Me, 9:45 am this morning:
Newt Gingrich, 5 minutes ago:
Not to break my arm patting myself on the back with my predictive prowess, because this just wasn’t very hard to see coming. When you are dealing with the current GOP, you simply have to think of the most shamelessly cynical thing they could do or say, and realize that they will in fact do just that. They are completely unhindered by reality and show no allegiance to facts or recent history. They will say or do anything, they know they will not be held accountable by the media or their own party, and that the Democrats don’t have the balls to hit them head on. And when folks like Grayson do, our beltway betters get the vapors.
This is just the reality we have to deal with- one party is filled with shameless hypocritical liars who will do or say anything, they are aided by a lazy and corrupt media, and the other party must spend all their time reacting to yesterday’s bullshit charges while new ones are launched their way today. It is what it is.
SGEW
(weeps)
Stroszek
Can you blame them?
If we actually ban flaming pants, a Republican would never be able to fly again.
inkadu
I’ll make my own prediction: If Obama does make any sweeping administrative changes, the Right will say they are ineffective, don’t go far enough, are too deferential toward fancy-underpants wearing transvestites and are the harbinger of a political imprisonment.
I’m not sure the “other party” spends all its time reacting to yesterdays charges. They don’t react to charges at all, as far as I can tell.
Republicans were getting a serious case of terrorism blue balls… they’ve got a lot to unload.
And how could we possible make any more administrative changes than scrambling more than fifty years of institutional development into one craptastic omelet called the Homeland Security Administration? That’s the Republican CEO-style response: write a new fucking org chart. Or invade Amsterdam.
Max
Re: Lazy Media
Did you see Jay Rosen’s article on how to fix the Sunday shows? It was really good. They’ll never do it.
Linky.
schrodinger's cat
Your Tunch kitteh avtar photo is full of win and awesome and so is your comment. Newt Gingrich, not so much.
Ash
My grandmother, who lives in India, found a newt in her shower yesterday. Usually she just shoos them away, but according to her, this one was particularly ugly and scary looking. So she stepped on it.
That was an oddly prescient story.
Kryptik
Running bet on how long it’ll finally take for Congressional Republicans to draft impeachment charges on Obama?
To think, we were accused of ‘Bush Derangement Syndrome’, while not even a year has passed in Obama’s term before we’ve gotten bullshit storm after bullshit storm.
The Grand Panjandrum
Kreskin better watch the fuck out.
Tomlinson
@Stroszek:
Win!
El Cid
Good call. I didn’t anticipate that. I guess it’s the wordier version of “Oh, yeah? Well, maybe you got the intelligence failure, Hussein!”
Chaz
Small quibble – I think the phrase “It is what it is” is massively over used. Whenever someone says that around me I adopt a quizzical expression and ask, “Well, what the heck else would it be?”
mcd410x
Perhaps, I just need to expand the dark side of my imagination …
Kryptik
@Chaz:
Better.
But wishes and fishes and all that rot. You work with the reality you have, not the reality you should have. And that reality is the reality the GOP spins and feeds to the media like Gerbers.
slag
If half of liberal blogistan weren’t already on board with these jokers, I would be happy that Republicans were kindly giving us something to fight against again (instead of each other). At this point, though, I can’t help thinking we’re screwed.
mcd410x
And, really, will no one in the media stand up and tell these idiots that the USA doesn’t control security in other countries? … at least until we invade them and become their new overlords.
Violet
@Max:
That’s an excellent suggestion. If Tapper gets the job and implements it, I might watch just to see if it helps.
As for this post, our political discourse is definitely broken. However, I’m feeling sort of optimistic that the Republicans have to change their story every day. That means the old talking points weren’t working.
The average person doesn’t care what Newt Gingrich says. The average person wants to feel like the President and his employees are looking into how this security breach happened and what can be done so that things like it don’t happen again. The President is looking into it. So that’s good.
beltane
That’s President Gingrich to you.
Ash Can
And you can be sure that Newtie will be on the Sunday AM gas-fest circuit this weekend to elaborate.
SiubhanDuinne
John: I love that you have a picture of Tunch next to your name. The fact that you use Tunch and Newt uses a photo of . . . uh, Newt . . . says almost as much about the difference between the two of you as your actual twitter posts.
