This is pretty rich:
BRITISH: “Special Relationship” with U.S. Is Dead.
UPDATE: Reader Paul Jackson writes:
Who could have foreseen that the president who follows Obama will have to hit the reset button…..with Great Britain and Israel!!! And the list may grow longer, he’s only been president for 14 months. India anyone?
Yeah, so far this “smart diplomacy” thing isn’t living up to the promises.
That’s the Instapundit, linking to this story in the British Times Online about alleged changes in the US/British relationship, and then letting a reader make sure we know who is to blame- Obama.
He probably should have read the article:
BRITAIN’S special relationship with the US — forged by Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt in the second world war — no longer exists, says a committee of influential MPs.
Instead, America’s relationship with Britain is no more special than with its other main allies, according to a report by the Commons foreign affairs committee published today.The report also warns that the perception of the UK after the Iraq war as America’s “subservient poodle” has been highly damaging to Britain’s reputation and interests around the world. The MPs conclude that British prime ministers have to learn to be less deferential to US presidents and be “willing to say no” to America.
***In an apparent rebuke to Tony Blair and his relationship with President George W Bush, the report says there are “many lessons” to be learnt from Britain’s political approach towards the US over Iraq.
“The perception that the British government was a subservient poodle to the US administration is widespread both among the British public and overseas,” the MPs say. “This perception, whatever its relation to reality, is deeply damaging to the reputation and interests of the UK.”
***The report also demands a statement from the government on the implications of the Court of Appeal judgment regarding the alleged collusion of MI5 in the torture of Binyam Mohamed, a British resident.
Last month the court ordered the government to release evidence from American intelligence reports which showed that MI5 was aware of the torture.
Senior US officials subsequently suggested that releasing such evidence might prevent the US from sharing some intelligence with Britain.
So much fail. Obama’s sins are apparently Bush’s war in Iraq and Bush era torture.
I started blogging because of the Instapundit. I remember when it was a big deal to get linked by him. I remember defending him, and I remember when he at least tried to maintain some level of pretense about being a libertarian. It has been really weird watching him rapidly descend into total teabagging madness.
mclaren
Descend?
Glenn Reynolds has always been an ignorant crackpot since day one.
People seem to think that just because a guy has an advanced degree, this means that he has to be sane. BZZZZT. Wrong.
Reynolds is a law professor at a half-ass cow college in Tennessee, and he’s been gibbering mindless drivel ever since he started his nutcase blog.
Want examples?
Glenn Reynolds on what to do in Iraq circa 2004: “Win.” Great advice there, genius. Define “winning.” Oh…wait…that’s right — he can’t. Because he hasn’t got a clue.
Glenn Reynolds on what to do about the sky-high oil prices circa 2008: Invade Saudi Arabia and force them to pump more oil. Hey! Idiot! Saudi Arabia is already pumping as much oil as they can. The $140 a barrel spike was caused by Saudi Arabia’s inability to pump enough oil to cover the new upsurge in demand from China. (Not to mention that Instapundit is so appallingly uninformed about Saudi Arabia that he doesn’t realize the Saudis have got “dirty bombs” wired up to all their oil wells that will render their oil fields hopelessly contaminated for centuries if anyone tries to invade.)
The incoherent drivel goes on and on. Whenever Glenn Reynolds opens his mouth, mindless twaddle comes out.
He hasn’t descended into total teabagging madness, he’s always been there, drowning in the sewage of his own incoherent gibberings. The guy can’t read a simple sentence and figure out its semantic meaning. That’s always been true. The only difference?
All of sudden, now, people are starting to notice. The Bush-Cheney-Reagan reality distortion bubble has started to fade away and everyone is staring at each other and goggling at the wreckage of the economy and the world left behind by those sociopaths, and they’re saying to each, “Wha-wha-what happened????”
What happened is that ignorant incompetent crackpots like Glenn Reynolds have been gibbering drivel for the last 15 years and people like me have been pointing it out while somewhere around half of America has been sleepwalking in a dreamworld full of nonsense spewed out by guys like Instapundit. (As for example, when Reynolds recently offered his marvellous solution for our current economic downturn: “Well, a tax cut and deregulation would help, for a start.” Great thinking. The same ignorant incompetent Laffer-curve economic voodoo that got us into this mess.)
