I don’t know how important the death of Osama bin Laden is, politically or strategically. But I do know that I will enjoy the gnashing of wingerati teeth. The Commander Guy reads them so we don’t have to.
Cliff May, formerly of the liberal New York Times (now at NRO):
I was, I confess, a little stunned by the first part of the President’s speech. It was, as Mr Hunter says, overwritten. It managed to be both overwrought and generic – all that telepromptered overload about cloudless Tuesday mornings was not only tackily over-prettified but came over as unfelt and hand-me-down, like a course exercise in some third-rate creative-writing school’s Soaring Oratory class.
Time magazine’s 2004 Blog Of The Year:
The first part of the announcement, evoking 9/11, was vulgarly overwritten as per Obama’s view of himself as some kind of gifted orator. The adjective bloated compote was unworthy of the subject, banal and self-indulgent.
Then there were his tasteless claims of personal leadership, his over-emphasis on “I” and “at my direction.”
What’s the best reaction you’ve seen so far?
Maude
A winger on the radio saying, no pictures, didn’t happen.
Edit, spell fail
mistermix
This isn’t a winger, but I just watched a little MSNBC and they’re mentioning that Guantanamo intelligence had something to do with it, but no details. Does anyone have any links to evidence that 7 year old intelligence from Gitmo had anything at all to do with this?
New Yorker
@Maude:
Yeah, I’m waiting for the “birthers” to become “deathers” and start claiming that bin Laden is actually alive and living with Bill Ayers in Chicago and is ghost-writing Obama’s new book.
Kane
One of the many criticisms that I had with the Bush administration was that they wasted the opportunity following the days of 9/11 when much of the country was united. So much could have been accomplished in our most darkest of times. Instead, that unity was squandered for the sake of politics.
Seeing Americans in the streets of NY and at the White House and elsewhere across the country in celebration of eliminating Bin Laden, I was hoping that this could be a possible moment of unity for the country.
Unfortunately, I’m finding republican columnists and many republican politicians attempting to rewrite history while at the same time begrudgingly credit President Obama, if at all, for this great accomplishment. The all-important political narrative is more important than the country. It’s a shame.
Malron aka eclecticbrotha
I take great comfort in knowing that there is some panel of experts developing right wing talking points to disparage every single thing this president does.
Unlike some of my compatriots I don’t think we should be trying to prod Democratic leaders into some pissing match about who deserves the credit. I think its best for the Dems to just step back and let the rights heads explode so they don’t get any of the disintegrated grey matter on their Brooks Brothers suits.
pixelpusher
If the mission had failed, it would all be Obama’s fault. He would have personally undermined our fine fighting forces. The republicans would suddenly remember his name.
But because it went off fine, credit goes to George Bush.
New Yorker
Also too, don’t forget that Bush won the war on terror that started when Bill Clinton failed to defend the country on 9/11.
Martin
Yes, I’ve already heard that this was all fabricated to take pressure off of the questions surrounding Obama’s birth certificate forgery and refusal to release his college records as Pope Trump has demanded.
I hope this goes mainstream. The electoral smackdown will be epic.
Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel)
Knucklehead facebook folks donning their realpolitik tweed jackets with the leather patches and thoughtfully stroking their chins as one. “This won’t be the last we hear of Al Queada.” No shit? Ten years has brought you to this conclusion? Someone ring Oslo!
goblue72
They’re just P.O.’d because President Obama just signed OBL’s long form certificate of real death.
Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel)
@New Yorker:
Ding! Already got one. Hypochondriac young friend in Champaign IL.
maya
“Our long national nightmare will not be completely over until President George W Bush, Vice President Richard B Cheney, and Sec. of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, are feted with a ticker-tape parade down New York’s famed Broadway culminating at the site of the World Trade Center where all three will place the traditional olive branch victory wreath over the head of Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.”
FOX NEWS 5/3/2011
MikeBoyScout
Also in the news today….
While bin Laden is dead, US President still blackity black.
Studly Pantload, now with enhanced schmuckosity
@New Yorker:
That type of rationalization will be the only thing that keeps their little lizard brains from assplodin’.
Martin
@mistermix: Word is that the place was built about 6-7 years ago. What I’ve read suggests that the information was in Gitmo files, but it was mixed in with all of the other chum from what every other person ‘admitted’ to that they couldn’t assign any credibility to it. It was only later, when they got other intel that they went back, found that information and increased the value of it relative to all of the other crap.
My suspicion is that if the intel said that a house was being built there in the 2006 time frame, they narrowed the location down by looking at satellite photos and picking out the new structures and focused on the new large ones. That’s got to be a pretty small number of potential locations. Then anything that comes in and aligns with those locations, with regular surveillance work, winnows the field down even more. That’s probably why it took so long.
Maude
@pixelpusher:
I gather the Bushies have been all over cable tv trying to claim credit.
Rep. Peter King said it was a good job and he didn’t get at all negative.
Speaker Boehner said same.
It’s those who don’t care about the ones who died in the attack and the families who have suffered that are saying garbage. That includes the Professional Left.
Oh, and those who went out to the World Trade Center were only 10 when 9/11 happened. In other words, what do they know. They grew up with this terrorist out there threatening everyone, that’s what they know.
Mark S.
Via Edroso:
That’s gotta be the weirdest I’ve seen so far. Has Costa ever seen the movie?
Bulworth
Well, that’s certainly true. I happen to personally know that it was George W. Bush, not this Kenyan person, who personally organized and ordered last night’s Winning assault.
Also, too: The Decider
Nutella
Repeat link, but it’s apropos: Jihadists and neocons react.
Hal
We are so disappointed that Barrack Hussein Obama, Emperor of Northern Kenya, has presided over what clearly should have been Sarah Palin’s moment to shine. If only the American public hadn’t been fooled, and elected McCain instead (who would have resigned within the year to make way for President Palin), we could actually celebrate this moment.
gnomedad
@maya:
They’re parodying right-wing memes at Fox, too?
Seriously, who said this?
JPL
@mistermix: If President Bush had this information and didn’t act on it, it would prove that he is anti-American, imo.
jibeaux
In one of Edroso’s links, there’s something about whether Obama has “the intestinal fortitude and focus to follow through”.
