Probably the best observation ever from Megan McCardle was the following:
Jane’s Law: The devotees of the party in power are smug and arrogant. The devotees of the party out of power are insane.
Red State, today:
Captive Captain Saves President Obama
Playing pansy politics with pirates put the Captain’s life at increased risk. His first escape attempt was thwarted by the thugs as Phillips remained adrift from the aid and cover of the US Navy, which sat restrained by an administration too cowardly to let slip the dogs of war. Each day the tension and humiliation of a nation grew. The emboldened pirates fired upon our men of action, who thus restrained could not yet act in kind. The terrorists’ defiant lack of fear inspired their fellows to target other American vessels. All while the community organizer in chief flipped through his conflict resolution handbook.
But here, at long last, the captive captain is free. He leapt clear and our faithful Navy, apparently at last free to take the safety off, rid the world of three contemptible degenerates and have the fourth in custody to question. So the bold leap into the sea frees the President of the burden to act.
President Obama granted two separate requests from the Defense Department to go forward with a military operation to rescue Captain Richard Phillips, an administration official tells CNN.
Obama granted the authority to use appropriate force with the focus on saving and protecting Phillips’ life. The requests were made by the Pentagon Friday and Saturday. For technical reasons, authority was granted two different times, according to the official, because different U.S. forces moved in the region near the coast of Somalia.
These people are no longer operating in a reality shared by the rest of the world, and have not been for a long, long while.
BTW- I detected a desire to fap around the “men of action” portion of that gibberish.
*** Update ***
And I am too lazy to find all the links, so let me just issue this blanket statement: Anyone who thinks that several most likely illiterate Somali thugs, armed with AK’s and probably geeked to high heaven on khat, decided to attack a flagged American container ship as a test because there is a perception that Obama is weak, is just a full-fledged idiot and should be institutionalized.
demkat620
Did anybody tell Red State this guy is from VT? I would guess there’s at least a decent chance the guy ain’t a republican.
How can he be a man of action then?
WereBear
Red State will say this just shows how everyone, everywhere, at every time, must be armed to the teeth.
TR
I know I say this every time I click through …
But Sweet Lord, that is some powerfully strong stupid over at Red State.
Luckily, the stupidity is balanced by a sixth-grade girl’s sense of melodrama and tear-shedding emotion. "Each day the tension and humiliation of a nation grew." Seriously?
For Christ’s sake, conservatives, pull yourselves together. All the pants pissing and pearl clutching is really getting to be embarrassing.
AnotherBruce
What I gather from this criticism is that it was wrong to restrain "men of action". The second the Navy found the boat with the kidnapped Captain, they should have blown it to smithereens, and if the Captain died, that would have been a small price to pay to not be seen as weak and indecisive.
These people are contemptible.
kommrade reproductive vigor
Do they know what a bunch of candy arsed sore losers they sound?
Don’t tell them.
More screeching will ensue because the guy won’t get the full Jack Bauer treatment.
hart williams
@ "Animal House" for RedState:
Boon: How does it feel to be an asshole, Neidermeyer?
Tonal Crow
@AnotherBruce:
If the Navy had done that, the RedState GOPtards would have blasted Obama for permitting "indiscipline and a shoot-first mentality that caused an unnecessary loss of life". Remember that Obama is a Democrat, and Democrats — unless they’re pure moles, like Zell Miller — can’t ever win with GOPtards, no matter what they do.
Punchy
I’m confused about how a President who ordered a fuckload of Navy ships and helicopters to round-the-clock surveillance the pirate thugs failed to let slip the dogs of war (whatever the fuck that macho-sounding shit means). Did he want a cruiser or destroyer to launch a Tomahawk at the hostage? Im serious……how does one slip dogs of war with a hostage unseen beneath the deck?
RedState’s just mailing it in at this point.
John H. Farr
They’re not the only ones, either. I think we have to consider the possibility that the human race is evolving along two or more separate lines, although that would stand everything we take for ethics on its head, and then some.
Peter J
Has anyone entertained the idea that perhaps Erik Erickson, strapped for cash, sold the site to DougJ a couple of months ago?
That would explain a lot.
funluvn
RedHate idiocy:
Men of action would have attacked immediately, with their cod-pieces displayed prominently. Their gleaming sweaty skin (minus salt water which is known to de-gleam sweaty skin) would gleam. The wide awake and very wary pirate-type-dudes would first kill the hostage American Captain and then the not-so-gleaming would send the pirate-type-dudes to sleep with the fishes.
Reality:
The pirate-type-dudes were left for days in the ocean in a small overcrowded liferaft to become disoriented, exhausted and fearful. Once discussions broke down over that period of time, professional military personnel were sent in to overtake said disoriented and exhausted pirate-type-dudes. At this point, it was like shooting pirate-type-dude-fish in a barrel and the American Captain was saved.
Pirate-type-dudes – 0
Men of Action – 0
Men of Thought – 1
Tokyokie
According to conservatives, no solution is legitimate unless somebody dies. Preferably a brown person.
WereBear
Along those lines, I have wondered if some of our current difficulties aren’t because we still have the bunches of people who were about able to handle serfdom; and now we’ve ramped up the requirements beyond their capacity.