SiubhanDuinne
@SiubhanDuinne:
Ah, so that’s what an avatar is! Thank you, schrodinger’s cat (and sorry I didn’t see your post before I posted mine).
kommrade reproductive vigor
I agree with Newt. This administration needs to start by authorizing “extreme interrogation techniques” (nudge, nudge, wink, wink) on anyone who emboldens the terrorists by questioning or criticising the President of the United States.
mk3872
I am assuming, naturally, that by
that Gingrich means Obama must start saying “War on Terrorism”, “smoke em out of their caves” or “wanted dead or alive”?
Because terrorists just stop their jihad as soon as an American president starts talking like John Wayne, am I right?
General Winfield Stuck
We need better panty sniffing to detect bloomer bombs is all. The guy should not have been allowed to get on an airplane with explosives, that seems clear, and something all concerned should agree on.
But you have to admit, it is fairly clever to fashion a bomb into a thin film sewed into someones underwear. I have been expecting this kind of inventiveness from AQ for a long time. Would a full body scan have detected it?, I don’t know, and I heard at least one so called expert express skepticism it could.
Having bomb sniffing dogs may have caught it, but there aren’t enough of those to cover the millions of flyers worldwide. Not to make excuses, because better countermeasures to catch creative terrorism should be an ongoing project. And I also heard that the dude actually did go thru extra scrutiny.
As far as tracking the guy, and his father reporting him, that was only a month ago, and amidst many such reports to follow up on, it is a bit much to expect overseas intelligence assets to move that fast. I think.
Still. Obama is right. Failure occurred for this to happen and we need to investigate how, and how to adjust to obviously some fairly sharp terrorists.
But the freakout was expected as was over reaction from our press. The terror card is the only one left for wingers and they are going to play it whenever and to the greatest extent possible. And the media will give them that platform in cause of the great and neverending dem v repub cage match.
Calling for Napolitano to be fired is dumb as dirt however, but who is surprised by it? Not me.
schrodinger's cat
@SiubhanDuinne:
No problem SD, Newt shares one thing in common with Tunch, but Tunch is so much cuter.
Tunch seems to be saying,
My disdain, let me show U it
Avtar : According to Hindu mythology avtars are earthly manifestations of Vishnu, when Vishnu comes to earth to save all mankind, There are 10 of these in all.
Mumphrey
@ Ash:
“My grandmother, who lives in India, found a newt in her shower yesterday.”
I blame Obama for this. And it disgusts me that the liberal media haven’t looked into it. Maybe Fox News can step up and give this appalling outrage the coverage it deserves.
Ash Can
And, of course, Dick Cheney has weighed in on the issue as well. If we hear of any news reporters found at the bottom of the Potomac wearing cement galoshes in the next few days, we can assume they made an attempt to call Darth Asshole on his bullshit.
Bad Horse's Filly
@schrodinger’s cat: I agree. Go Tunch!
And John, how do you continue to read these people without your head exploding? I just can’t do it. The little I get here is enough to make me feel like 2012* couldn’t come soon enough.
*I’m assuming whatever creature rises up to take our place could only be an improvement, evolutionary speaking.
martha
Um, didn’t the undie-bomber info get sent to the National Counterterrism Center (NCTC) and just sit there? This much vaunted agency was created in 2004 by our best and brightest who were in charge at the time…erm.
Per the web site ( http://www.nctc.gov ) they don’t report to DHS so Janet shouldn’t get fired for their misdeeds (take that Sully).
Brick Oven Bill
The current dogma in Washington is that terrorism comes out of backwards, lawless countries with failed governments. This dogma continues on that if we use the immensely talented college teachers we have to educate the Muslims, and fund education overseas, then the Muslims will become civilized, learn to love us, and buy Chinese goods, thereby continuing to enrich the Globalists.
This is Obama’s plan to save the world. Now consider the results:
This Particular Undie-Pants Bomber: Mechanical Engineer
Blow-Up the Seven Planes with Baby Formula Bombers: University Students
Ahmedinejad: Civil Engineer
Bin Laden: Construction Contractor
Al Zawahiri: Medical Doctor
Flaming Airport Drive though the Front Door Bombers: Medical Doctors
Mohammed Atta: Civil Engineer
Fort Hood Muslim: Medical Doctor
I do not think that a goat-herder has yet to attack us. Just wait until we start importing these guys from the Middle-Eastern degree machines to staff universal health care.
bemused
@Chaz:
Another phrase like that is ‘wherever you go, there you are”.
joe from Lowell
Oh, thank God. Every time that ahole appears on TV, millions of Americans say, “Ohhhhh, riiiiiiiggghhhttttt. THAT’S why I voted for Obama.”