So….bin Laden was only MOSTLY dead, or we were supposed to rape the corpse too?
Rommie
When President Obama switches his rhetoric from grabbing a mop and cleaning up the mess left by the elephants, to I’m tired of mopping up your messes, GTFO of my (our) way, it’s going to be Sherman-on-the-march brutally awesome.
BGinCHI
Motherfucker wins the Nobel Peace Prize AND kills OBL on his watch?
And this is the criticism?
The economy gets better and he’s gonna run unopposed.
JPL
I posted this cartoon in the previous thread but it’s worth posting again.. Mike Luchovich nailed it.. link
Califlander
I heard Rush Limbaugh this morning say “Thank God for President Obama.” I kid you not.
Nearly drove off the road.
zmulls
Q: Got Osama Bin Laden?
A: Go fish
SGEW
Late last night I was at my local bodega, and asked the Yemeni guy behind the counter if he had heard the news. He said, and I quote, “More lies from the Americans” and just shrugged. His younger cousin at the grill said, more or less, “Now they have their excuse to leave [Afghanistan]. Go somewhere else.”
Then some white guy came in, and we all shut up.
maya
@gnomedad: Look at the date. They will say it tomorrow. I’m a clairvoyant.
Comrade Javamanphil
@New Yorker: Birther + Deather + complete lack of evidence supporting either position = Dearthers
I’ll be here all week. Tip the veal. Try the waitress!
WereBear (itouch)
Waterboarded intelligence is apparently the best they have; and it will only work for their Brain Stem Base. A puppet made of Velveeta is a convincing argument to them.
Rest of the world… not so compelling an argument.
MTiffany
@mistermix:
Psychics. The government is using super-duper-top-secret psychics… at Gitmo…
Roger Moore
@Kane:
Sorry, but the Republicans will never unite behind a Democrat. Never. They don’t give a damn about the country, just about themselves, so they’ll turn anything that happens into an excuse to undermine the Democratic President. The bolder and more high minded their slogans- Country First!- the worse the lie behind them.
The Bobs
@mistermix: Sorry I don’t remember where I saw it, but the intelligence from Gitmo that is linked to this is that they learned the identity of a trusted courier for bin Laden. Tracking this courier led to the house.
If you Google “bin laden courier” you will find the story.
EconWatcher
What is it about this guy, Obama?
He has this almost other-worldly way of making his own luck, but not just for his own self interest.
I trust him, in a way that I’ve never trusted any other president in my 45 years. But something about the guy just baffles me.
Comrade Javamanphil
@Califlander: When I heard him he was blathering on about how many times Obama said “I, Me or Mine” during the announcement last night. That “arrogant black man” schtick never gets old!
honus
“Tasteless claims of personal leadership” Yeah, almost like he landed a plane and then pranced around in a flight suit in front of a Mission Accomplished banner.
brendancalling
I’m pretty sure this was originally published in the Sunday WaPo, but it appeared today in the Philly Inquirer: behold the majesty of Charles Karuthammer’s impeccable timing.
Make sure you don’t have a mouthful of coffee, you’ll ruin your monitor.
gnomedad
@Califlander:
In earnest? Seriously? What was the context?
New Yorker
@Hal:
America wasn’t fooled, but ACORN and the new black panthers stole the election in order to put the Nazi soshulist Muslim atheist radical Kenyan usurper in power.
Nutella
@SGEW:
I hope the cousin is half right, that we use this as an excuse to leave Afghanistan and NOT go somewhere else.
Chris
@Roger Moore:
This.
The comparison between the 9/11 aftermath, in which Democrats rallied around the flag and agreed to put partisan politics aside and support Bush’s efforts to bring the terrorists to justice… and the 2008 financial crisis aftermath, in which Republicans rallied en masse to say “we hope he fails” and block every single attempt at reform from Obama… was a stark contrast. The reaction to Osama’s death is nothing compared to that.
Moonbatman
Thank you Mother Sheehan for saying this with your Absolute Moral Authority.
Peace Out. The Power is Yours. Free Crystal Mangum.
Citizen Alan
@Roger Moore:
Too true! BTW, when is Obama gonna get on the stick and get those FEMA Internment Camps finished? Because I am now TOTALLY on board with that plan.
Mark S.
Who wore the flight suit and spoke under a Mission Accomplished banner again?
Davis X. Machina
@Califlander: I’m buying a Powerball ticket on the way home — somebody turned the laws of probability off…
Nutella
@gnomedad:
Link for Limbaugh. He’ll get over this little lapse soon, I’m sure.
Mouse Tolliver
Last night on CNN David Gergen said Bush and Obama deserved thanks for getting bin Laden. I couldn’t help but scream Fuck you! at my TV. I guess now false equivalence means Republicans get to share credit for Democratic accomplishments.
freelancer
Consider the following contrast:
Bush invades the wrong country, reaches Baghdad in 21 days, after six weeks, drapes himself in the flag and the uniform and does a premature, chest-thumping victory lap PR stunt that will come to haunt and be one of the icons of his presidency.
Obama finds out that the courier linked to OBL is tracked to a Mansion without coms in August of 2010. He decides to park on it and sets up on him. Obama waits. For 8 months. Then he pulls the trigger.
What does competence look like to you?
Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal
i think this one warps the osama/obama meme for all time.
Bob Loblaw
To be fair, all that “cloudless September sky” business was fairly shit.
As to what it means politically? It means Obama just got a cool instantaneous 12-15% point swing on his approval numbers, and his reelection odds just went from 99% to 100%. What this means for a liberal agenda domestically speaking depends, of course, on the future makeup of Congress. So yeah. Sorry to get all boring on you.
Suffern ACE
@Mark S.: Yep. The president in a flight suit was in such good taste.
Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal
i think this one warps the osama/obama meme for all time
JCT
@Mark S.: Hmmm, maybe Obama was trying to make it clear that he was “responsible” for the decisions that were made and thus was more than willing to take any flak?
Given that the right wing has all of a sudden decided that the entire concept of responsibility is for liberal losers…
batgirl
@mistermix: It seems that they got the lead on a trusted courier of OBL and that surveillance on the courier led to the location. http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2011/05/02/abu-faraj-al-libi-and-the-trail-to-osama-bin-laden/
Of course, it will probably take quite a while to separate facts from all the rumors going around right now.
