, it really became politically damaging right around a year later, when Senate committee hearings were broadcast from May 17 to August 7. Nixon resigned on Aug. 9, 1974.
Reagan won in a landslide in 1980.
Maybe I’m young and naive, and I realize that the current president is probably worse than Nixon, but only six to eight years seems pretty short for a “long dark winter.”
Dreggas
Rather than outrage this is a good one, I am hearing Obama p0wned Hillary at the end of todays debate.
jcricket
The difference is that Republicans voted in favor of those hearings, and the President and others involved resigned, where indicted and/or convicted.
Voters are forgiving if you own up and/or avoid covering it up in an ongoing fashion. Not so if you sweep it under the rug and fight it at every turn. Not to mention that doing so allows the damage to fester + build. As we’re seeing with the current crop of scandals coming from nearly every agency, state and party apparatus on the Republican side.
Someone needs to write a book in 5-10 years called “Rotten to the Core” about the Republican party.
jcricket
I think we’re all too obsessed to see the reality here, that there’s no clear front-runner, and even if there is, the outcome could well be far different than we expect.
Just look at 2004. Did anyone think Kerry would be the nominee now? Or even in January?
canuckistani
Are we ready to snatch the pebbles from the hand of “Sadly, No”?
Chad N. Freude
Fixed.
jcricket
Also, President yes, but it took Republicans something like 70 years to get control of Congress (32-94), but only 12 to lose it. Let’s hope for another 70 years of wilderness, plus some WH control for the Dems thrown in.
Remove the threat of presidential veto and figure out how to fight the filibuster (or at least make it clear Republicans are the whiny-ass-titty-baby party) and Dems would be in good shape.
D-Chance.
One acquittal, six deadlocks on the Liberty City 7.
So how’s that war on terror going again?
Ali Gator
In the spring I looked at jobs for Arabic speakers at the CIA and FBI. One of them said they would only hire American citizens who had never lived abroad! So if you’ve ever lived in a Middle Eastern country, you must be a spy.
AD14
I think Dreggas was referring to this particular moment.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhPxSm9Es0w
grumpy realist
Doesn’t surprise me. The US gummit is notorious for staffing itself with monolinguists. I flipped out when while attending an invited dinner at the American Embassy in Tokyo for a visiting US astronaut. I realized that of all the attendees, including all the Embassy’s GRRREAT Experts On Japan, I was the most fluent in Japanese. Yeesh.
Svensker
No, they don’t want anyone who actually knows what’s going on in the Middle East. They want to control the message. If you look at the State Dept., and probably the CIA but there I don’t have personal knowledge, you’ll see that anyone who knew anything about the Middle East early in the Bush Admin. was either rotated out or retired. People with knowledge of the area could see the total bullshit these war-crazies were/are going for.
WE ALL FALL DOWN
Republicans don’t like the NIE report on Iran’s nuclear capability so they want to create their own that states Iran is still developing nuclear weapons? Ummm, does TRUTH ever actually matter to these assholes?