Not that we should think about getting rid of anybody, in any way; just that there doesn’t seem to be a simple, easy path anymore to simply live one’s life in the US, and what sort of strains that creates.
guster
"The devotees of the party out of power are insane."
Has this been true the past 8 years?
A pox on etc., etc.
rob
@TR
I’m choking with laughter, the thought of wingnuts clutching their pearls gets me every time.
Jake
This is nothing. Wait until Fox broadcasts the tea parties. That’s when the insanity dial will be at eleven.
LeaningTowardUndecided
Amen to the immanent Red State thinkers! Why Barry is almost as cowardly as that lefty coward Ronald Reagan, who cut and run from a just use of force in Lebanon as soon as a few Marines . . . ., oh, wait. Never mind.
linda
christ, that is some overwrought language; that no sane adult male should ever sign his name to. ya know, if this intertubes thingie doesn’t work out for those red staters, they might want to consider knocking out a couple of bodice-ripping romance novels.
can you imagine the scenarios those clowns have running thru their peabrains… wanna bet they’re the action hero in those dreams… lol.
funluvn
Yet, what would one do with a ripped bodice? Apply scotch tape or ravish the …. oh GOD, so soon, again?
cyntax
@Peter J:
Here’s hoping all he got for it was a case of Pabst and enough cash for an extra large pizza.
TR
That overwrought fainting-couch prose is perfect for any occasion:
*Domino’s Deliveryman Saves President Obama*
Playing pansy politics with pizzas put this conservative blogger’s waistline at increased risk. My first attempt at ordering two large Meat Lover’s Pizzas was thwarted by the thuggery of a busy signal — no doubt caused by the interference of The One — as my growling stomach remained adrift from the aid and cover of Domino’s Pizza, which sat restrained by an administration too cowardly to let slip the Hyundais of delivery. Each hour the tension and humiliation of my intestines grew. The hunger grew, mocking our deliverymen of action, who thus restrained could not yet act in kind. All while the community organizer in chief flipped through his collection of Thai food menus.
But here, at long last, the captive pizzas are free. They leapt clear and my faithful hunger, at last free to take the muzzle off, rid the world of two comestible deliveries and I also have a helping of frosted Cinnamon Twirlers in custody to demolish later. So the bold leap into my gut frees the President of the burden to act.
Mary
Obama’s opponents once again end up shooting themselves in the foot and looking like idiots, just like they always do. It’s uncanny, really. He may end up totally destroying them sooner rather than later.
Phaedrus
Let’s see, media is too liberal, they create Fox. Science disagrees with their God, they create the Discovery institute, Creation Science, and a crap load of warming denial ‘scientists’. Wikipedia is too liberal – Conservepedia. Universities too liberal, Liberty and whatever the hell Pat Roberton’s university is called. Public education too liberal, home school.
I see a pattern here.
Jay C
Jesus, it’s hard to figure out what’s worse about RedState‘s wankery – the purple prose, which would be embarrassing if you read it in a Patrick O’Brian potboiler – or the knowledge that if the rescue of Capt. Phillips hadn’t turned out as it did, they would have cranked out some equally bilious screed raking Pres. Obama over the coals for his "failure" and general inadequacy. Cretins.
Rainy
These jerks sound just like Newt Gingrich. Make broad and generalize critiques about Obama’s foreign policy without any proof and expect everyone to believe you. Gingrich was on This Week going on about how Obama has a fanciful foreign policy, believing that being nice to people will make the world a better place. I have never heard Obama say any kind of shit like that. All he was doing overseas was introducing himself and trying to learn about our neighbors. It’s, also, rich, that this is coming from Gingrich who has no experience in these areas at all.
smiley
OT (I know, I’m bad that way) but if Kenny Perry wins the Masters, I’m guessing the FSM will be mentioned. Um, or not. It’s Easter after all, and whoever wins couldn’t possible do it without supernatural help. Right? I predict Dog or Jeebus will be mentioned pretty early in the interview.
cyntax
@Mary:
Well, not to take away from Obama but I think it’s due in large part to who is opponents are at this point.
Given Obama’s approval ratings the only ones who are always against him no matter what are the crazies like the ones in that Glenn Beck tea party vid that John posted the other night: "Burn all the brainwashing books!"
I wouldn’t be surprised if those people’s shoelaces leave them tied in knots. How they manage to get out the door in the morning is kind of amazing.
MattF
It’s not complicated– we’re dealing with axiomatic politics here. It’s always going to be Obama’s fault when something goes wrong and it’s always going to be someone else’s credit when something goes right.
And, fwiw, I’m not seeing much point these days in complaining about Red State’s axioms– their world is what it is and not some other thing. It’s not the world as we know it or the world as it actually is– but that’s hardly a novel observation.
Groucho48
Another interesting side note is that most of the Americans on board were members of the Seafarer’s International Union, which mandates training courses for dealing with emergencies, such as piracy. Similarly, almost everyone involved in the landing and rescue efforts of that plane that had to land on the Hudson River were all union members, and the folks from the first boats on the scene specifically mentioned their union mandated training as helping them in the rescue effort.
Just another crack in the right wing version of reality.
jl
Intervention needed for Red State.
What is with "So the bold leap into the sea frees the President of the burden to act."?