Ann B. Nonymous
Wingnut displeasure at this blessed event isn’t based on partisanship or resentment. It’s really more like one of their favorite masturbation fantasies has been interrupted — not by their mother’s knock on the bathroom door, but by the advent of Mandingo Maximus himself on their mental stage: “Everyone chill the fuck out, I got this.”
And he’s doing it wrong! No, there should be scented candles and stuffed codpieces and a romantic Lee Greenwood anthem playing in the background, and not that, that mesmerizing African python and those jungle drums.
The poor dears simply can’t deal.
BOSS BITCH
Says Rush:
http://thepage.time.com/2011/05/02/donkeys-fly-3/#more-227070
Then I guess he came out of his stupor:
Is this Snark?
Turgidson
As I said in the open thread below, Morning Joke’s political angle was that it was amazing how Obama went against his own ideological leanings and angered his political base to do this.
Because, you know, apparently the left wanted to have a parade in honor of OBL and Obama wasn’t the 2008 candidate who repeatedly said he’d kill OBL in Pakistan if he had the chance.
It will always be 1972 to assholes like him, I guess. Hey Joe, your swaggering cowboy asshole president couldn’t get him and our sockulist blackity America-hating Kenyan secret Muslim got him. Suck on that, you useless twat.
Hungry Joe
Pam Geller blogging as Obama gave the announcement speech:
“The teleprompter is speaking *yawn* The teleprompter is taking credit for the killing. Every other word is I … Sheesh … the man is insane.”
It’s driving them wingnuttier. I can but channel “Catch-22’s” Captain Black (out of context, but never mind): “Eat your livers, you bastards!”
The Ancient Randonneur (formerly known as The Grand Panjandrum)
Its hard to not be overwhelmed by the schadenfreude, but the consensus is that Obama still isn’t an American citizen and he had nothing to do with the killing of Osama. Wingnut Butthurt: its whats for breakfas, lunch and dinner.
So while President Obama was addressing the nation, Donald Trump was hanging out with NeNe and Starr Jones, and then Trump announces his decision to bring back LaToya Jackson! Why? Because that’s just how he rolls.
I’m warming up to the idea of a Trump run for the Presidency. The GOP deserves a candidate like that.
Tsulagi
For everyday stupid and dickish, went over to RedState to see how they’d have their desiccated teabags all in a row for this. Not disappointed. Some selections from the current top front page post…
This delusional pissant’s fluffery for his boys isn’t worthy of snark so why bother.
Earl Butz
@mistermix: Not a single little bit, save for innuendo.
MikeJ
Have you noticed that the wingnuts are torn between “how dare they bury him at sea with an Islamic ceremony, that’s too much respect paid to a murderer” and “how dare they dump him in the ocean, muslins hate water and turn into gremlins and the muslins will hate us”.
FlipYrWhig
Reaction on the right is predictable. I’m more interested in what it does on the left. It certainly helped to out my leftier-than-left Facebook friends. You can tell how serious they are, because they capitalize the word “empire.”
gypsy howell
Morning Joe was particularly loathesome this morning. First, stroking his chin about how Obama pulled off this mission to kill OBL in spite of the “fact” that his base objected to it. (Really? Aren’t we liberals the ones who thought we should be pursuing OBL through policing and intelligence means rather than invading countries and dropping bombs on people who had nothing to do with it?)
Then on to a bunch of republican congresspricks who took credit for reforming our intelligence operations so the CIA/Seals/whoever could accomplish this.
Then on to the notion that really this was a bi-partisan effort among republicans and democrats (but really, mostly republicans, you know) to secure our nation.
Then on to Peggy Noonan who said… oh hell I don’t know what she said, I had to turn it off. I can only assume she invoked St Ronald, while she had a Reagasm in her seat.
I’m not exactly waving my big foam finger and prancing around shouting “USA! USA! We’re Number One! We’re Back, Baby, We’re Back!” (10 years, trillions of dollars, two wars of aggression, hundreds of thousands dead, admitted torture, secret prisons, ceding our own civil liberties — all to get one criminal? It should be kind of humiliating, really), but Joe really scraped a new low this morning. Musta been killing him.
fasteddie9318
@Turgidson:
ZOMG I am so angry about this whole fucking business. The only thing that could make me madder than this would be if Joe Scarborough were to drink paint thinner. Just thinking about Joe Scarborough consuming paint thinner makes the rage come bubbling up.
Suffern ACE
@BOSS BITCH: Yes. Because we wouldn’t have had any special forces if it weren’t for Republicans. They invented the concept of men in uniform. It is patented.
Did I miss the part of his speech where he paid his respects to the men in uniform and implied that he jumped from a helicopter himself, or do I just have to erase my memory of what I heard him say to play this game.
SGEW
@Bob Loblaw:
Ordinarily I would agree with you, stylistically . . . but for me, I actually literally sobbed when he said that line. For years, every time the weather cleared up in early fall, I would freak out; something about that cloudless September sky really fucking stuck in our minds. So I, personally, forgive the speechwriter(s) for putting in the cliches.
Of course, I’ve been crying all day, so I’m not exactly objective about rhetoric right now.
Martin
@EconWatcher:
My dad regularly reminds me of this. He attended a retirement party of a colleague of his many, many years ago. People were getting up and saying nice things about this gentleman, and his boss in his closing remarks commented on how lucky this man was in his life, to have risen so quickly in the company, etc. When the gentleman got up to make his remarks and thank everyone, he started out by commenting “I never realized that good luck required so much hard work.”
Bush wasn’t unlucky that 9/11 happened. It happened (at least the way it did) because he and the people working for him weren’t fucking paying close enough attention. And when we should have been focusing on getting Afghanistan done and getting OBL, Bush turned his focus to Iraq. Obama got OBL not because he was lucky, but because he put competent people in charge of the problem and pressed them to get it done. Getting us out of command roles in Iraq and Libya is part of that focus. There’s got to be a lot more top-level attention going to AfPak now than ever before, simply by pushing aside problems that are less significant to the US.
Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal
@FlipYrWhig:
when star wars geekery goes off the tractor beam.