Ash Can
@schrodinger’s cat:
That’s for sure! That photo could be better only if Tunch were somehow flipping the bird in it.
kommrade reproductive vigor
They’ll eventually demand a special enforcement agency with the power to rummage through the pants of any brown dude who is about to enter a plane, bus, train, cab, bathroom or who is just walking down the street.
The upside: They’d be too busy fighting for a spot on the UGA (Underpants Gnome Agency) to give us any grief.
The downside: I’d have to start wearing a rat trap down my pants, just in case any Citizen Soldiers try to conduct a search and seizure.
bemused
Only R’s are allowed determine who should be subjected to a witch hunt.
Chyron HR
@Brick Oven Bill:
So we should fight terrorism by bombing Johns Hopkins and MIT?
“IT’S SUPER EFFECTIVE!”
JGabriel
John Cole:
It’s not this statement, in particular, that bothers me, and I’ve said this before, but every once in a while I feel the need to point out, to remind everyone, once again, that it’s NOT just the ‘current’ GOP. They’ve been like this, this bad, since at least 1980 — and there are pretty good arguments that can take it back to 1968, or 1964, or 1948, or 1920, or even back to Taft in 1908.
Okay, that’s all. Just needed to get it off my chest, or relieve the pressure in my brain pan, or blood level, or whatever. I’m probably good for another 2 weeks to a month before repeating it again.
(Yes, maybe the GOP is a little crazier nowadays, but they’ve always been this cynical and shameless.)
.
schrodinger's cat
Next TSA regulation for international flights coming to the US. If you want to come to the US, you have to fly naked.
Kryptik
@schrodinger’s cat:
Naked? That’s absurd!
They should at least wear handcuffs connected to the arm rests and colostomy bags to keep them from doing anything until the flight’s over!
Joey Maloney
@General Winfield Stuck:
We need better panty sniffing to detect bloomer bombs is all.
Paging Judge Starr…Judge Starr, please pick up the white courtesy phone…
AnotherBruce
I kind of wonder why President Obama wasn’t on that plane himself, so he could have karate chopped the guy in the neck before he lit his pants on fire.
SiubhanDuinne
@schrodinger’s cat:
Really? Newt has opposable thumbs?
schrodinger's cat
@SiubhanDuinne:
Actually 2 things, they are white and generously proportioned. Of course Tunch is much smarter and cuter.
fizzlogic
This from the guy who doesn’t understand why we can’t track illegal aliens coming over the border as easy as FedEx can track packages. But is unable to see a systemic problem in preventing a known suspected terrorist from boarding a plane. But then he is a Republican and we’ve seen their computer savvy from their website.
Royce
“…the Democrats don’t have the balls”
Actually they do have balls, they are just bought off by corporate money. The Dems are quite fierce against MoveOn.org and Nader and such, when their corporate constituency snaps their fingers. It is not defeatism to note reality.
I’m not sure whether people really do not see this basic obvious truth, or if they just forget from one day to the next, but it’s very strange how many people feel the need to put in a false explanation as an aside to their discussion.
“Another forged intelligence report serving to raise military tension with Iran was reported, “because our media is too busy having cocktails to notice”,” or “is afraid of being called ‘liberal'” or “is stuck in the 80’s.”
Can’t it just be enough to state the facts and leave off the aside explanation, especially when that explanation is specious and uninteresting … not to mention wrong?
Brian J
I don’t have any hard numbers to back me up, so perhaps this is wrong, but I suspect that if we really did exactly what they wanted us to do, it’d be enormously economically wasteful. I haven’t flown on a plane in many years, so I don’t know what it’s like, but I’ve heard it’s no picnic. And if we make it worse, how much economic activity will be slowed down where there’s no real benefit?
As for people like Alan Grayson and the fact that they give the Beltway types vapors, who the hell cares? As someone who worked in a restaurant for many years, you come to realize that there are some people in any situation that just can’t be pleased. I’m sure Obama could come up with a plan that started saving the health care system tomorrow, save us money, and would pass without any Republican support, all the while tap dancing on top of the reflecting pool, and people like David Broder would still find a way to be displeased. I’m not saying that we should do things that are pretty much suicidal just to make a point. I’m just saying that we need to stop caring about pleasing Beltway types and worry about pleasing voters. Yes, they are influenced by the media, but if people are doing well, they will keep the party who is helping them do well in power, regardless of what David Broder-types think.
flounder
I got a good laugh out of Gingrich using the word “fundamental”. He throws it around like his buddies throw on wetsuits.
google.com/search?rlz=1C1CHMB_enUS357US358&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=fundamental+gin…
gex
Ran across a fitting quote today:
Tax Analyst
For some reason when I saw “Johngcole” I thought it was the name of some North Korean general or something. If you put a “II” after it people would either start saluting or firing at will.