That was yesterday, when Captain Phillips jumped for it and tried to swim, and the pirates fired warning shots, so he swam back to the life boat (he, being, I would guess, a quick thinking and rational person, did not see the point of getting shot to pieces in the middle of the ocean).
Today, the crisis ended when Navy snipers shot the pirates from the stern of the vessel that was towing the lifeboat holding the pirates and Captain Phillips -if the radio report I heard was correct.
Does Red State just make shit up, are they hallucinating, going through fugue states, on drugs? What?
At this rate they will think a Republican won in 2012 after Obama beats the drool out the them, and they will be issuing a real time alternative history. Maybe that is why Gingrich is climbing on board their insane ship of fools, since he is good at that.
These people are becoming a danger to themselves and others.
Tonal Crow
@MattF: Oh, we’re not complaining about RedState. We’re mocking them. As Chaucer(?) once observed:
dmsilev
The FAIL is strong with RedState (again). According to updated news reports, the Captain didn’t in fact jump from the lifeboat in this episode. Instead, the snipers on board the USN ship had a clean-shot opportunity on all three pirates in the lifeboat.
-dms
Punchy
@smiley: This is ackshully a decent Masters ending. With Perry bogeying the 17th, a Juan shot lead is easy to blow.
And SOOOO glad that the Tiger Woods dick-sucking will hafta wait until the Open. Ditto for the 2,761 quick shots of Phil Mickelfat’s wife.
Karmakin
I think this probably has to go into the queue for wingnuttiest statement of the year.
Then again, it’s only April.
Corner Stone
@kpr
How can you be sure? ISTM that Obama hasn’t pulled back any tool from the toolbox.
R. Porrofatto
Obviously, had Obama sent in a pure American water dog (NOT some furrin’ portagee muttt) it would have rescued the captain and killed the terrorists days ago.
I get all my news from wingnut blogs. Can you tell?
Calouste
@smiley:
If that guy is so much into Jeebus, why is he playing on the second most important day in the Christian church calendar? What do you say? Money?
Leelee for Obama
@Mary: Shall I quote Shakespeare again? "Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished…" Sorry, Mary, you really left me no choice!
I wonder if Fabio is available for the covers on the bodice rippers? Poor guy must be hungry for work these days!
calling all toasters
Probably the best observation ever from Megan McCardle
(1) …was still stupid?
(2) …was made when she was 5?
(3) …involved a telescope and a nearby apartment building?
Jane’s Law: The devotees of the party in power are smug and arrogant. The devotees of the party out of power are insane.
So it’s (1), then.
The Moar You Know
@TR: Please somebody for the love of God post this at RedState.
Face
@dmsilev: You can snipe from a ship? That accurate in moving waters? Christ, that’s got to be about the hardest thing evah.
More props to these studs in unis. Job well done.
JK
Obama was in a lose/lose position with this pirate story.
If Richard Phillips is rescued, the message is "God Bless the Navy" and "God Bless our military" from Joe Scarborough, Glenn Beck, Sean Haniity, Rush Limbaugh, Michelle Malkin, and Bill O’Reilly.
If Richard Phillips was killed, the message is Obama is an inexperienced, Socialist Muslim loving panty waisted sissy from Scarborough, Beck, and all the other dirtbags.
Regardless of the outcome, the so-called liberal media will let the rt wing blowhards shape the coverage and amplify their message.
apistat
Pshh, you guys are watching amateurs. Go head over to FreeRepublic and have a good look at how the pros do it. Right now they have a thread filled with absolute anger and outrage over Obama daring to call the captain a hero and praise the actions of the military.
Now THAT is how you do crazy, folks.
Libby
The thing is these people make up a solid, 24% of the country and they’re hard core, true believers. I don’t know if the RedState guy and Glen Beck really believe the crap they peddle, but a lot of people believe what they say is true. I had a commenter tell me he thought Beck sounded "like a reasonable man." I’m too lazy to do the math, but that’s millions. And they own guns. Sometimes it scares me a little.
But in any event, they’re not in charge anymore. The captain is free. Obama looks pretty good. Wingers look like bigger idiots than ever. All’s well that ends well.
Stooleo
Over on the other crazy side of the Blogosphere Larry Johnson is willing to "Score one for Barack."
Commenter Cathrine grudgingly agrees, but goes on with, "Nothing has changed. I have NOT forgotten nor forgiven what this fraud has done. "
Ah I love the smell of crazy in the evening.
sgwhiteinfla
Off Topic
.
The White House has now made it official.
.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/09/04/12/Meet-Bo-the-First-Dog/
smiley
@Punchy: Johnny Miller, a Mormon, played on Sundays and continues to broadcast on Sundays (though only a few times each year). He made a deal with his church: I make my money on Sundays. You want my money?…
AnneLaurie
Mad props to the first techno-jeenius that can Photoshop the Somali pirates taking Capt. Tidi-bowl hostage!
Extra points if Charles ‘Der Krap-Hammer’ Krauthammer is sneering in the background…
Libby
Btw, I assume somebody already posted it, but Larry "Flowbee" Johnson posted a pretty strong defense of Obama. I’m not going over to NQ to find the link, but I read the text of it earlier and he was giving O credit for doing a good job.