The Ancient Randonneur (formerly known as The Grand Panjandrum)
@Ann B. Nonymous:
Epic! I would like to nominate this for Best Comment of the Year. I gonna be laughing about this one for quite a while.
Bulworth
I mean, I know Obama is the first president to ever use a teleprompter, ever, but is the best they’ve got?
Maybe they think Obama shouldn’t have bothered telling the American people at all unless he was going to give all the credit to the guy who hasn’t been president in over two years, or if he wasn’t willing to give full credit to Faux news.
MikeJ
@gypsy howell:
As I pointed out last night, it was Regan’s response to the marine barracks bombing in Beirut that convinced bin Laden that Americans were cowards. That’s the real legacy of Reagan.
Turgidson
@gypsy howell:
You lasted longer than I did. I was awake frightfully early (west coast time) and thought “hey, this is probably one of the only days I can watch Morning Joke where he won’t be a complete and total asshole.” I made it less than 10 seconds because the first thing I heard was “Obama had to go against his ideological leanings and anger his base to get this done.”
I quickly changed the channel before I threw the remote at the TV. What a douche.
Roger Moore
@MikeJ:
Cognitive dissonance is a way of life for these wingnuts.
ChrisNYC
Scarborough said this morning that he was impressed because President Obama had to “override his ideological leanings” to issue the kill order. WTF?
Suffern ACE
@Suffern ACE: Yes, that’s what the base thinks. Leave that Osama fellow alone- If you ever find him, send him flowers from me and give him a big wet kiss from yours truly.
gnomedad
@BOSS BITCH:
I think you’re right. Uncommonly subtle for Rush but, yeah. Goddammit. For a moment there, I’d hoped we’d passed Peak Wingnut. This, for me, is the tell:
gypsy howell
@Turgidson:
trust me, it didn’t get better.
Like I said, I’m not falling al over myself about this whole thing, but Joe really had me yelling at the teevee this morning.
Mike Kay (Team America)
Loving the crestfallen faces of all the wingers on tee vee.
gypsy howell
@ChrisNYC:
Too bad Bush never overrode his ideological leanings.
Bob Loblaw
Wait, are people rebelling against the idea that Gitmo detainees were part of the manhunt? Because of course they were. It’s a separate issue from how vilely they were treated, but of course guys like KSM or al-Libi or any of the genuine “high value” terrorists the Bush administration captured were at least somewhat relevant in identifying and tracking the couriers.
Mark S.
@gypsy howell:
oh ferchrissake.
MikeJ
Speaking of stupid reax, have you read Greenwald?
cckids
@Martin:
This. Its also the difference between the Millenium bomb plot being an historical afterthought or a massive tragedy. Competence & intelligence matter.
Mark S.
@ChrisNYC:
He’s a Muslim terrorist, you know.
Rosalita
@Suffern ACE:
with his nuts trussed up with the harness. what a fucking tool.
Southern Beale
This may have been posted already but this one was priceless:
“Does anyone out there actually believe this was completely spontaneous and not planned by the left?”
Man I wish the left were that well organized. It’s fucking hilarious to even THINK such a thing! LOL.
They just CAN’T believe a Democratic president — a black one, at that — can do something right.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@Bulworth:
To which my response would be: if he keeps getting results like this, I don’t care if he’s using a fucking Etch-A-Sketch, just keep it coming. Obama’s telepromter = Grant’s barrel of whiskey.
Bulworth
“Overwritten”? More better rightwing opponents please.
Roger Moore
@Martin:
I’m not sure that we would have foiled the 9/11 plot just by concentrating harder and doing a better job. Stopping that kind of plot is very tough, and there’s no guarantee we would have done it with any reasonable effort devoted to trying to catch terrorists. Sometimes the other guy succeeds because he does something right, not because you did something wrong, and I think that was the case with 9/11. That’s not to give him a free pass- he certainly hurt what chances we had by not giving anti-terrorism the priority it deserved- but I certainly don’t think it can be laid exclusively at his feet the way the failures in Afghanistan and Iraq can.
AkaDad
Rush just said his show is correct 99% of the time. “We’re all about the truth here.”
Hahahahahaha
geg6
@gnomedad:
Amazingly, Sully posted this excerpt from Limbaugh:
Of course, then Sully admits that Limbaugh goes on to do his usual schtick. But this paragraph simply had me almost falling off my office chair.
SIA
I’m going to try not to take any of the wingers obfuscation very seriously. Sometimes I think they “win” because they ignore reality and scream the loudest and get the most attention. But I like to remember that, no matter what they say, OBAMA is the president, and OBAMA got bin Laden. And all the wingers eat their lunch over that every single day.
That being said, there’s an amazing lack of mention of the president on Morning Joe. Bush has been mentioned much more often than Obama. And why is Nichole Wallace on my TV with Bush with a megaphone in the background?
lldoyle
Did anyone else see the words “vulgarly overwritten” and instantly think of Peggy Noonan?
Turgidson
@gypsy howell:
Like I said above, it’ll always be 1972 to Republican dickheads like him. When a Democrat does something right/strong/patriotic, it’s only because they temporarily buried their traitorous/defeatocrat/Jane Fonda tendencies – not because they’re actually competent leaders, unlike C+ Augustus and co.
Whatever. Obama got the bastard. If he can’t be happy about it without calling the left a bunch of treasonous pussies in the process, that’s his problem. I just wish he didn’t get 3 fucking hours a day to spew that shit.
SIA
@SIA: ETA Ah I see Fast eddie, gypsy howell & others got there 1st
Kane
One day soon, Republicans will be arguing that it’s
unfair to call HCR “Obamacare” because they somehow
had a hand in getting the legislation passed.
I wouldn’t be surprised if one day in the future,
Republicans are arguing that President Obama was really a Republican, just like some of them now argue that
Martin Luther King Jr was one of their own.
Legalize
@mistermix:
No. But never fear. My winger friends are already demanding proof of the negative, i.e. that torture DID NOT lead to actionable intelligence.
Hawes
That Limbaugh quote… I…Um….Holy Shit!
The sad part is, that it suggests that Rush may have a soul. And if so… the torture that soul must go through every single day… Terrible.
