Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The rest of the comments were smacking Boebert like she was a piñata.

If ‘weird’ was the finish line, they ran through the tape and kept running.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

If you voted for Trump, you don’t get to speak about ethics, morals, or rule of law.

“woke” is the new caravan.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

This chaos was totally avoidable.

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

In after Baud. Damn.

White supremacy is terrorism.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

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

FFS people, this was a good thing. take the win.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

Hey hey, RFK, how many kids did you kill today?

“I was told there would be no fact checking.”

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

When you’re in more danger from the IDF than from Russian shelling, that’s really bad.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

Celebrate the fucking wins.

Consistently wrong since 2002

You are here: Home / Politics / War on Terror / War on Terror aka GSAVE® / Smile And Wave

Smile And Wave

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William Haynes, who wrote some of the most reprehensible legal advice in the Bush admin’s swirling black hole of legal thinking, will not supervise the Guantanamo “trials” after all. Telegraphing that he won’t have any acquittals at his trials might have something to do with it.

“I said to him that if we come up short and there are some acquittals in our cases, it will at least validate the process,” Davis continued. “At which point, [Haynes’s] eyes got wide and he said, ‘Wait a minute, we can’t have acquittals. If we’ve been holding these guys for so long, how can we explain letting them get off? We can’t have acquittals, we’ve got to have convictions.'”

Of course we didn’t permit torture confessions at Nuremberg. In fact I don’t think that we tortured anyone at all. And apparently we had some presumption of innocence back then. But other than that and political appointees constantly interfering with and overruling professional military lawyers you could barely slip a plastic card between Nuremberg and our Guantanamo hangin’ party.

Sure American values won a little victory today. Now let’s see who replaces him.

Reader Interactions

38Comments

  5. 5.

    myiq2xu

    From the Asian Times:

    “Cherchez la femme,” advised Alexander Dumas in: “When you want to uncover an unspecified secret, look for the woman.” In the case of Barack Obama, we have two: his late mother, the went-native anthropologist Ann Dunham, and his rancorous wife Michelle. Obama’s women reveal his secret: he hates America.

  6. 6.

    myiq2xu

    More:

    Obama profiles Americans the way anthropologists interact with primitive peoples. He holds his own view in reserve and emphatically draws out the feelings of others; that is how friends and colleagues describe his modus operandi since his days at the Harvard Law Review, through his years as a community activist in Chicago, and in national politics. Anthropologists, though, proceed from resentment against the devouring culture of America and sympathy with the endangered cultures of the primitive world. Obama inverts the anthropological model: he applies the tools of cultural manipulation out of resentment against America. The probable next president of the United States is a mother’s revenge against the America she despised.

  7. 7.

    myiq2xu

    Don’t let TZ see this:

    Never underestimate the influence of a wife who bitch-slaps her husband in public. Early in Obama’s campaign, Michelle Obama could not restrain herself from belittling the senator. “I have some difficulty reconciling the two images I have of Barack Obama. There’s Barack Obama the phenomenon. He’s an amazing orator, Harvard Law Review, or whatever it was, law professor, best-selling author, Grammy winner. Pretty amazing, right? And then there’s the Barack Obama that lives with me in my house, and that guy’s a little less impressive,” she told a fundraiser in February 2007.

  9. 9.

    Gold Star for Robot Boy

    Even those who despise America for its blunders of the past few years should ask themselves whether the world will be a safer place if America retreats into a self-pitying shell.

    Right. America should continue to wreak havoc on the world, much like a man armed with a sledgehammer, destroying his living room so he can kill that pesky mosquito.

  10. 10.

    TenguPhule

    This is where Dug Jay informs us the terrorists have won.

    He would know, he’s on their payroll.

  11. 11.

    TenguPhule

    Never underestimate the influence of a wife who bitch-slaps her husband in public

    Abandon all hope! The Clenis has been overshadowed by the Hagina!

  13. 13.

    Chris

    Obama’s women reveal his secret: he hates America.

    Spengler, first I’ve heard of him. His wingnut meter seems to go up to 11 though.

  14. 14.

    CJ

    You know, the term “rough shit” evokes a few images for me, none of which even remotely resemble this breathless piece from the Asian Times. The weird idea that anthropologists resent America is about as far as one needs to go before dismissing the entire thing as tripe. The “public bitch slapping” paragraph puts the whole thing beyond imbecilic and into the perverse.

    I absorbed Romanticism early on and D’Artagnon was one of my heroes as a child. But Dumas had distinctly old fashioned views of women and class and I’m not sure that “Cherchez la femme” would be that applicable to the type of person that runs for president. What would one say about the man married to Hillary Clinton?

    CJ

  15. 15.

    Chris

    My take on Shorter Spengler: While lesser wingnuts accuse Obama of hating America for not wearing a flag lapel, I can do it by projecting my own insecurities about independent women like Michelle.

    It’s hard to encapsulate in one mere sentence, all the logical nightmares this article has.

  16. 16.

    zombiewoof

    Shorter Spengler: Went off meds, equipped tinfoil hat, sits in front of computer, vomits on computer, gets paid.

  18. 18.

    myiq2xu

    Spengler, first I’ve heard of him. His wingnut meter seems to go up to 11 though.

    Only 11? I’ve been accused of unhinged diatribes, but this stuff is rated “Not safe for Obots” Drop that stuff on the front page at GOS and heads would start exploding.

    This Spengler writes well witn no misspellings, so he’s not your typical wingnut. Maybe Egon had help from Venkman and Stantz.

  21. 21.

    jake

    the went-native anthropologist Ann Dunham

    Shorter: She got JunGLE FEVer!

    Time to place your bets:

    Pick the month when the fRighties will throw what little restraint they have to the winds and start screaming the N word.