The only thing that’s changed is that the rest of you have finally woken up and started to notice.
SiubhanDuinne
John, I’m going to go all pedantic for a moment and suggest that “alternatively” would be more apt than “alternately” in your title.
That quibble aside, a spot-on analysis for so early in the day. Hope you and T and L continue to enjoy the new digs.
c u n d gulag
@mclaren:
You beat me to it. I was just about to write pretty much the same thing, but I think you’ve said it all, and better than I could have.
Brick Oven Bill
Soon the Queen will have surely listened to all of Barry’s speeches that he was kind enough to bestow upon her in the form of a brand new iPhone. She will have watched his videotapes, once the compatible viewing equipment arrives in Europe.
And when she learns of our Leader’s words, she will perhaps banish the male leadership from the English ranks, and replace them with persons resembling Tim Geithner and Peter Orszag.
With this simple shift, the self esteem issues will lift, and England will again be acceptable before the eyes of Barry. Although America will not take back the bust of Winston Churchill.
This part is non-negotiable.
PaulW
You fail to realize that IT’S ALL OBAMA’S FAULT.
Your yogurt tasting funny? DAMN YOU OBAMA!
Elvis being abducted by aliens and forced to tour on Reticula Beta? DAMN YOU OBAMA!
The sinking of the Titanic? DAMN YOU TIME TRAVELER OBAMA!
Everything is
FDR’s Truman’s Kennedy’s LBJ’s Carter’s Clinton’sObama’s fault. And always has been. Because Republicans are soooo flawless and perfect and whatnot.p.a.
John really is un-American. Reconsidering beliefs in view of reality-based evidence! How European. The proper template was right there in front of him- blame the media, the elites, the liberals with their communistic mind-control powers. (See Church, Catholic). The tribalists would have had your back, John. Now you’re condemned to hang out with the likes of us.
Clark
I noticed a couple of years ago that Reynolds doesn’t bother to read much of what he links to. You apparently missed his casual tarring of Obama with the brush of Jew hatred over the weekend, otherwise you wouldn’t have waited til today to declare him mad.
As to whether Reynolds has always been as nuts as he is know, I would add that, while I always detested his views, I think that the Reynolds of 2002 wouldn’t recognize the Reynolds of 2010.
Cacti
When all else fails, blame it on the black guy.
mistermix
I’m afraid you’re woefully ignorant of the physics of the situation. It has been proven, that Bush is, indeed, rubber, whereas Obama is, in fact, glue. So, everything Bush did becomes Obama’s fault. QED.
soonergrunt
John, not to be all bitch-slapping you this early in the morning but
Hoocoodanode?
fucen tarmal
@mclaren, to be fair, the spike in oil wouldn’t have been a spike if it had been purely demand driven, it would have been the new level of demand vs supply.
a lot of people bought into the price of oil believing the bric countries were driving the market upward, but a lot of people were just riding the speculation wave.
i think the term “smart” is like garlic or holy water for conservatives, if you want them to stay away from something, just call it smart. which means we need to have smart uteri, and smart curricula, and smart elections.
debit
@mistermix: I can’t wait for Easter dinner at my parent’s place. Back when Bush started his second term, my dad and I had a “discussion” about politics in which he claimed things were so fucked up because things Clinton had set into motion were just now reaching fruition. I said, “It’s been five years and you’re still blaming Clinton?” “Well, things move slowly in Washington. You have to give him another year or two, THEN you can judge Bush.” By my reckoning, Obama has six years before my dad can start bad mouthing him. And I’m going to remind him every time he tries.
The Sheriff's A Ni-
@soonergrunt: Heh. Indeedy.
kay
I still maintain they don’t know what to do with Obama. He’s difficult to put in a box.
They said he was weak for two years, and now he’s a belligerent bully.
He’s driving them crazy.
I am glad that Blair’s subservience to Bush was a source of shame. I wondered about that. We were stupid enough to elect him. Imagine how humiliating it must have been to have not elected him, and still be stuck with his decisions.
homerhk
It’s amazing how much people are now beginning to realise that everything bad that has happend that is tangentially related to the US is or was President Obama’s fault. I think there was even an attempt during the campaign to pin violence in Kenya on him and there are current attempts to pin anti-American sentiment in Indonesia on him as well (with no small amount of glee, it should be said).