Poopyman
Breaking news![1] Actual live video of the raid![2]
[1] Not intended to be a factual statement.
[2] See #1.
ETA — H/T Americablog
SIA
I’m going to repeat myself (for my own sake). OBAMA is president, and OBAMA got Osama bin Laden.
They can’t change that. I’m going back to gloating.
Martin
@Bob Loblaw: Yeah, it seems that there’s some gymnastics taking place there trying to make sure that Gitmo doesn’t get any credit in this.
Based on what I’ve read recently, as well as what came out not long after Obama was inaugurated is that Gitmo did get a bunch of good intel, but because of the way that interrogations took place, the refusal to accept that some of the folks there were more like material witnesses than criminals to these acts, the information that they got was an unholy soup of good intel and complete bullshit, and the folks at Gitmo had no way of knowing what was what. It’s a classic problem of bad outcomes based on bad data.
The way that this so far has been described is that there was some new information presented in 2010, that then lined up with some old Gitmo information. The new information gave credibility to the old information, and when put together allowed them to better focus their efforts and build a case.
I’m not sure what positive outcome really comes out of Gitmo from that reading. Good intel is only good if you can rely on it, and the Gitmo intel often time, perhaps most of the time simply wasn’t good, and certainly seems to not have been worth the cost of getting it.
Nutella
Haters got to hate: Does this depressed reaction to the death of the US’s greatest enemy remind you of the right’s reaction to the end of the Cold War? They were depressed then, too, because they had lost the target of their hatred.
Hawes
I’ve thought a bit more about why this has me so fucking happy.
Shorter version: 9/11 finally ended today. We can finally put that day behind us. The repercussions of that day? No, we still have Afghanistan, Iraq, the wounded warriors returning home, the shame of Gitmo and Abu Ghraib, the great cost in blood and treasure.
But that day can finally end. It took a decade and 9/11 has finally ended.
trollhattan
@BOSS BITCH:
Yup, snark. I think this is where he tips his hand:
No way he’s ever sincerely thanking the president, other than the day he leaves office.
eemom
@MikeJ:
Aha. I’ve been wondering what bile he and Hamsher are spewing over this.
Bet they are even sadder than the wingnuts. Hamsher is probably sobbing in Grover’s arms at this very moment.
RalfW
The birthers will be all over the burial at sea. A clear conspiracy to hide the fact that UBL isn’t nearly dead enough.
And the wingers will shortly complain that Obama followed Islamic custom of burial in 24 hours. We should have had the body here in the US to gloat over! they’ll say/imply.
Why are we following Moooooslim custom, we’re ‘Merikans!
geg6
@MikeJ:
Don’t get me started on that asshole. Fuck him with a rusty pitchfork. What a dick.
OTOH, Joan Walsh has a pretty decent article up on Salon, too, and one that sorta parallels my own reaction. It’s a much better read than that asshat Greenwald.
piratedan
well I gotta believe that the Limbaugh praise of Obama is simply snark, Obama could cure cancer and Limbaugh would spin it that some cancers actually provide a benefit to certain people. What gets me is that these people that so despise our President (and to whit, the notion that Anybody could become president) that they simply can’t be happy that the US has killed the # 1 terrorist in the world. Somehow, because he listened to the intel community, flipped on humint again and sent in people to follow up on the leads and do the guy in is somehow not worthy of notice. The fact that Obama made himself the target of the remaining terrorists by indicating that it was by his directive that US Forces acted should have been clear to anyone with firing synapses that he wants the focus (and the danger) on himself instead of ordinary Americans. I’m not sure why that is so hard to understand.
trollhattan
@Poopyman:
Wow, that was fast! Some golden moments there–I salute our outsource Taiwanese snarksters.
Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal
i hope john cole doesn’t get pissed that i point this out, but there was something in the local media, that students at wvu celebrated the news with a traditional 21 couch salute.
en fuego
seriously they used the number 21.
MikeJ
@eemom: Greenwald’s was, “My critics won’t like it when I say this, but they’re all poopyheads. Any response from them will *prove* what poopyheads they are.”
goblue72
gotta love it when a wingnut gets their milkshake stolen and drank right in front of their faces. especially when it keeps happening again and again and again.
Obama: Let’s spend some TARP money saving the American auto industry.
Winguts: Union Thug!
Result: Auto industry (and union jobs) saved.
Obama: Let’s help the economy with green jobs, expanded safety net programs, and aid to states to prevent teacher layoffs.
Winguts: Socialism!
Result: Recovery Act passes.
Obama: Let’s provide health insurance to everyone.
Winguts: Death Panels!
Result: ACA passes.
Obama: Let’s see what we can do about allowing gays to serve in the military.
Winguts: Homo Lover!
Result: DADT repealed.
Obama: The Supreme Court needs more diversity.
Wingnuts: Reverse racism!
Result: Obama appoints two women to SCOTUS. A Puerto Rican and a Jew. (There’s a bar joke in there somewhere.)
Obama: Our kids needs access to education for 21st century jobs.
Wingnuts: Keep the government out of our government!
Result: More Pell Grants and reform of the student loan system.
Obama: Let’s up the ante in Afghanistan – we need to find bin Laden.
Winnuts: Terrorist Sympathizer!
Result: OBL Dead.
Bob L
@Turgidson:
Oh go to KOS and read the read the purity trolls. They are incandescent with rage that Obama didn’t pardon Osama or something.
Poopyman
@MikeJ: You say “poopyhead” like it’s a bad thing.
MikeJ
@Poopyman: No offense intended. My apologies.
WereBear (itouch)
There’s your problem.
Auguste
Unless I’ve been rooked, there’s an evidentiary picture at Edroso’s Village Voice piece. I know it won’t convince the dearthers (love it) but it’s pretty convincing to us normal people.
dr. bloor
@Tsulagi:
As someone said upthread, this translates to “Black black blackity black black…”
Turgidson
@Bob L:
The loudmouths at GOS are as much the Democratic base as the Birchers are the Republican base.
oh, wait…
The Populist
@Maude:
Weird how even Bush never made this up. Any person with sanity would be smart enough to know not to make something like this up.
I love the right wing mind. If Obama makes this shit up and it comes back it’s all bull, he’d be out of office so fast or will be trounced in 2012. Fact.