    I say July.

  22. 22.

    Krista

    “I have some difficulty reconciling the two images I have of Barack Obama. There’s Barack Obama the phenomenon. He’s an amazing orator, Harvard Law Review, or whatever it was, law professor, best-selling author, Grammy winner. Pretty amazing, right? And then there’s the Barack Obama that lives with me in my house, and that guy’s a little less impressive,” she told a fundraiser in February 2007.

    In other words, his wife, who has been with him through thick and thin and who knows him better than any other human being, doesn’t have him up on some unrealistic pedestal but sees him as a good person with some flaws? Oh noes!

    I don’t care how powerful, rich, successful or gorgeous the man is — behind closed doors, his wife might love him, adore him and cherish him with all her being. But will she worship him as a perfect human being with no flaws? God no. She knows his flaws, and his farts, and the bad habit he has of leaving the milk out, better than anybody.

    Michelle’s just the first political wife who hasn’t followed the traditional mold of appearing to always blindly worship her husband. Frankly, I find it honest, realistic and damn refreshing.

  23. 23.

    4tehlulz

    the went-native

    protip: “went native” is dogwhistle for “nigger lover”

    Is July the over-under, Jake? I’m going with the under.

  24. 24.

    jbofmo

    If President Obama (god I love the sounds of that) so much as raises a constitutional issue in polite company the rightwing will scream like babies. But not a peep right now while our goverment ignores the rule of law. Go figure

    Btw, great site.

    JB

  25. 25.

    Kirk Spencer

    Let’s see. In his opening paragraph he says there’s no trail to know him. No writings (two books don’t count, apparently), no legislation (Lugar-Obama act? Deceptive Practices and Voter Intimidation Prevention Act of 2005? everything he started as a state legislator?)

    Bah.

  27. 27.

    Ugh

    In other news, the Gonzales’ Dept of Justice is getting ready to spawn

    Holy fucking shit! She’s marrying Krempansky, of redstate.com fame? One can only imagine their children will leap from her womb spouting wingnut talking points with abandon.

  29. 29.

    The Other Steve

    This is some rough shit

    You’ll be wanting to read this one John.

    That’s ok. The Hong Kong primary doesn’t count.

    No, seriously, it really, actually doesn’t count.

    Even Hillary isn’t competing in it.

  30. 30.

    Zifnab

    We tried people at Nuremburg for the shit we’re doing at Guantanamo.

    So I guess this is sort of a reverse Nuremburg Trial.

  31. 31.

    DougJ

    This is bad news for Democrats. If we’re attacked between now and the election, voters will blame Democrats for forcing this Jack Bauer type hero out. If we’re not attacked, voters will praise the Bush administration for its wise stewardship.

  32. 32.

    The Other Steve

    In other news, the Gonzales’ Dept of Justice is getting ready to spawn

    Ok, funniest comment from that thread over there.

    “Is Monica really a virgin or did she just forget the last time she had sex?”

  33. 33.

    tBone

    This Spengler writes well witn no misspellings, so he’s not your typical wingnut.

    It may be malicious, paranoid psychobabble bullshit – but at least he’s a good speller!

    Are you and lukasiak in some kind of contest to see who can be the Hackiest Hack in Hackdom?

  34. 34.

    myiq2xu

    Are you and lukasiak in some kind of contest to see who can be the Hackiest Hack in Hackdom?

    Too late, the results are already in.

    Congratulations on winning!

  35. 35.

    libarbarian

    I see Communist People.

    “Naivete” is a euphemism for Ann Dunham’s motivation. Friends describe her as a “fellow traveler”, that is, a communist sympathizer, from her youth, according to a March 27, 2007, Chicago Tribune report. Many Americans harbor leftist views, but not many marry into them, twice. Ann Dunham met and married the Kenyan economics student Barack Obama, Sr, at the University of Hawaii in 1960, and in 1967 married the Indonesian student Lolo Soetero.

    ….

    In the Global South, anthropologists went into the field and took matters a step further. Peru’s brutal Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) guerilla movement was the brainchild of the anthropologist Efrain Morote Best, who headed the University of San Cristobal of Huamanga in Ayacucho, Peru, between 1962 and 1968. Dunham’s radicalism was more vicarious; she ended her career as an employee of international organizations.

    Obamas mom was a COMMIE ANTHROPOLOGIST just like the SHINING PATH!

    Man, you know how those left-wing academics roll – always Hizzating Americizza!!

  36. 36.

    Cyrus

    Are you and lukasiak in some kind of contest to see who can be the Hackiest Hack in Hackdom?

    Sorry for getting all conciliatory and friendly and shit, but I think you’re being too hard on myiq2xu.

    myiq2xu Says:
    Only 11? I’ve been accused of unhinged diatribes, but this stuff is rated “Not safe for Obots” Drop that stuff on the front page at GOS and heads would start exploding.

    At best, he admires the audacity of Spengler’s rant, fully acknowledges that it is nutty, and goes on to make a joke about Spengler’s name. Myiq2xu is arguably trolling, but if he agrees with Spengler, it’s not obvious from this thread.

  37. 37.

    tBone

    Sorry for getting all conciliatory and friendly and shit, but I think you’re being too hard on myiq2xu.

    You’re right. I shouldn’t accuse of him of agreeing with an obvious crazy person when all he’s really doing is being a trolling douchebag.

    Group hug!

  38. 38.

    Rudi

    Spengler is AsiaTimes token conservative in a sea of far Left writers. Wiki the name, it’s a nom de lume, to gain a better perspective on the author. I prefer the well traveled Pepe Escobar at the online paper. Malkin’s head would explode if Pepe had more readers in the US.He claims to actually reported from the streets of Iraq without the militaries help oversite.

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