Bad Horse's Filly
OT but hopefully will make you smile as the holiday comes to a close (and my apologies if it’s been posted before – I just saw it and had to share since Sound of Music was my Gram’s favorite movie):
Do-Re-Mi Dancers
Cat G
Yea, snipers who were on the fantail while underway at sea. Apparently, the Seals parachuted into the ocean at night, then made their way to the Bainbridge, and waited until they had 3 clear simultaneous shots. A whole lot of highly trained professionals who were doing their jobs made this possible. The details are going to be very interesting…it’s a movie script that almost writes itself…choppers over a Somali village, satellite phones, lots of negotiating going on, night time insertion of Seals, Phillips who basically offered himself as a hostage, etc. etc. GREAT story !!
dmsilev
@apistat:
Pfft. That’s not even the worst that Free Republic has to offer *today*. I give you this, where the freepers go full-out nutzoid on the Obama family’s choice of puppy.
-dms
John Cole
@Bad Horse’s Filly: Try that at Penn Station and you would get booked on terrorism charges.
jl
Last report I heard said that it was not supersharp one-shot marksmanship that took them out all at once, but took place over several minutes. I guess the Navy took a gamble, and figured that if their snipers could get into position to take good, rapid, shots at the pirates, the pirates would chose to respond to their fire rather than carry through the threat to kill their hostage.
The pirates had themselves in the worse position, once they were surrounded and cut off from help. If they killed their hostage, then they themselves would be under much more severe attack.
@42: the FreeRepublic comments are truly deranges and devoid of any logic. some of the commenters are using this as an argument for keeping the full F-22 program.
And… programs like the F-22 are being scaled back or cut for more personnel and more training.
So, now, if you were the hostage in that boat, tell me, dear reader, would you rather have it solved with an F-22 or well-trained personnel coming to your rescue?
And prim and prissy old old old very old and very pompous Broder was having tizzy over not going gung ho over North Korea and the pirates. We need a new Tom Wolfe or Mark Twain to document this decadent and depraved, and in some ways very silly age.
Tom Wolfe is still around, but he cannot do a good job, since the crazies we have now are to some extent, his people.
demkat620
@sgwhiteinfla: That dog looks like he is thinking "Get this thing off me!"
But he is super cute.
jl
@51 -hmm. Wow. OK, three simultaneous sharp shoots. Amazing. I guess the report I heard that said there was a gunfight over a couple of minutes was wrong.
Krusty Krab
John Cole:
Sounds like a racist comment to me.
Bad Horse's Filly
@John Cole: LOL. Wasn’t there one last year at Penn Station (or maybe Grand Central) where everyone stood frozen for like 2 mintues, freaking everyone out?
edit: Frozen at Grand Central
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0EG9M5nSM4
sgwhiteinfla
demkat
Kinda looks like Malia might be a little afraid of the dog but he is definitely a cutie. I imagine we will be seeing a lot more of him in the years to come.
Laura W Darling
@Bad Horse’s Filly:
I LOVED THAT!
(I’d give it an 8 to jump to.)
passerby
@Rainy
I get your point about these jerks sounding like Newt. I watched ThisWeek on the website this afternoon after it had come out that Captain Phillips had been rescued.
On every topic, Newt assumed an air of authority and whenever he chimed in to the discussion it was as if to say "Let me tell you the facts and the correct way of viewing this matter."
But I got the impression that it was not just his usual smug manner, it struck me as being just hollow bluster, like he’s whistling past the graveyard. There seemed to be very little confidence behind his words.
Also, I’m glad someone keeps up with RedState so I don’t have to. That "Captive Captain Saves Obama" excerpt is down right hilarious and I would have missed that were it not for this post.
And thanks to those mocking the writing style. Good laughs.
demkat620
@Bad Horse’s Filly: Yeah, the best one I saw was the T-Mobile flash mob in Liverpool. Pretty cool stuff. But the NY one is good too.
Libby
@Bad Horse’s Filly: I’ve never seen it before and I live every day of my life hoping that I’m strolling along and something like that would happen to me. Loved it. Thanks for the link.
jl
Portugal decriminalized most recreational drugs, and has universal care provided by a national health service at low cost, and an affordable pharmaceuticals policy. Their big public health campaign has increased their population health status from miserable to, I think, better than that in the US.
Wonder if the wingnuts will make anything of that. I hope not, but seeing Glenn Beck parade around, raving in a Portuguese Water Dog suit screaming about the coming totalitarian ‘Liberal Dominion’ would be fun.
Unabogie
@apistat:
Wow, sometimes I just wonder how anyone can love in an alternate reality.
Serious question, since I am obviously biased. Were we (liberals) this uncharitable about things under Bush?
That’s just pure hate. Do they even have a point? What is it that Obama should have done that he did not do?
John Cole
@Unabogie: There were some pretty unhinged people on the outer margins of the left after Bush’s election.
Lilly von Schtupp
Perhaps if President Obama straps on a flight suit and lands some sort of aircraft on one of these navy ships the folks at redstate will like him, no?
AhabTRuler
Some were, but most were not. However, there were IMO, fewer apolitical successes to celebrate, what with the incompetence, and the Bush White House was expert in shoving liberals and Dem’s noses into the shit over anything, making it hard to be the least bit charitable.