He isn’t making this up as the info seems to be legit.
Martin
@Roger Moore: There’s been quite a lot of evidence presented to suggest that the early Bush WH was entirely focused on state threats to the US. That was Condi, Rummy, and Cheney’s background, and Iraq was the biggest state threat that we could do anything with. They dismissed terrorism as a less dangerous threat and dismissed intelligence gathering around terrorism as a good use of resources.
The threat that Bin Laden might use planes to fly into buildings was presented months ahead of time. That’s too specific a charge to be theoretical – it came from real intel. Looking into flight schools and into people that have already received flight training isn’t a very large job – that’s a pretty damn small population, but apparently they never even made an effort to investigate that.
Yeah, they may not have been able to stop it, but missions like that require careful planning, and all you need to do is keep disrupting those plans. If you’re successful at that, even if you never catch the people, the plans never execute because they’re constantly having to be reworked. And that’s why terrorism is sometimes easier to deal with than state threats. If Iran wants to take action, they have enough ability to control conditions to do that. Terrorist groups don’t – they’re very easy to knock off balance when they’re trying to do something big. That might mean hijacking one plane instead of four, or putting half as many people on the plane and having the mission fail, or whatever, but that’s the process.
Roger Moore
@Martin:
And the technical term for that is “bad intel”. Intel is not just about having a bunch of facts; it’s about having enough information that you can make correct decisions. If you take some truth and mix in enough lies and bullshit that you can’t separate truth from fiction anymore, you might as well throw the whole pile away. Even the truthful items that you’re later able to confirm, it’s the confirming evidence that makes them useful.
This is the reason that torture is impractical as well as immoral. If you push somebody to the point they’ll say anything to make the torture stop, you wind up with a bit of truth and a bunch of crap and no way of telling one from the other. None of it is useful until you can get a separate source of information that can confirm or deny it.
The Populist
@New Yorker:
I challenge any of them to harp on this. I don’t think NYC will appreciate it, military families may get annoyed and even rank and file independents may finally wash their hands of teh crazies.
Keep saying it’s all a lie idiots. You will find nobody listening to you.
Mike Furlan
@piratedan:
Listen to it yourself.
Limbaugh is clearly mocking the President.
http://www.mofopolitics.com/2011/05/02/rush-limbaugh-mocks-obama-role-in-assassination-of-osama-bin-laden/
Malron aka eclecticbrotha
@Bob Loblaw:
Except the sky was cloudless and it was September.
The Populist
@Southern Beale: LOL…maybe deep in their hearts their faith is being shaken? That kind of reaction tends to reek of such a thing.
cmorenc
Peggy Noonan on (MSNBC?) this morning, asked about her reaction to the impact of events last night, gushed that it signified “the return of competence”.
SWEET!
goblue72
gotta love it when a wingnut gets their milkshake stolen and drank right in front of their faces. especially when it keeps happening again and again and again.
Obama: Let’s spend some TARP money saving the American auto industry.
Winguts: Union Thug!
Result: Auto industry (and union jobs) saved.
Obama: Let’s help the economy with green jobs, expanded safety net programs, and aid to states to prevent teacher layoffs.
Winguts: Soshulism!
Result: Recovery Act passes.
Obama: Let’s provide health insurance to everyone.
Winguts: Death Panels!
Result: ACA passes.
Obama: Let’s see what we can do about allowing gays to serve in the military.
Winguts: Homo Lover!
Result: DADT repealed.
Obama: The Supreme Court needs more diversity.
Wingnuts: Reverse racism!
Result: Obama appoints two women to SCOTUS. A Puerto Rican and a Jew. (There’s a bar joke in there somewhere.)
Obama: Our kids need access to education for 21st century jobs.
Wingnuts: Keep the government out of our government!
Result: More Pell Grants and reform of the student loan system.
Obama: Let’s up the ante in Afghanistan – we need to find bin Laden.
Winnuts: Terrorist Sympathizer!
Result: OBL Dead.
freelancer
@Doug Harlan J:
Made this late last night, it’s for you. I think you’re gonna find yourself one smiling motherfucker.
ppcli
@geg6: Reread the passage, and look up other excerpts. Limbaugh is delivering heavy-handed sarcasm here. Other parts of the bit include him saying “yep, Obama thought to use special forces – not one other person thought of that! Wow, what a genius.” Etc. I imagine the sarcastic tone is more evident on the radio.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
OT, but is anybody else following the headlines at CalcRisk and thinking that if we are really, really lucky there may actually be green shoots this Summer? Which is of course good news for
John McCainDonald Trump.Banks more willing to make consumer loans
Construction spending increased in March
Survey: Small-Business Lending Is Increasing
WereBear (itouch)
@The Populist: True; this is why I consider this event a complete game changer. A lot of the crap the Right Wing spews sounds plausible to someone who knows little on the subject; most voters, in many cases.
But not this time.
catclub
@Legalize: The report I read said that intelligence from Gitmo, in 2006, was what led to the code name of the courier and then his real name.
Am I mistaken to believe that torture had probably stopped in Gitmo by 2006? Or was it only after Obama’s 2009 executive order that it actually stopped?
SIA
@goblue72: FTW!
wrb
Little tops the power of our public radio station- to drive one mad.
Our internet was down last night. We don’t have TV.
Around 10:15 the DJ said between songs. “Guess what, someone just told me that Obama has been killed. But I’m thinking, ‘that can’t be true, it must be Osama.’ Oh well, will have the NPR update at 11:00, then we’ll know!”
Then she played Celtic music until 11:00.
Svensker
@Martin:
Source?
catclub
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ: Of course, the Fed will also be putting the Kibosh on QEII at the same time, so I am not sanguine.
Re-appointing Bernanke was an own goal – avoidable.
Malron aka eclecticbrotha
@SGEW:
I live in the Chicago area and that’s also been one of my most chilling memories of the event as well: how beautiful and otherwise serene the day was before the attacks. Even when you watch footage of the towers falling you can see a clear blue sky in the background. Its as if the people who wrote their criticisms zeroed in on that because even reminding them of it offends them.
BOSS BITCH
@Poopyman:
that’s hilarious.