I guess some people do that anyways, though.
Back to Newt – since he never ventured to suggest “a fundamental change in administration policies on terrorism” I guess one could suppose he was just fine with the Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Addington/Yoo approach of ignoring Afghanistan to the point that the Taliban would once again become a significant boil on the butt of humanity, attacking the wrong country, detaining and shipping brown people to Cuba or just about anywhere where torture could be conducted without a lot of bleeding-heart-type oversight that might hinder their quest for tainted confessions or improvised misinformation from helpless scrotum-crushed taxi drivers/designated terrorists. As far I can tell all this torture was more about “showing the world that we can be tough” than actually accomplishing any real-world objectives. Oh, I also forgot another of the BCRAY cabal accomplishments: the weakening of our overall military-preparedness; the by-product of all those multiple extended combat tours.
Nice work, guys. Eight years of fucking up everything within their sight or grasp. You’d think their busy little fingers would be too tired to do so much pointing, but apparently that is not the case. Having people like Newt around is like having a perpetual turd under your pillow.
Kryptik
@Brian J:
The problem is that the Beltway types usually aren’t the ‘voters’ you’re suggested we focus on: they’re our leaders. And thus the ones that actually make the decisions, and all to often against the actual wishes of voters and their constitutency, all the while claiming to be voting for their constituency’s best interests.
Shit gets done on the Beltway’s time, and honestly we’re just a sideshow until election time comes and it’s not so often as to prevent teh stoopid or the money from affecting our leaders.
gex
Now the terrorists don’t even have to really succeed at anything to get us to run around throwing screaming panic attacks and destroying air travel for a risk that is 1/20th the risk of being struck by lightning.
God, they must just be pissing themselves laughing at us.
Mumphrey
You know, the problem with things that people like Brick Oven Bill say is that they seem reasonable, and they seem like they could well be true. And yet, I just don’t think it’s true. I’m busy right now, waiting on hold with my insurance company–I know, I’m lucky I have insurance–and we’re dealing with the death of my mother’s dog this morning, so there’s too much on my mind to work it through, but I just know that what he’s saying is wrong somehow.
That’s one of the real problems with American politics today: I think the Republicans, and those who vote for them, have gotten good at throwing out arguments that seem to make sense, but aren’t true. It takes time and work to work out just why they’re wrong, and sometimes you have to go look something up, and when these things happen on television or on the radio, there’s no time to check.
I don’t know what the answer is…
handy
This is why it’s best to ignore the GOP and their enablers, namely the Jane Hamshers of the left.
SiubhanDuinne
@flounder:
Also too, have you noticed how frequently he and some of the other wingnuts use the word “frankly”? Newt and Pat Buchanan are the worst offenders but many of them use it so often it amounts to a verbal tic. I was at a conference a few years ago where the Wingnewt was a keynote speaker, and I so very much wished that “frankly” was a drinking game and that I had had booze around to make it worthwhile. I think I counted it at least thirteen times in his ~20-minute speech.
JGabriel
Brian J:
That’s not a bug, it’s a feature! If it’s economically wasteful, that’s money that won’t be spent helping people who aren’t wealthy.
.
Maude
OT: We need a permanent link to the twit.
Corner Stone
@gex:
– JKG
Well, hell. Now I am completely confused.
theturtlemoves
I can possibly do you one better. I saw the former commander of the USS Cole on CNN yesterday actually state that the CIA failed because they are “all walking around with sad faces” now because people are investigating some of them for torturing people or, as he put it, “defending America”. So, this crap started at least yesterday, likely earlier. Newt is behind the curve on the latest talking points, it seems. And apparently we have an intelligence agency that has difficulty with its job because it feels sad. I assume it may also feel lonely and need a hug.
JGabriel
@Maude:
Which one? There’s already a blog link to Hugh Hewitt.
.
Mike in NC
So far that’s working dandy in Iraq and Afghanistan.
DonBelacquaDelPurgatorio
Depending on where you start counting, this has been true at least since 1980.
Thirty years is a long time to stay surprised.