The Bushies were the Jocks from Heathers
AhabTRuler
Remember Ward Churchill? Because I still don’t know who the hell he is or how he got to speak for me.
Libs and Dems were positively gracious after Bush’s election.
Cataphract
So what is the score now: Obama 50, Wingtards -6?
But but but…the suberliberalsecretmooslimfascist"terriost"commiegun-taker-away-er…he authorized the action? Against his fellow mooslim pirates without consulting them over tea and bending over backwards? But but but…
So, here is how we have it:
Obama, and by extension the USA, negotiated from a position of uncontestable strength. (Nothing wrong with that. It shows reasonable adults are in charge.)
Obama, and by extension the USA, did not pay any ransom.
We got our hostage back safe and sound.
We took out three punk-ass pirates permanently and snatched the fourth.
The Maersk Alabama sailed on to Kenya earlier, resuming its mission.
Where is the Obama failure in that? The Navy did a spot-on job. This is the type of thing that makes me say "Don’t be fucking with the US."
The POTUS is simply lightyears ahead of these guys. He out maneuvers the wingnuts every time and in the best way.
Josh Hueco
@AhabTRuler:
I just had a terrifying mental image of Karl Rove and Dick Cheney in their underwear, having shot each other in some love-that-dare-not-speak-its-name suicide pact. Thanks a lot!
Unabogie
@John Cole:
Huh. I know the Troofers are out there to this day, but even the GOS wasn’t like this, as far as I remember. These guys are bitching about the name his daughters gave to their fucking puppy dog.
Think about that for a moment. Is there anything less consequential than this? Can anyone find a Kos diary with anything even close to being analogous? I’m truly curious, because if there is, then I will consider it a great lesson in groupthink and mob mentality, and it could change my life forever.
D-Chance.
The whole thing was NBD. A bunch of ragtaggers on glorified washtubs that even Cuban refugees would mock. I’d say that even the Canadian Navy could have whooped those boys… given, with a lot more effort, but still.
JK
@Bad Horse’s Filly
There’s a great episode of Law and Order:SVU with Robin Williams guest starring that includes 2 scenes of flash mobs. One scene features a giant pillow fight. The other scene features people in Grand Central Terminal standing still.
Bonus features of this episode: cameo appearance by Uber Douchebag Joe Scarborough playing himself while he interviews Robin Williams’ character, Robin Williams recites a passage from Wendell Berry while giving his closing argument to the jury.
John Cole
@Cataphract: The whole thing is absurd. We spend hundreds of billions every year on a military, and they basically function on autopilot in cases like this. All any President would have to do in this situation is approve the plans they drew up and then stay out of the way. The idea that this was a test of the country or Obama is absurd. This was not the Cuban Missile Crisis.
This was a bunch of ragtag jackasses with a hostage in a getaway raft that had no gas for a getaway up against billions of dollars of naval vessels and guys with the best training and equipment money can buy.
West of the Cascades
One other repudiation of these wingnut morans is comparing the Obama Model of Hostage Rescue to the French Model – the French assault on a pirate-held yacht just two days ago (http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2008/s2540859.htm) – one hostage was killed when French troops stormed the yacht.
No American hostages died in this operation, thanks to our Navy and to having an adult, rather than a petulant, insecure child, occupying the highest elected office in the United States. Captain Phillips is lucky his ship was assaulted by pirates in April 2009 and not October 2008. Indeed, he’s probably alive only because it happened six months later.
John Cole
What D-Chance said.
TR
Hell, the Swiss Navy could’ve handled this.
Laura W
@demkat620: Seeing a First Child in a White House photo opp sporting cornrows just makes me silly happy.
The Moar You Know
@Unabogie: The left can be just as unhinged as the right.
I lef the GOS in early 2006 because they just wouldn’t stop. First the 9/11 truthers, then the purity purges, etc, etc. There used to be a decent commentariat at DKos, but those days are long gone. A few of the front pagers are still worth reading.
I’m not a fan of the right wing, but I’m not down with rhetoric that lumps them all into a group and dehumanizes them, behavior which I still see in the comments on every damn post over there.
I will give them this; they don’t seem as down with the eliminationist rhetoric which I’m seeing pouring forth from the right these days. You get some comments like that at the GOS, but not many.
So far, this is one of the few spots I’ve found on the intertrons which treats politics and the associated bullshit with what it deserves – pure mockery.
MNPundit
@West of the Cascades: To be fair didn’t the French rescue like a dozen other hostages? Things might be different if they had more. If the pirates had killed Phillips, what would the incentive be for the US Navy not to just blow them out of the water the second Phillips was dead?
They couldn’t kill him and they knew it, and we knew it, and they knew we knew it. That’s why they were trying to get reinforcements to try and make a way out because their situation as it was, completely untenable!
sgwhiteinfla
Gore Vidal brings teh AWESOME
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcRBcXugk4s
Jay Severin Has A Small Pen1s
I guess they were sad the captain wasn’t killed so they could compare Obama to Carter.