John - A Motley Moose
I am looking forward to Michelle Bachmann’s investigation into the funding of bin Laden’s mansion. It is rumored that Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac held the mortgage.
singfoom
I was watching TV last night as the presser happened out of nowhere. I’m very happy that Osama Bin Laden is dead. I had always criticized the Bush administration for not capturing/killing him in the early days of the war in Afghanistan and then committing resources to Iraq instead.
That said, I was a bit put off by the reactions of many last night. I don’t remember another moment where I was sharing in a group bloodlust on TV except for last night.
I don’t think that it is wrong to celebrate as this is a big achievement, but the crowds outside the White House chanting USA seemed like they should have been singing “America, Fuck Yeah”.
It’s a good thing that he’s dead and hopefully the network is even more compromised than they’re letting on, but even while I’m glad, the TV coverage of unified bloodlust at his death is kind of scary.
It should be a nice bump for Obama going into 2012 though. Surprised he didn’t wait to make it an October Surprise ;)
goblue72
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ: Oil prices are still the big potential wrench in the works, but between increased bank lending, increased construction starts and recent drops in commodity prices (other than oil), its all pointing in the right direction.
Things won’t be all roses come Spring 2012 (one year from now), but its not entirely out of the question to see a UE rate of about 7.5% come summer and touching close to 7% come election day.
catclub
@goblue72: Unfortunately, the main message I take from this post is that the poster may have psychological problems with typing ‘wingnut’ correctly.
… not that there is anything wrong with that.
Svensker
@Moonbatman:
You know, Cindy Sheehan may be whacko. But her son was killed in a war she thought was a big fat lie. I can’t even imagine trying to deal with that in my own head without going insane. Cut the woman some slack and let her be.
catclub
@John – A Motley Moose: I larfed.
A L
The best reaction is when “anti-war” liberals started chest-thumping over this and bragging about how known war criminal Barack Obama will be re-elected.
Thanks for stopping all those wars guys, you’re a credit to the nation.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@singfoom:
He could have probably raided this place in October, and the chances were probably pretty good that Obama would have been there. But, instead of playing politics, Obama decided to wait until everyone was sure bin Laden was there. The fact that he didn’t play games with this ought to be drilled into people’s heads.
Shoemaker-Levy 9
Strategically, probably slightly negative on balance. I’m aware of no evidence that he’s been operationally involved in terror activities for a long time. So this will likely do nothing to concretely reduce terror/jihad activity but could instead cause a small but measureable uptick in anti-American sentiment in the Muslim world.
Geopolitically, hard to see any strongly positive results. As many other commenters have pointed out bin Laden was not a widely popular figure in the Muslim world, but martyring him in this fashion could cause an uptick in his “approval”. And I can’t fathom that there are any fewer Muslims today hating the U.S. and the West than there were yesterday.
Politically on the home front, Obama will of course get a “bump” out of this. But if the next jobs report is poor his approval will go right back down again. Before anyone gets too excited about the 2012 election please go look at the polling histories of the two Bush Presidencies. There is a still a tough slog ahead and this will have but a tiny impact.
On the short-term domestic political front, I’d love to think that Obama can leverage this in the upcoming debt ceiling fight, but that’s mostly wishful thinking and I’m not holding my breath. But here’s hoping.
As for what righties think, of course they’re going to try to take credit for it and I’d prefer to ignore their pathetic cries.
eemom
went over to Lake Batshit, which I hardly ever do anymore, just for a chuckle.
Which I got. In their desperation to make Obama look bad over this they’re trying out more angles than a Great Dane trying to fuck a chihuahua.
I love that metaphor.
Linda Featheringill
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ:
Re using a teleprompter:
A teleprompter is a tool. Primates tend to use tools.
Of course, for those who haven’t reach the primate level yet . . . . .
Citizen_X
If Bush is responsible for this, then I suppose Nixon was responsible for fucking up that mission to free the Iran hostages, right?
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@goblue72:
IIRC the Fed was already forecasting U3 for 2012 in the range of 7.6 to 7.9; with luck and hard work hopefully we can do better than that. The political significance of an improving economy in Q3 and Q4 of this year (as distinct from what happens in 2012) is that it will make the GOP nomination in 2012 look like more of a suicide run (than would be the case with a stagnant economy) at just the time when folks on the GOP side have to decide if they are really going to run this time around, or wait until 2016. If the economy is visibly growing this year that will discourage the more level headed GOP contenders from running, tilting the field even more in the direction of the obvious loons.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
For those on this site wondering what a left winger looks like, see post 148. Binary worldview at its finest.
hilts
Right-Wing Media Accuse Obama Of Making Bin Laden Death All About Himself
Laura Ingraham accused Obama of turning his remarks on bin Laden “into a campaign speech. He should have thanked GWB, not reminded us OBL escaped
Human Events editor Jason Mattera wrote, “I bet even Michelle Obama is proud of her country right now!”
Fox Business host Eric Bolling wrote: “Andrea Mitchell just said ‘this is a game changer for Barack Obama’..WHAT?? Thank GWB for this not BHO!”
Pamela Geller Accused Obama Of “Shamelessly Strut[ting] Like [A] Peacock
Wash. Times: Obama’s Speech About Bin Laden Was “Consistent With His View That Everything Is About Him
h/t http://mediamatters.org/research/201105020005
piratedan
@Mike Furlan: yup…so easy a caveman can do it…. yet…. the previous guy in charge couldn’t be bothered with “staying the course” or doing the hard work that was required to bring OBL to justice. Gotta love these double standard asshats. Anybody could have done it, doesn’t take a brain surgeon yet they’re corrupt or incompetent or both but still feel they should be in charge because they’re rich.
FlipYrWhig
@singfoom: I was also caught off guard by the cheering and flag-waving (especially outside the WH, led by what looked like college kids who would have been children on 9/11 itself). Seems like a bit of a mismatch, the news of bin Laden’s death being greeted with a celebration akin to that of the local sports team winning a playoff series.
Poopyman
@BOSS BITCH: You might say it’s a little rough around the edges, but its heart is in the right place.
befuggled
@ChrisNYC: Scarborough doesn’t have a fucking clue as to what Obama’s “ideological leanings” actually are.