Perhaps, contrary to the claims of the wingnut population they really do believe that he is the messiah or some equivalent – after all to have had a hand in all the terrible things they complain of, he’d have to have some sort of superpowers. Maybe that explains why a substantial portion of republicans think he MIGHT be the anti-christ (how does that conversation go? “I’m not sure, but I’m just sayin, he might well be the anti-christ. I mean, Jesus wouldn’t have taken over the auto industry, bailed out the banks and caused everyone to have access to healthcare”).
Through it all, Obama smiles serenely and continues on his merry way. My personal view is that THAT is what gets these wingnuts totally fried. The idea that he can simply ignore their stupid and outrageous criticisms without blinking an eye, the idea that he remains the calmest man in America, the idea that he remains by far the smartest politician currently serving.
Bill E Pilgrim
Heh.
Yeah it’s funny, all of the people have started speaking French much more slowly and clearly after I spent a few years here, they were all mumbling it incredibly fast and incoherently when I first arrived. I don’t know why they changed, but good thing they did.
David
The RightWing blogs only care about one thing — making incendiary statements. They will just say anything.
The prime example of Tea*@@#rs descent into madness is Gateway Pundit (it was a short trip, I know). The posts read as if written by a psychotic nine-year old. The reasoning is incomprehensible, contradictory and just ridiculous on it’s face. There seems to be nothing off limits in the comments either.
LindaH
Well of course, certain people believe that any rational person would see what Double U did would never alienate anyone, where as a Democrat and BLACK President is so offensive that every civilized nation would recoil in horror as soon as he took any action what so ever. (For the record, I have never read Instapundit and I may be misrepresenting his racial feelings)
chrome agnomen
@homerhk: @homerhk:
if obama did turn out to actually be the messiah, in a century or two he will have been proven to really be white and conservative.
Violet
Perhaps it is equally weird for him, watching intelligent bloggers such as yourself not falling into lockstep with the teabaggers and drifting away from the GOP one by one. Wouldn’t surprise me if at some level he wonders why that is happening.
cleek
i’m gonna try something weird… i’m gonna defend PudHead.
not exactly.
Obama’s sin is that he hasn’t turned British opinion back to “favorable”. he hasn’t used his charm (the one that charmed all you dumb lefties! hah!) to make our allies like us again. why not? huh? what’s the matter O-Bots ? cat got your tongue? neener!
Iraq war, torture ? meh. mistakes were made. but if Obama is The One (remember, all lefties think Obama has magical powers), why hasn’t he used them to make the UK love us again ? huh ? answer that, O-Bot ?
PudHead isn’t doing analysis, he’s taking a cheap shot – reminding us that Obama may have promised more than he can deliver.
R-Jud
@kay:
Not “humiliating” so much as “infuriating”. At least that’s my read from anecdotal experience.
The British are in a very weird place in terms of their national identity. They don’t want to align themselves as closely with the US as they have done– they realize there has been nothing in it for them. They also don’t want to go all-in with the EU. But they know they can’t go it alone.
None of the current party leaders have a solution to this dilemma. There are no good options for voters in the upcoming election. They have to try to figure out who will do the least damage in the immediate future. It’s pretty depressing.
David
When Obama became president, I thought “What could Republicans possibly object to?” (I now know how stupid that thought was) but my biggest fear was that they would co-opt him or pretend to have co-opted him.
I’m actually very happy that didn’t happen. Each day, what is left of the Republican Party steps further into the fringe world of the deranged.
Llelldorin
Slacktivist had a reasonable explanation of this sort of thing in a couple of posts earlier this month: VIII and Lying your way to crazy.
His basic thesis was that if you lie about someone long enough, you’re more or less forced to slide from fighting dirty to embracing insanity. Glenn Reynolds is a classic example, although not the one Slacktivist used.
rh
@David:
Gateway Pundit is so deliriously unhinged that it’s hard to take seriously. It’s actually one of the 5-10 most popular right-leaning blogs though, which is terrifying.