Corner Stone
@gex:
And at such a low investment cost it’s ridiculous. Sure, some AQ #3 guy will get droned in Yemen next week, but look at all the nearly free press.
And, IMO, what we laughingly refer to as a failure is probably not viewed as such by the kind of people susceptible to being recruited.
Corner Stone
@Mike in NC:
ACT III: Yemen!
In theaters soon.
Waynski
I flew last weekend and most people, if they had any reaction at all to the underwear bomber, just seemed annoyed by the extra security theatre as opposed to being afraid. I think people are getting used to living with these threats and are less freaked out about terrorism than we were after 9/11. Seems to me that our view of terrorism is becoming more… dare I say it.. European.
kommrade reproductive vigor
@gex: Yep. Just imagine the sort of mayhem that would ensue if someone left a pair of jockey shorts embroidered with “Allah Akbar!” on the steps of the Capitol.
Brick Oven Bill
Re: The System Worked Like Clock-Work
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is a pretty stupid terrorist, despite his mechanical engineering education.
If you are going to go to the trouble of stuffing all of those explosives in your crotch, and blowing up your airplane, a rational person on the terrorism watch list would take the extra effort to not pay cash for his ticket and to bring along some sort of luggage, especially after your dad was a prick and snitched to the CIA. This is probably called ‘keeping up appearances’ in the cool terrorist circles.
A rational person would consider that someone in the government of the United States of America might pick up on this and, like, screen you.
JGabriel
Brick Oven Bill:
You know, somehow, I’m just not seeing the point of constructively criticizing a terrorist for failing. Unless you wanted him to succeed. Which, I guess, would make one objectively pro-terrorist.
.
mcd410x
I see we’ve been named World’s Policemen again.
That’s it, I’m going Galt. Supposed to be 67 in two hours, and I’m going to the beach to sit in the sun — even if it’s in shorts and long sleeves!
(Who could have predicted this country would have a meltdown after electing Obama …)
mandarama
h/t Stephen Colbert!
DonBelacquaDelPurgatorio
@Brick Oven Bill:
What would a clockwork system actually do, do you think, Bill?
Would it detect all crotchbombs, for example? I mean, we aren’t talking about a “system” that relies primarily on warnings from terrorists’ parents, are we? That might need some more thought.
To detect every crotchbomb, or its equivalent, you will need billions in additional equipment and much longer lines at the airport security checkin points. Basically you will price and annoy air travel out of existence.
Is that the “system” that you desire? Can you describe what you think the right “system” is?
Go ahead, we need a good laugh right now.
Brick Oven Bill
In my clock-work system, I would establish a watch list for educated people who follow faithfully the teachings of Mohammed, pay cash for international flights, and who generate warning calls from their dad’s to the CIA.
And then I would screen these people before they were allowed to board an airplane. I would hire the dozens of people necessary to make this happen.
Roger Moore
@kommrade reproductive vigor:
It’s already been implemented. You just need to understand that “extreme interrogation techniques” has been interpreted to mean being asked questions on Sunday morning talk shows. I hope you’ll admit that it’s a terrible fate that could melt the heart of our sternest foe.
Corner Stone
OT – But I’m just not sure why Rahm continues to say things like these:
“In an interview Friday, Mr. Emanuel expressed little concern for the president’s standing with the Democratic base. Mr. Emanuel said the liberal wing of the party is already coming back to the fold.”
WSJ
H/T – ATR, where Jonathan Schwarz spells out why Rahm is completely wrong on NAFTA being beneficial to Pres Clinton. I normally wouldn’t have ventured to WSJ for this but I wanted to read myself where Rahm stated NAFTA was a good thing.
ATR
Ruemara
Shorter Newt Gingrich: ATTACKS! CODPIECES! NOW!
We can go either way as a nation. I like to believe the bulk of the populace has shown it wants to go the other way.
CalD
__
OK. So how do you break that cycle? I don’t claim to know the answer but it seems to me like it can’t just be a matter of continuing to reflexively react to yesterday’s bullshit charges while new ones are launched their way today.
Nice call, BTW.
eastriver
The republican and democratic parties are POLITICAL parties. Their goals and tactics are political. Everything they do and say is to advance the standing of their party, and belittle the standing of the other.
Everything. Every thing.
Every action they make, every statement they give, every uttererance they burble is for POLITICAL PURPOSES. And should be viewed as such.
All of the governance and policy shit is secondary. Don’t confuse the two.
Party is all. Power is everything.
