Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

We still have time to mess this up!

Giving in to doom is how authoritarians win.

They are not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

75% of people clapping liked the show!

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

Giving up is unforgivable.

Conservatism: there are people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

Republicans do not trust women.

The words do not have to be perfect.

Republicans: “Abortion is murder but you can take a bus to get one.” Easy peasy.

Everybody saw this coming.

Their shamelessness is their super power.

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

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

I don’t recall signing up for living in a dystopian sci-fi novel.

’Where will you hide, Roberts, the laws all being flat?’

They want us to be overwhelmed and exhausted. Focus. Resist. Oppose.

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

The republican caucus is covering themselves with something, and it is not glory.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

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Archives for 2009

Viagra Won’t Help

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Poor Dick Cheney- he has lost his mojo:

A new poll indicates Americans don’t agree with former Vice President Dick Cheney’s recent assertion that President Barack Obama’s actions have increased the chances of a terrorist attack against the United States.

The CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey also suggests that most people support the president’s plans in Afghanistan — up to a point.

Seventy-two percent of those questioned in the poll released Monday disagree with Cheney’s view that some of Obama’s actions have put the country at greater risk, with 26 percent agreeing with the former vice president.

Twenty-six percent, which is, as we all know, well within the margins of the crazification factor.

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Welcome to the nuthouse

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Rick Moran has another pretty good take-down of Glenn Beck from the conservative point-of-view:

And this brings us back to the first part of the question that people were asking me; why bother? Beck is an entertainer. He speaks for the little guy. In the large scheme of things he doesn’t matter. Besides, he’s funny. He’s not serious about a lot of the things he says.

All of that may be true. But if you see someone running toward a gasoline dump with a lit match, what would you do? Say, “Ignore him, he doesn’t matter?” Or perhaps, “That’s pretty funny, someone trying to immolate himself.” Or maybe, “Man, this explosion and fireball is going to be so kewl!”

You can argue that I’m an idiot for believing this as many of you have and no doubt will continue to do so. But Beck and others like him, who constantly raise the specter of American doom, of Obama as commissar, the Democrats as Nazis, while imploring listeners to “take the country back” and start some kind of “revolution” are bat sh*t dangerous to the conservative movement.

It’s interesting because most of what he says is right, but also interesting because, as is typical of Moran and his ilk, all that matters is the conservative movement.

But, yes, I think that we are at the point where we should laud conservatives for reaching the conclusion that unabated batshit craziness is a bad thing, even if the only reason they believe it’s a bad thing is that it hurts the conservative movement.

Of course, Rick himself only knows a hack from a handsaw when the wind is southerly, so to speak, as this amply demonstrates:

Meanwhile, our intrepid Somali pirates know they have western liberals on their side as long as they can show that the reason they board ships, terrorize people, take crew members hostage, kill with impunity, and barter for ransom is because they are only acting in “self defense” against rancid capitalists and western governments who allow the practice of dumping and illegal fishing with a wink and a nod. This appeals to many on the left who will now see the problem as a question of “fairness” and will agitate that the president forgoe knocking the stuffing out of pirate infrastructure in favor of a “negotiated” solution. Piracy will continue, hostages will still be taken, governments and businesses will still be forced to pay ransom – but liberals will feel better about the whole thing.

What strikes me most about discussion of the pirates, though, is how thin the line is between the right-wing blog line on piracy and the Georgetown line.

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Changing Our Cuba Policy

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Headed in the right direction, it would seem:

Mr. Obama is not lifting the longstanding trade embargo with Cuba. But according to a senior administration official, who spoke anonymously because the policy has not yet been formally announced, the president will use his executive authority to shift policy toward Cuba in three specific areas.

Under the new policy, Cuban Americans will now be allowed to travel freely to the island and send as much money as they want to their family members — so long as the money is not going to senior officials of the Cuban government or the Communist Party.

Second, the administration will take steps to open up communications to the island by allowing telecommunications companies to engage in licensing agreements that will support cell phones, satellite televisions and computers there.

Third, the president will reverse restrictions on gift packages imposed by his predecessor, former President George W. Bush, in 2004. The new rules will permit Cuban Americans to send clothing, personal hygiene items and fishing equipment to family members on the island — again, so long as the recipients are not government or Communist Party officials.

“This is an effort to reach out in support of the Cuban people’s desire to see change in Cuba,” the official said. “By helping people become less dependent on the regime, it opens the space that is necessary to form the kind of grass roots democracy that everybody hopes will come to fruition in Cuba.”

One of the funny things about the last few days regarding the Pirate situation was the false sense of urgency some folks were pushing- “OMG, this has not been resolved in three days!” Yet the same people are probably content with the decades of fail that has been our Cuba policy.

Hopefully this is the right thing to do. It can’t be worse than the status quo, which seems to me to have been pointless.