Hart Williams
John:
I made the transition between parties, as well. (In 1988, actually, when I gave up any hope that the moderate-to-liberal wing of the GOP would ever be allowed back in the “big tent” of Dixiecrats and Bible-thumpers.)
And I noticed an interesting thing: those “demons” I’d been raised to hate suddenly made a lot more sense than I’d ever given them credit for. Alternat(IV)ELY, those hoary heads I’d been taught to worship as sagacious and wise suddenly seemed a bit silly.
As the transition progressed, the differences became more stark. So there’s that.
OTOH, Reynolds and the rest (who began by defending Bushikins and Darth Cheney) and arguing semi-actual points HAVE descended into an increasingly inane and insane frenzy of denying ANYTHING that the progressives say.
Suddenly “liberal” or “libtard” wasn’t enough of a smearword for them, and now it’s “leftists” and thence to “socialists” and “communists” — the first being a term invariably used to describe “guerrillas” fighting against some dictator we’re propping up in some faraway land.
“Socialists” is a canard that hasn’t held any real cachet since the 1920s or 1930s, and, of course, the last actual “communist” breathed his last sometime in the early 1990s.
So, yes, your perception that Reynolds et al have become increasingly unhinged (if not to say bat shit karazee) is correct, as they drift further and further from the fever dream of “exporting democracy” around the world.
On the other hand, you’re probably seeing an acceleration caused by your change of perspective. It’s like two trains passing rapidly beside each other in opposite directions.
Perceived speed is doubled for those in the trains. Standing and watching from a distance, they seem half as fast as they do to the observer inside.
Nonetheless, Reynolds and his creepy know-it-all wife seem smug and supercilious in direct proportion to their increasing derangement.
Which seems to be increasing geometrically in the Right-O-sphere. We may well be waiting for a John Brown to drop the match in the straw we’ve been piling up.
numbskull
@Bill E Pilgrim: That’s an excellent analogy, even though it’s stated with a little snark. Still, it’s better to eventually learn the language than to be stuck making hand signals, n’est-ce pas?
Remember November
@mclaren:
This, oh very much this.
Ash Can
@rh: I usually find it difficult to tell the difference between blogs that are right-leaning and ones that have fallen over in a heap.
zhak
R-Jud above (#22) points out that the UK is in a strange place at the moment & that they no longer wish to be so tightly aligned with the US because there’s nothing in it for them. I don’t think anyone in the UK would be harboring any such thoughts if it weren’t for the ongoing dismantling of FDR’s place in our history. Just to be very clear here, if you believe that America’s “finest hour” came shortly after Churchill’s proclamation of such about his own country in 1940, then you should be aware that the “conservatives” (I think that’s a poor term for these people, since I view them as anything but conservative) of the day actively sought to undermine aid to Great Britain prior to our official entry into the war.
Unfortunately the people on the right hide their extremism under a cloak of patriotism. And their shaky grasp of history coupled with their hatred of Democrats keeps them from being able to understand that we were at our own finest hour when we came together & worked together in a common cause. It’s little wonder the UK wishes to distance themselves from us, because we pander to the extremists (something I don’t understand at all).
AxelFoley
@PaulW:
LMAO!
Dino
It’s all about marketing. I am going out on a limb and assume that Insta is a rational actor as per neoclassic economic theory.
Instapundit has a certain natural constituency with a well established perspective on issues. As events compromised this perspective during the last decade, the reaction was one of retrenchment rather than re-examination. Therefore, views hardened and fringe voices became more attractive.
Those who dare to call for introspection are banished or otherwise punished. Those who call for purity are rewarded spiritually and materially.
In other words, Glenn knows which side of is bread is buttered. It is a cynical ploy to retain market share. How else to explain his shoddy workmanship?
…Or maybe is he batshit insane.
matoko_chan
My disenchantment with Reynolds started with Yearning For Zion.
He was entirely too ready to defend the constitutional rights of the patriarchy daddies to spirit-marry 13-yr-old children and “exile” post-pubescent young men.
Then Expelled came out he linked all sorts of Captain Stupid (Ed Morrisey) crapology while PZ and Pixie Misa and I were spamming him with Scientific American debunks. That was where CJ split the sheets with him too.