The republicans are better at this because they simply don’t care who gets hurt how much. It is bloodsport. Only one will remain standing at the end. All they care about is that it’s not a democrat.
Democrats are hobbled by a sense of fairness, righteousness, and justice. We are fucked. Until we become true warriors.
Brian J
@Kryptik:
To some extent that’s true, but that’s not the entire story. I have a strong suspicion that if some legislators weren’t so determined to please Beltway types that don’t have votes in the House or Senate, it’d be a lot easier to pass certain types of bills and/or stop focusing on the same trumped up issues.
Or let me put it to you this way: there are some who will always be infected with the “centrism is always and forever best” disease, but there are others who are not. And then there are the legislators who are ready to be influenced one way or the other. If we had a group of people who stopped giving a shit what those in the media who are obsessed with some sort of mythical bipartisan deal for every issue thought and who were willing to stand behind those who would be vulnerable for standing against the tide, it’d probably be easier to get things done. After all, there are more voters who will vote for candidates who do the right thing–if they can determine what that is–than there are those who would vote according to the Beltway mindset.
Ash
at least Chuckie T. just admitted that everyone knows it doesn’t matter what actually happens, Cheney will always climb out of his cesspool to issue nefarious statements.
Seanly
When will some of these asshats die so I can go
spitpiss on their graves?mcd410x
@eastriver: Every move they make? Every step they take?
Wake me up when September ends
Leelee for Obama
@eastriver: It’s Thunderdome for the Republicans. Two men enter, one man leaves. The winner gets to fuck up whatever he wants-if that’s what he wants to do. I’ve never thought of the Democrats as perfect-I can only wish. But they at least want to try and fix things that are fixable when they have power. I want them to develop a taste for blood, because of who they’re up against. I just have never been sure what kind of bad effect blood-lust might have on them, KWIM? Warriors tend to keep in practice by making war-Camelot couldn’t last, because the knights really never got over the blood-lust.
kommrade reproductive vigor
@Roger Moore: Instead of getting their testicles crushed by some twitchy CIA goon who thinks he’s protecting America, they get a complete testicular tongue lavage by some twitchy bobblehead who thinks he’s protecting his ratings.
As ReaLAMErican 100% hetero manly-men, this is a fate worse than death. When, oh when will America recognize the sacrifices these brave patriots are making for our freedom? [Sob!]
bayville
The scary thing is that Cole – while preparing his New Year’s menu, taking care of the animals and laughing at the bedwetting brigade – figured this out but the seven-figure per-year Dem “strategists/leaders”, undoubtedly are SHOCKED by this turn of events.
Meanwhile, in five minutes, Candy Crowley and Luke Russert will be on camera stroking their chins discussing the seriousness of Newt’s criticism.
JGabriel
eastriver:
That’s not politics, that’s cold war. Or, maybe, high school.
.
mistersnrub
The GOP is the functional equivalent of the CCP. Party over country, damn the consequences. I know this because I lived in China for several months. The similarities are unsettling.
Ed Drone
@Chyron HR:
Well, with the right-whingers’ love of theocracy and unintelligible design, that action has been considered, you know. Who needs science, anyway?
Ed
ellaesther
So I just spent two days on the organic farm of my lovely, life-long friend, in the gently rolling hills of southwest Wisconsin.
Good to know nothing changed while I was gone from RL for a smidge.
Sigh.
(John Cole, I’m glad to see that Tunch is repping you in the world of tweets).
Dave Fud
@Brick Oven Bill: Hey, BOB’s volunteering for a tax increase for the dozens of people to screen flyers at every single airport. Not bad.
Anyone else have a pet project for which they need funding?
Ed Drone
@fizzlogic:
Hey! How about barcodes? They can be put on foreheads, or the back of the neck, and would all start with the numerals 6 6 6 . Just issue every person in the world a number and barcode at age 6, and our troubles will be over.
You could even use them for commercial actions, so that no one without the tattoo could buy or sell or otherwise interact with the economy.
Why? What’s the matter with that?
Ed
eastriver
@JGabriel:
I don’t write the rules. I just do the reporting.
kay
I heard Chertoff interviewed on NPR and he got asked a good question.
He was asked if there is a system or mechanism in place that forces an informational intersect between the list of people with current visas and the list of people with terrorist ties.
He wouldn’t answer directly, because the answer is “no”. Instead he mumbled a vague paragraph about how individuals in either agency could access both sets of information and put it together. Obviously that’s true, but it doesn’t answer the question. The question was is that part of a system.