Faux News
It’s getting past the point of "peak wingnut". The Red State arm chair commandos and the Freepers are delusional and are approaching psychotic. Mind you were are only finishing up the THIRD month of Obama’s 4 probably 8 year presidency!
The pharmacy companies are going to make a fortune on medicating the 24% of the "dead enders" in the USA. Keep an eye on those stock prices. They can only go up.
Steve V
Gawd, that RS post was some windbaggy shit.
West of the Cascades
@MNPundit: there were five hostages on the French yacht, and five pirates (two killed, three taken prisoner). I think your point’s fair, but the French could also have been more patient and let the situation play out instead of assaulting the yacht and ending up killing a hostage. Summary at http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aHl0gll2EGtQ&refer=home
I am pretty sure that President Bush would have ordered a French-style assault on the lifeboat Capt. Phillips was on (I love the image of President Bush ordering a "French-style assault" which is sort of an oxymoran).
JK
Guaranteed, Bill O’Reilly will run a quote tommorow from someone who rationalizes the behavior of the Somali pirates and he’ll use it to claim that the liberals and progressives in this country support the pirates and oppose the US miltary and the shipping companies.
O’Reilly will use this person to paint liberals and progressives as un-American and therefore rooting for the pirates.
dsc
what he said
Bob In Pacifica
This just in:
The fourth pirate, who was on the Bainbridge when the rescue occurred, was quoted as saying, "We’re so sorry. We thought the wimpy one who reads the children’s book about goats was still in charge."
Cat G
@John Cole: @D-Chance.: While I understand that NBD sentiment as these pirates are basically ad hoc villains…they can still kill you. It appears that our Navy executed a complicated (lots of moving parts) operation with a good outcome. These guys train hard, routinely spend months at sea away from their families, and take significant risks to life and limb..for not a lot of money. When their hard work is rewarded with a successful operation they should be celebrated. Blowing off the skills and courage of our guys is as "ignorant" as the wingnuts who think they’re courageous using their keyboards. Both attitudes show little understanding or respect for what it takes to manage this kind of operation. Man, most of us have trouble organizing a multi-family picnic.
Andre
You people have obviously never watched 24.
The POTUS is required to kick ass in these situations.
robertdsc
No words. Just laughs.
Krista
He would have claimed that anyway, and would have just made up a quote or taken something entirely out of context. These are not honest people with whom we’re dealing, here.
asiangrrlMN
@MattF:
Yes. That. I have decided to create a mental ‘General Disgust’ button that I can push when this kind of crap is published. I can’t be bothered to get too riled up over this nonsense.
I do think there was craziness on the left after Bush became president, but not to this extent. I can’t remember who made the distinction, but it went something like this. Liberals did not want Bush to fail–they feared that he would. Conservatives want Obama to fail. I think the far right is more likely to shoot someone than is someone on the far left, but that is pure hypothesis.
I am pretty left (mild understatement), but I do not read Daily Kos, Democratic Underground, et al on a daily basis, either.
asiangrrlMN
@Bob In Pacifica:
Ahhhhh! This one was priceless. Thank you for the hearty laugh.
John Cole
Where am I minimizing what they did? If by pointing out we spend a half a trillion dollars a year to be able to do this, and by pointing out these guys could do this every day of the week, you think I am “minimizing” what the Seals did, you are just not understanding my point.
These guys are so trained, and the hierarchy within the military and division of labor and responsibilities so clear and practiced that all any President had to do is sign off on their plans and get out of the way. Even George Bush could not fuck this up, although I am sure he would have given it the old college try and invaded Botswana.
That isn’t minimizing what the Seals did. That is pointing out that we pay through the damned teeth to have guys like the Seals.
Woody
The Wackloon/flying-Monkey/rightard contingent was clearly hoping for a reprise of the "shores of tripoli," Stephen Decatur, and all, to rush ashore and dispatch the wogs. When that wasn’t forthcoming, their excess zeal poured out in frustration with inaction.
perfectly understandable reaction, given the source…
jcricket
@Bob In Pacifica: FTW!
Or, "tee hee, you made a funny"
Laura W
@Bob In Pacifica: I enjoyed that greatly!
Woody
it appears to me the navy "executed" more than that…
J. Michael Neal
I just got back from a weekend of hockey, but I did see TVs periodically. From the amount coverage, I had assumed that the hostage was an attractive white woman.
Punchy
@Unabogie: Oh yeah, DKos has been that crazy. I’d say back in early 2005, about the time when losing the 2004 election started to finally sink in, people were simply insane.
Laura W
Never mind…Chandra Levy wasn’t blonde.
My point is fallacious.
Woody
Porti’s (as I think they’re known, colloquially) are small enough to be pretty long lived, 12-14 yrs wouldn’t be unusual.
So, absent accidents, the dog will almost certainly outlive the administration…
Woody
a powerful, elegant white man, the next best thing…
Left Coast Tom
These are the people whose proudest accomplishment, if I remember correctly, was giving Sarah Palin some coffee mugs with their logo. Also, too.
Royston Vasey
@demkat620: That was Liverpool Street Station, in the City Of London.
Liverpool is in the North West of England a couple hundred miles or so further north.
RV
Mike in NC
I actually found the Gingrich alt-hist on Pearl Harbor at the library once and checked it out, but it sucked so bad I didn’t get very far. Of course he probably only paid to have his name slapped on as co-author.