He said he was trying to be “fair”.
Sorry, Stupid and Evil doesn’t get equal time.
Have you considered…..that if the federalist model of localized governement came back….all we would have is thousands of distributed Jesuslands and Yearning-for-Zions all across the country?
Chattel slavery of women and children FTW!
cleek
just a follow-on to my last comment…
PudHead is making a comment using the classic format : [something is wrong] so [the politician in question] must not be perfect, and therefore you must be stupid.
no need to read anything else into it
John Cole
The only question that remains is how he will respond (if he even does). Will he:
a.) claim he was just kidding.
b.) claim he was just passing on what other reader says
c.) claim it is still Obama’s fault somehow and link to some wingnut with “proof”
d.) passively aggressively link to someone who hates me and will say all sorts of nasty shit about me
e.) ignore it until someone like Sullivan hits him
f.) all of the aboe
R-Jud
@zhak:
Yes. There was such an outpouring of relief after Obama’s election over here– when people found out I was an American, they were shaking my hand. They saw his election as a sign that the US was rejecting extremism. So they’re absolutely baffled and alarmed by the continuing popularity of the current Republicans, the Tea Parties, Sarah Palin, etc. (Of course, I find the popularity of Eastenders, baked bean sandwiches, and Katie “Jordan” Price equally baffling. However, none of those things influence policy.)
Lots of the people I’m friends with here feel that US culture trickles down to the UK at about a 10-year remove, so the current increase in American-style evangelical churches, religious schools rejecting science, and the fact that extremist parties like the BNP and UKIP are enjoying a higher profile than they have in years seems to forbode the arrival of even crazier stuff.
Ash Can
@John Cole: I doubt he has the stones to involve you in any way. My guess is that if someone like Sullivan dings him, he’ll just ding Sully back directly, and essentially ignore Sully’s charges.
And everything is still Obama’s fault. Because he says so. Also.
Wilson Heath
Well obviously the point is that someone will have to reset the relationship so that the UK is once again our subservient poodle. Glen is just hoping that a good trumped up invasion can make this happen again.
As an aside, one wonders at the quality of Reynolds’ own personal relationships if that’s his understanding of what a good relationship is.
SGEW
@John Cole: I’d go with “f”.
And from what I understand, I find it much more likely that the U.S. and the U.K. are downgrading their “special relationship” because of the increased role of the E.U. in U.S.-European relations. Less to do with the actions of Obama (or even Bush), and more to do with long term institutional shifts.
zhak
R-Jud:
Last time I was in London, there were posters plastered all over the place advertising Jerry Springer: The Musical. I spent the whole time hoping to be mistaken for a Canadian.
some other guy
The source material he links to doesn’t mention Obama at all, not even once. It does, however, specifically and repeatedly mention George W. Bush’s warmongering and torture.
I’m absolutely baffled at how one reads this article and comes away with “this is Obama’s fault.” Is Glenn Reynolds an illiterate moron? Clearly, he thinks his readers are.
Uloborus
I’m going to speculate that he has indeed read the article. I don’t follow him – I let you read right wing pundits for me, unless I find a link that seems particularly amusing or rational – but let me try and reparse it into Wingnuttese.
Bush was strong and diplomatic enough to keep Britain in its proper role as America’s
poodleAlly. Now that Obama’s in office, they’re resenting that role and questioning the rightness of the Iraq war.Really, everything else is Liberal Bias.
R-Jud
@zhak:
That’s actually the work of the brilliant English satirists Richard Thomas and Stewart Lee. It is legitimately funny shit.
Wilson Heath
@some other guy:
Both Reynolds and his readers likely fall into the “illiterate morons” category. But you give too much credit by attributing to Reynolds the ability to think.
Q
And now Reynolds is essentially doing the Glenn Beck “they’re provoking us to violence!” shtick. It’s never their fault:
http://pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/96630/
UPDATE: Reader Richard Hunter writes:
In answer to your question, I don’t think it will stop. I believe that left wing extremist are trying to incite Tea Partiers to retaliate in kind, then claim “See we told you they were violent”.