The short answer (and the answer he was too dishonest to give) is “no”.
They’re really congenital liars. To listen to a good question and listen carefully to the answer is revealing. They’ll lie even if telling the truth is worthwhile and valuable, going forward, and they’ll lie long after their official duties end.
The Republic of Stupidity
@Kryptik:
No need to drag babies into this mess. They didn’t do anything wrong here.
gbear
@mandarama:
And The Washington Post agrees 100% with Colbert:
Seems like everybody knows this and nobody even cares. Truth be damned.
schrodinger's cat
I think the media is a big part of the problem, they are either to timid or too lazy to call politicians on their BS. Since Republican manufacture and spew BS in far greater quantities than the Dems, they have an advantage.
The Republic of Stupidity
@Dave Fud:
Oooooooo… I’ve been waiting for this moment.
***fumbling thru papers***
Dang… Where’d it go?
Heh… I’ll be right back. Don’t put yer check books away.
burnspbesq
@Royce:
True. But it is an insult to the intelligence of your audience to try to claim that fantasy is reality.
eastriver
@mcd410x:
Assume everything any politician on the other side says is purely political. Ask yourself: Who is he(she) trying to help by saying this? Who is he trying to hurt? Who is he trying to protect? Is he operating on a personal, local, or national level? What is the meta issue?
If what the politician is saying doesn’t fit in this frame, it is remotely possible that the politician is talking about substance. But this is highly unlikely. It more likely that he’s stupid or confused.
Sly
@eastriver:
Here’s the problem: That sense of fairness, righteousness, and justice is mere weeks away from passing the largest increase in social insurance in over forty years.
Being “true warriors” jeopardizes such things not because the opposition will be mean to you, but because members of your own party or independent actors will bail on you when they see that ideology trumps your ability to work with them on items that have a direct impact on their particular demographics or, in the case of politicians, their constituents. That kind of myopia never leads to the kind of “permanent majority” that DeLay fantasized about. You can’t build a lasting political consensus based on spite, which has been the central animating principle of GOP strategy for a year now, and which certain elements of the left are now regrettably embracing.
The majority of people out in America don’t give a shit who wins the Democratic-Republican football game. They have far more interesting pastimes with which to occupy their attention.
Mary
John, you are the best mocker in the business, bar none. More people should be looking to you for messaging advice. I hope this happens in the new year.
Ed Drone
@eastriver:
As the detectives on “Law & Order” well know, it’s “qui bono?” Who benefits from the pandering, lying, pointing-with-alarm and general sleaziness?
Republicans want to govern in the worst way — and do.
They claim government is the problem, then want to run it.
Republicans don’t care if what they say is true, or is even what they said yesterday — to them, it’s ALL bullshit.
There’s a reason George W. Bush was a Republican.
May God damn them all to hell, and that soon.
Ed
kay
What gives with conservatives and intelligence agencies?
Is their knee-jerk defense of intelligence agencies like their knee-jerk defense of police agencies?
Do they read a lot of manly spy novels, or something? Is this just part and parcel of their flat-out groveling worship of authority?
I mean, Christ. It’s just reached the point of silliness. I feel as if I’m tethered to their childish fantasy of the all-knowing brilliant “spies” like I’m tethered to the fantasies about police officers. Do we really have to wait around for them to grow up before we can address anything honestly?
How can you “get to the bottom” of anything if 3/4’s of the players in any given fuck-up are preemptively immune from inquiry or accountability?
Tecumseh
@Max: On ESPN, they have a show called “Pardon the Interruption” where two columnists debate all the big sports stories of the day. The show actually has somebody who fact-checks what the columnists say and at the end of the show corrects them on the mistakes they made. I never understood how a sports show on a sports network makes it a point in holding people accountable for what they say on their show and every single TV news program won’t.
The Republic of Stupidity
@kay:
You mean, like when a sitting SCOTUS judge can’t tell the difference between reality and a bad teevee show?
Midnight Marauder
OT, but this is too good not to share:
Lamebook – Facebook Fails, Wins, LOLs, and More
Obviously, there are some things that are probably NSFW. But it’s so full of awesome, you probably won’t even care.
Unless you get fired, in which case, that might change things.