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So Much Stupid

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This pirate crisis appears to be another one of those political Rorschach tests that shows how detached from reality some people can get when it comes to defending or attacking a politician. Over at the DKOS, there are multiple glowing diaries all but calling for a CMH for Obama:

“Obama Approved Special Forces mission to save Captain!”

PR disaster for the GOP: Republicans bet against the United States and lose

And at the Washington Post, this diabetes inducing story:

An Early Military Victory for Obama

It was one of the earliest tests of the new American president — a small military operation off the coast of a Third World nation. But as President Bill Clinton found out in October 1993, even minor failures can have long-lasting consequences.

Clinton’s efforts to land a small contingent of troops in Haiti were rebuffed, for the world to see, by a few hundred gun-toting Haitians. As the USS Harlan County retreated, so did the president’s reputation.

For President Obama, last week’s confrontation with Somali pirates posed similar political risks to a young commander in chief who had yet to prove himself to his generals or his public.

But the result — a dramatic and successful rescue operation by U.S. Special Operations forces — left Obama with an early victory that could help build confidence in his ability to direct military actions abroad.

Folks, this was not the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Meanwhile, over at alt.fantasy.wingnut.redstate, they are doubling down with their alternate history of the event:

The Story of a Successful Rescue (and a Democratic Administration’s Attempt to Claim Credit)

After four days of floating at sea on a raft shared with four Somali gunmen, Richard Philips took matters into his own hands for a second time. With the small inflatable lifeboat in which he was being held captive being towed by the American missile destroyer USS Bainbridge, and Navy Special Warfare (NSWC) snipers on the fantail in position to take their shots at his captors as soon as the command was given, the captive Captain of the M.V. Maersk-Alabama took his second leap in three days into the shark-infested waters of the Indian Ocean.

This diversion gave the Navy Special Warfare operators all the opening they needed. Snipers immediately took down the three Somali pirates still on board the life raft, SEAL operators hustled down the tow line connecting the two craft to confirm the kills, and a Navy RIB plucked Philips from the water and sped him to safety aboard the Bainbridge, thus ending the four-day-and-counting hostage situation.

That was written last night, after everyone on the planet was aware that the initial reports about the Captain jumping a second time were inaccurate. From the Navy Times:

U.S. Navy snipers opened fire and killed three pirates holding an American captain at gunpoint, delivering the skipper unharmed and ending a five-day high-seas hostage drama on Easter Sunday.

Capt. Richard Phillips was in “imminent danger” of being killed before snipers shot the pirates in an operation authorized by President Barack Obama, Vice Adm. Bill Gortney said.

He said the pirates were armed with AK-47s and small-caliber pistols and were pointing the rifles at the captain when the commander of the nearby destroyer Bainbridge gave the order to open fire.

From the NY Times:

Two of the captors had poked their heads out of a rear hatch of the lifeboat, exposing themselves to clear shots, and the third could be seen through a window in the bow, pointing an automatic rifle at the captain, who was tied up inside the 18-foot lifeboat, senior Navy officials said.

It took only three remarkable shots — one each by snipers firing from a distance at dusk, using night-vision scopes, the officials said. Within minutes, rescuers slid down ropes from the Bainbridge, climbed aboard the lifeboat and found the three pirates dead. They then untied Captain Phillips, ending the contretemps at sea that had riveted much of the world’s attention. A fourth pirate had surrendered earlier.

It is pretty safe to say that Red State is doing what they do best, which is to “make shit up.”

Maybe I am alone, but I hardly view this as a test of the President. Unless I am mistaken, all he had to do was sign off on rules of engagement and stay out of the way, and I don’t mean that to denigrate Obama, but because that really is all any President could do. We have a massive Navy with several hundred ships, highly trained professionals in the SEALS, highly trained professionals in the FBI and in the crews of the naval vessels tailing (and in one case towing) the raft, and you just need to let them do their job. This didn’t happen because heroic efforts by Rahm Emmanuel and David Axelrod in consultation with Obama produced a dashing plan a la the The West Wing. This happened because our very entrenched military and national security apparatus can handle little things like this without flinching.

That isn’t to take anything away from what the guys on the scene did, as that appears to have been one helluva shot they took. They also deserve real credit for their prior restraint, and waiting until the right moment to make things happen. They really acted like, well, professionals. But heaping all sorts of praise on Team Obama seems to me to be just as silly as flaming them for this. They acted prudently and cautiously, as anyone who has watched the President for any period of time would have expected him to behave.

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Arms Control

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That 60 Minutes piece on prosthetic limbs was pretty amazing. I can’t believe they are able to pick up a grape or hold a soda with those. Really incredible.

Watching the piece on guns now.

*** Update ***

Now a puff piece on gambling. Unlike the last couple of shows the past few months, they are talking about Vegas and not Wall Street or the mortgage industry.

BTW- The usual suspects should be quite rich tomorrow, since Angel Cabrera won the Masters and then proceeded to accept the Green Jacket while speaking something other than English.

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Revisiting Jane’s Law

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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.

Reality:

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.

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