I hope that conservatives can hold their temper and not give the left an opportunity to hurt the Tea Party’s reputation.
Indeed.
Emma
Mclaren: Yep. Also.
FormerSwingVoter
Dude, this is news? I try to flip through some conservative blogs every so often, and they consistently misrepresent the things they’re linking to. Always, always, always follow the links.
Graeme
I also basically started blogging because of Glenn Reynolds, and I no longer read him. I guess when everything was a bit raw after 9/11, it was easy to ignore it when his short posts were off the mark. As the Iraq war went badly & he continued to defend Rumsfeld, it became impossible for me to read him.
I agree with the left-leaning readers that he’s always been a wingnut, but I definitely think he’s gone all in with the pajamas media thing. He wants to be a TV star for the wingnut market, and that entails ramping up the crazy.
Then again, I suspect I would have quit reading him much earlier if I had listened to his podcasts. I avoided them on purpose on the suspicion that they would make me hate the guy. In the end, the pithy posts got that job done… Fine. I get it. I was in denial.
Little Dreamer
@debit:
I get the feeling that argument from a few years ago is no longer going to be relevant. Prepare yourself for that possibility.
Corner Stone
@Bill E Pilgrim:
wait for it…wait….ohhh ***SNAP***
Jay C
Well, leaving aside, for the moment, the salient question of why anyone, anywhere, would (by 2010) grant Glenn Reynolds the least shred of authority to comment on anything, the interesting part (if indeed, any of Instapundit’s ignorant posts can be held to be “interesting”) of this comment is how little agency Glenn grants to the British – either the Government OR the people in general – among neither of whom the Iraq War was particularly popular.
Yes, the US/UK “special relationship” was all well and good; but when said relationship entails one country spending its blood and money fighting a lengthy war for dubious policy aims (and, basically, for another’s interests), the “special” can drain out of it pretty quickly. And any government with ANY responsibility to its populace (y’know, like democracies) will have to deal with such sentiments in due course.
Of course, to blinkered jingoes like Reynolds, anything America comes up with (at least when led by war-whooping Republicans) IS, ispo facto , Right, Good and Necessary, so naturally, cavils or opposition from mere Foreigners ought to be ignored. Especially when it’s Barack Obama’s fault. All of it. Always.
See my first sentence.
Donald G
@Q:
After last week’s Simon/Vodkapundit/Insty Trifecta of Shame, Glenn had to take one more jump over the pajama-clad shark. I’ve had a word with the shark – he’s tired of freakshow. The revving of the engines keeps him awake and makes him cranky.
SRW1
@Brick Oven Bill:
Yes Bill, and then she’s going to offer you a knighthood: Lord Brick of Dick
Church Lady
@mclaren: It’s always helpful when you actually know what you’re talking about. Referring to UT as a “half-ass cow college in Tennessee” reveals your absolute ignorance about the school. Perhaps this link will help you: http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/knoxville-tn/university-of-tennessee-3530
UT is considered a top tier public University and becomes more selective each year. The denizens of Rocky Top send you a resounding “Fuck You”.
El Cid
If Obama and the Democrats hadn’t passed health care reform, then an end-times focused Christian right wing extremist militia wouldn’t have had to plan the attack on and overthrow of the United States government.
scav
@El Cid: And they are truly prophets as they were doing it in June 09. Clearly, we should just hire them instead of pollsters.
Lee
I read Instapud before GW2. He was actually not bad back then. I’m pretty sure that I found Balloon Juice by a link on his blog.
But he has always had a problem that he does not read what he links to. Apparently he has not gotten any better with time (I stopped reading him a long time ago).
Elie
@zhak:
One way of thinking about this is that the intensity of the crazy is a result of the profoundness and speed of the change that has impacted them and us. They can no longer hide in disguised language their intentions and perceptions because events are moving so fast and so completely that its “smoking them out” into unguarded self revelation.
In the clinical arena, sometimes when you restore the circulation to a person who has been near death for a while, such as our country was, inititially there is a flood of toxins entering the main stream circulation that were accumulated when the blood was stagnant in the system and the patient seems to do worse. You have to continue vigorous activities and interventions to sustain the continued recovery but eventially the body naturally eliminates the poisons.