Newtie also likes to brag about being a PhD. Wikipedia states that his dissertation topic was "Belgian Education policy in Africa". Huh? No wonder he hasn’t got a clue about modern American society.
kth
If that "Jane’s Law" really held, liberals would be blowing up churches and government buildings when they were out of power. But they don’t. So it really doesn’t hold. It’s, you might say, asymmetrical.
Dave_Violence
The pirates were testing Obama.
Obama passed the test with flying colors, I feel proud of my president.
The pirates failed the test.
It is doubtful that pirates will attack a US ship in quite a while. Likely they are having involuntary bowel movements regarding the next step we will take.
poopsybythebay
@Bob In Pacifica:
That was a coke-spitter. Beautiful.
Svensker
@Mike in NC:
That explains quite a bit. He must think the Belgians did a great job pacifying the natives in the Congo.
Zuzu's Petals
I have to laugh at all the nutters who can’t believe we don’t have the gumption we supposedly displayed against the Barbary pirates back in the day.
I wonder if they realize that the U.S. actually paid tribute and ransom to the pirate states for a good fifteen years before the war, including under Presidents Washington and Adams, in amounts equaling up to 20% of the U.S. govt annual revenues. When Jefferson’s war ended, the U.S. agreed to pay $60,000 in ransom for captured sailors.
Oh yes, the piracy started back up within a couple of years of the treaty being signed, and U.S. ships continued to pay ransom for the next eight years. It was the second Barbary war – in which our foreign allies participated – that finally settled the matter.
Melvin's Rampage
http://archive.salon.com/health/sex/urge/2000/04/08/tom_finland/index.html
Suitable illustration for the ‘men of action’ quote…
Zuzu's Petals
@Dave_Violence:
I suspect they might feel that way about French vessels as well.
Svensker
I don’t understand why the pirates were shot, however. Weren’t they negotiating?
poopsybythebay
@Svensker:
We obviously did not like the terms….
Zuzu's Petals
Please God, don’t let Malkin find out about this dirty little secret from the campaign.
Left Coast Tom
The reports I heard on KCBS on the way down the hill from Tahoe were that the sticking point was the question of whether the pirates would go free, or be tried.
JK
@Zuzu’s Petals – You’ve got the best screen name I’ve seen in a very long time.
Malkin’s problem is that she’s paralyzed from the neck up.
Zuzu's Petals
@JK:
Thanks for the compliment. I always thought it might be a little simpy for a place like BJ, though I hear there’s an all-girl indie band with that name…so maybe not so much.
Davis X. Machina
Patrick O’Brian most certainly did not write potboilers.
Might just as well call Leaves of Grass ‘ditties’.
Tim (The Oher One)
I hear there were some hot sex scenes in that dissertation.
Newt’s been around if you get my drift (Somali pirate oblique reference).
Calouste
@Svensker:
Standard dealing with hostage situations:
1) Never, repeat never, give in to the hostage takers demands
2) Negotiate to get some of the hostages released and buy time.
3) When the special forces storm the ship/plane/building, their objectives are to a) get all the hostages out alive and b) kill all the hostage takers, and not necessarily in that order.
3b exists to prevent future hostage situations by scaring off would-be hostage takers and not having retaliatory hostage takings with the objective of getting imprisoned hostage takers released.
steve s
Keep that quote in mind as you watch the tea baggers, Red State, etc.
Kirk Spencer
@Svensker: As near as I can tell from the various reports, the pirates on the lifeboat crossed the line. Basically, they gave the SEALs the impression they were going to kill the captain by putting a rifle to the captain’s head.
gnomedad
@Bad Horse’s Filly:
That’s pretty good, but I like this even better:
Food Court Musical
Improv Everywhere is awesome.
mandarama, eager minion
@Davis X. Machina:
Indeed not. As Maturin would say, the back of my hand to that notion.
gnomedad
Food Court Musical
Don’t know what happened above.
RJ
Back to the old-time religion:
FBI negotiators
and
don’t fire until you see the whites of their eyes
hart williams
John! Turns out that there’s an even BIGGER douche-nozzle at RedState,
Which begins with the hilarious conception in this "military expert’s" mind that they were in an inflatable life raft.
Er, no. It’s a life boat, like you’ve seen if you’ve ever taken a cruise ship somewhere. Picture here.
From there, the paranoid alternate reality of Polynoidal Cystic Psychosis spins one HILARIOUS science fiction fantasy.
And then doggedly defends his idiocy throughout the comments, when any "registered" user suggests anything different from his bizarro world recap of the episode.
There’s the signpost up ahead … you’ve entered The Twilight Zone …
wasabi gasp
A maverick would’ve kick-started the economy by postponing Easter to loudly proclaim Victory in front of a green screen still of Johnny Depp from the Wonka remake.
zoe kentucky from pittsburgh
I don’t visit freeperville very often but that thread on Bo was something else– everything from saying "at least Michelle won’t be the lone dog in the WH" to "they should have called him Oreo" and that the dog is more American than Obama. There was even a comment about how they hope that Bo chews Obama’s nuts off. Seriously.