Yellow Dog
Damn! I just paid good money to have my dog trained to NOT sniff crotches.
kommrade reproductive vigor
Remember, Cons are only defending their idea of an intelligence agency, just as they only defend their idea of U.S. soldiers (see also, children; the middle class and … pretty much everything else). They spent a good portion of Bush II’s first term shitting on the CIA.
njoriole
BJ, you hit the nail right on the head when you wrote “…one party is filled with shameless hypocritical liars who will do or say anything, they are aided by a lazy and corrupt media …” Of course, that Party is the Democrats, not your hated Republicans. When the entire Lame Stream Media were in the tank for Obama from the beginning of his campaign (tingle up the leg, anyone?), it’s pretty hard to take seriously a leftist complaint about media bias. So, the Chosen One gets some criticism, and the left goes apoplectic. And now, after a non-stop eight year hate-fest against the then-occupant of the White House, we’re told it’s un-patriotic/un-American (ala Pelosi) to oppose the wisdom of our betters? No thanks. The problem is, now that he has to actually run things and make hard decisions, Obama is finding out that his neat and perfect view of the world (Once I’m in office, the world will love America “again”) is smacked upside the head by the way the world REALLY works. Only Obama (and his Kool Aid drinking confrers) believe that those who want us ALL dead can be talked out of it. That’s simply the triumph of hopeover reality. Come to think of it, aren’t you guys the ones who insist that YOU’RE reality-based? Seems not.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@Sly:
This, this, this, he says while hopping up and down.
Never forget that most Americans don’t give a shit about the details of politics. They are like parents in the front seat trying to drive the family car who just want the kids in the backseat to shut up, be quiet and enjoy the view. And they only start to pay attention to the details of the fight in the backseat when the noise becomes so intolerable that they are ready to punch somebody. When that moment comes, whoever has their hand in the other guy’s face is going to get it, whether it is fair or not.
The corollary to this is that half of the game in politics is provoking the other side into overreacting without getting caught at it.
Something Fabulous
@Stroszek: flamingEMOpants.
inkadu
@njoriole: You forgot to use the terms Obamabot and Kumbaya.
njoriole
inkadu-I don’t know, I just preferred the terms “confrers;” it’s fun to write and say. (Try it, it really is!) As for “Kumbaya,” that’s as trite as “Worst.President.Ever.” (Come to think of it, some people never tire of that one either.) In any case, your little (very little, thankfully) snark doesn’t address a single thing I said, so I take it that, as with most leftists, you have no substantive criticism, and therefore have fallen back on the default position of ridicule. Ok, fair enough. But, if you would, please tell me what we and our President have gained from his out-reached hand, from his down-grading of approach to our enemies, from his apparent lack of understanding until recently that we even have enemies. Or maybe you subscribe to the Cheryl Crow school of diplomacy (“The best way to solve problems is to not have enemies.”)?
DonBelacquaDelPurgatorio
@Brick Oven Bill:
So, as I theorized, your clockwork system of security rests on having the terrorists’ parents make warning phone calls.
Thanks BOB. Brilliant, we would not have thought of that.
By the way, can you describe the clockwork part of your system that prevents, say, me, from calling TSA the next time you are getting ready to get on a plane and tell them that I am your dad, and that you are a convert to Islam and that you have some suspicious looking materials in your back yard, which might be used in bombmaking. This system will need to be able to verify the reported threat, and its source, and clear you to board or prevent you from boarding a plane, say, tomorrow. And basically do this on a worldwide basis, and maintain all the databases required to do this and the staff of thousands required to research and follow up on these things quickly and efficiently.
I think you are onto something important, and could be our next candidate for Secretary of Homeland Security. I mean, at least you can do as well as Bernie Kerik, who would have been my second choice.
liberty60
Yes, we certainly don’t want to demoralize the CIA with criticism; However, demanding the head of Homeland Security step down as incompetant, well, thats just accountability!
Oh, and the missing WMDs were not Bush’s fault because he got “bad intel” from….er..the…CIA
matt
You, sir, are a goddamn idiot. Progressivism really is a mental disorder.
confused
I’m confused. wasn’t obama’s goodwill going to show the initiators of “man-made-disasters” that we were not bush-mean so that we could all give peace a chance.” i guess this underwear guy didn’t get the memo.
Batocchio
So Gingrich is claiming policies need to be changed, yet somehow this should be done without looking at the actual breakdown? I guess that is the way of modern conservatism – partisan attacks, and reality-free radical approaches.
liberty60
@confused:
Jrod
Some idiot lit his balls on fire on an airplane, therefore Obama’s foreign policy is a complete failure!!1
Nice to see some new trolls, anyway.