Mostly they all keep saying that they believe that the name "Bo" is actually the pinnacle of narcassism because it is Obama’s initials. (Do they read newspapers? Why do that when making shit up is a whole lot more fun?)
Sick, stupid fuckers. They do come off as truly insufferable, miserable hateful people. Although the anonymity of the internet does tend to make some people turn up the dial to 10 in a way they wouldn’t in real life.
Zuzu's Petals
@zoe kentucky from pittsburgh:
Yeah, that one about the "nappy headed Bo" was especially precious.
Conrads Ghost
John H. Farr at 5:58 pm:
"They’re not the only ones, either. I think we have to consider the possibility that the human race is evolving along two or more separate lines, although that would stand everything we take for ethics on its head, and then some."
"Study finds humans still evolving, and quickly."
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-sci-evolution11dec11,1,2206745.story?coll=la-headlines-nation
I think you’re onto something here, an idea I’ve been kicking around for awhile now. I think a number of social pressures have been pushing for certain kinds of intelligence since the beginning of the industrial revolution, and accelerating to incredible speed since the advent of the information paradigm. What was once the exclusive purview of only the wildly rich and powerful – the tendency to gather the "best and the brightest" in service of said power – has been incredibly democratized, where a certain level of cognitive operationality is needed from a huge percentage of the world’s people in order for the system as it stands to not just run well, but to exist. This operationality might be characterized as necessarily flexible, open (sourced), creative, broad minded, sharp, able and willing to cooperate/network, able to accept and contribute to change as a way of life…..I am pretty sure, personally, that certain modes/kinds of brain functioning which served humans extremely well in the (not so distant) past are quickly becoming not just ‘quaint,’ but actually archaic and hindering. This has happened before; imagine the difference between proto-humans who didn’t have Chomsky’s "language module," versus those who did. Not that it’s that black and white, but in a nutshell…So: those modern humans who, for whatever reason, carry the genetic tendency for fear and anxiety based functioning not only will not be able to function well in the emerging world, but will be excluded from it merely by the nature of said world’s structure. What’s the difference between this, and feudalism with its nobility and peasants, or Civil War era America? Again, the sheer number of folks needed to keep the emerging world functioning. It’s the democratization of certain kinds of social and personal intelligence, once needed only (if at all) at the very top of an extremely hierarchical social structure. We have seen the Illuminati, and they are us.
r€nato
@Cataphract:
It was a failure because the president didn’t go around talking smack about the pirates like George W. Insecure Daddy Complex would have, and he didn’t order Somalia nuked or some other over-the-top military action which would result in hundreds of dead innocents.
That shit is wingnut masturbation porn, and that’s why they are so bitterly disappointed in Obama’s no-drama handling of the situation.
They’re probably even more bitterly disappointed that the operation succeeded. You know they were just waiting to jump Obama’s shit if anything were to go wrong.
r€nato
@Dave_Violence:
It is doubtful pirates will attack a US ship at any time because:
1) most merchant vessels are not US-flagged; the shipping lines typically choose nations like Liberia and Panama.
2) these pirates simply got (un)lucky. They were nearly 400 miles from shore. They likely saw a merchant ship and jumped it without even noticing what flag it was flying.
Pip's Squeak
@Mike in NC
"Belgian Educational Policy in Africa" as a Phd topic is meant to be a joke. There was no such thing, which is the point.
Didn’t Gingrich get his doctorate in ‘merican history?
bob h
With the spirit of the nation laid low by the moneychangers, kicking a little ass that deserved kicking is probably a good thing.
Dennis-SGMM
Starting today, the rescue of Captain Phillips will be used to "prove" that no weapons program should be cut in any way whatsoever. Newt Gingrich will appear on every last talk show explaining how equipping ships with giant lasers would end piracy forever. Joe Scarborough will call for the invasion of Somalia.
JosieJ
@Dave_Violence:
The pirates were simply doing what they’ve been doing all along–trying to make a quick score. Since most every other time the ransom has been paid, they had no reason to expect otherwise. As r€nato points out, they just got unlucky–had they picked out a ship that was not flying US colors, they would probably have gotten away with their demands, even if the ship was, in fact, American.
The test for Obama was in how he was perceived to have handled the situation, and this test didn’t come from the pirates so much as from the media/political commentariat both here in the US and in the rest of the world. I agree he passed with flying colors, in my opinion because he used his brain and let the Navy do what they are trained to do.
Brachiator
And here is Paul Krugman in yesterday’s NY Times (Tea Parties Forever):
DPirate
Why didn’t we nuke Somalia? Perhaps we should send all our unemployed there to bulldoze the entire country into the Indian Ocean to show all pirates we won’t brook any interference with our trade.
DPirate
pip’s squeak, I thought Belgium had a terrifically (sp?) effective educational program in Africa. Simple and to the point.
"Black is bad. If you disagree and insist upon being black, we will cut off your hand."
BTW, Maersk is Dutch, right? I have worked on aboot (get it?) a dozen different Maersk ships as a longshoreman, and there are two kinds of people on them. The white hard hat men, who are invariably white and seldom seen to do anything but give orders, and blue hard hat guys, who are almost always asian or from southeastern europe (Montenegro, Albania, Croatia…). But, none have yet been observed sans appendage.