JCT
@eemom:
Whoa, I hope you have a gallon of Purell on-hand. I couldn’t bring myself to look. I can imagine they are doing some pretty impressive uh, gymnastics over there. I hope in the process they figure out how to go fuck themselves.
Uloborus
@MikeJ:
Aren’t we all, when you get right down to it, poopyheads?
Disclaimer: I didn’t read the article and gave up on reading anything Greenwald ever says the first time I caught him deliberately leaving out information that he knows as a lawyer but would blow his entire argument to Hell.
Paula
Jeremy Scahill on Killing of Bin Laden: Obama Has “Doubled Down on Bush Administration Policy of Targeted Assassination”
EDIT: I neither approve nor disapprove of this response BTW. I just thought it was interesting.
geg6
@ppcli:
Yeah, you’re probably right. I refuse to listen to that asshole at all, so the sarcasm doesn’t come through in the excerpt Sully put up. And, stupid me, I let Sully’s credulous reaction color my own. I should know better.
Poopyman
@Shoemaker-Levy 9: One thing that this little episode might accomplish is to shine a light on Pakistan’s cozy relationship, if not complicity, with AQ and the Taliban. The usual talking heads might gloss over this, but I’m hoping a lot of governments don’t, and that Pakistan finds itself in an uncomfortable position wrt its international credibility.
FlipYrWhig
@Uloborus:
So, the first time you read him?
Mike in NC
@brendancalling:
Kraphammer won’t look back. Wingnut pundits have no sense of shame. After the coup against Gorbachev, George Will wrote a preposterous piece about how the rotten Commies could never be trusted, build more bombs, etc. Then the coup failed and Gorby was released. Will never blinked.
Roger Moore
@befuggled:
FTFY. Obama must be destroyed because he is a Democrat and an Other. It doesn’t matter if his policies are good and helpful, only that he keeps the Republicans from their rightful place at the top of the heap.
A L
@Poopyman: More than likely we’re just gonna bomb them even harder now. Even when we win, we lose.
Kilgore Trout
@BOSS BITCH:
Ya think?
Hawes
@singfoom: As I said, I think what this means is that 9/11 finally ended. Especially for those 20-somethings for whom this has been their whole lives. They have lived their whole sentient lives on 9/11 and for the first time, that day – and all that it meant – can be put behind us.
Midnight Marauder
@singfoom:
You know what? I was, and still am, pretty fucking okay with having a bloodlust towards someone like Osama bin Laden.
I am pretty fucking content with that as a human being.
Bob Loblaw
@Paula:
Well, I mean, he’s right from a purely operational standpoint.
Everything the Obama administration has done on the war on terror (including the overwhelming majority of people it’s tasked with carrying out these policies) was originated during the Iraq surge and strategic reimagining beginning in 2006.
A L
@Midnight Marauder: arabs_cheering_911.mov
Shoemaker-Levy 9
@Poopyman:
Everything you say was already well-known. Pakistan has a large military and nuclear weapons, I don’t see foresee any major shifts in how they are geopolitically dealt with.
MikeB
“Then there were his tasteless claims of personal leadership, his over-emphasis on “I” and “at my direction.”
Funny, that was my favorite part of his speech…
Paula
@Bob Loblaw:
Well, I’d hazard a guess that Scahill’s intent is past “purely operational” into “moral”.
As in, how do we know it wasn’t possible to get this guy alive and put him up for trial as an international war criminal?
Not that I think this would have been a “possible” outcome given how the US operates, but OBL’s death is probably going to be yet another skirmish in the ongoing war over civil liberties and the “war on terror”.
Kilgore Trout
@geg6:
I read that as total sarcasm. But maybe it’s just because I think Rush is a pond scum sucking douchebag.
dr. bloor
@Paula:
Scahill seems not to recall or see any distinction in the fact that bin Laden was not the head of any state.
trollhattan
@Hawes:
Agreed, and you know what else, they’re the ones fighting these goddamn wars so they deserve some decompression thanks to the demise of Osama. As a coda to this long slog, it beats watching your embassy being evacuated using helicoptors that are subsequently shoved into the ocean off the sides of overloaded ships.
As spontaneous events I think both New York and D.C. have earned the right. Mrs. Polly has a nice first person account from ground zero here:
http://www.rumproast.com/index.php/site/comments/ground_zero_becomes_an_all-faith_par-tay/
eemom
@JCT:
Marcy Wheeler is hot on the trail of those breadcrumbs leading back to Gitmo.
D-Dope sings a 63-post aria culminating in a soaring crescendo of stoopid.
And they got their in-house preacherman, “Peterr,” delivering a thunderous sermon re “how DARE you call this JUSTICE.”
Lady Jane hasn’t weighed in yet. Saving the bestest for lastest I guess. I got 5 bucks sez it’ll have Bradley Manning in it.
Kilgore Trout
@Martin:
It’s worse than that. When Bush went to the economic conference in Genoa in the summer of 2001 he would sleep on board a Navy ship that was anchored off shore instead of in a hotel, and the city was surrounded by anti-aircraft guns. Why? Because we believed that bin Laden was going to try to crash an airplane into the summit. This was two months before 9/11.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2001/sep/27/globalisation.afghanistan
Poopyman
@Shoemaker-Levy 9: Bin Laden hiding in Pakistan was suspected. That he was parked for years in a neighborhood with a bunch of high–ranking Pakistani military was not. I would just hope that govts (including ours) drop any pretense that they’re dealing with an anti-terrorism state now that the world knows he had to have been there with the blessing of the Pakis.
But yeah, Obama’s statement last night indicates that that ain’t gonna happen.
Kilgore Trout
@Bob Loblaw:
Well, other than actually having a unit specifically looking for bin Laden. Bush dismantled that team in 2006.
Southern Beale
Oh my god. Without a doubt the BEST reaction to this news I’ve seen from a wingnut comes from Nashville’s Maury Davis, pastor of an Islamophobic/homophobic far-right-wing church (not even a mega church, I won’t dignify it with that.) Pastor Davis is a convicted felon who is constantly in the news for various outrageous statements.
In regards to the OBL news he Tweeted:
JCT
@eemom: So much delusion and stupidity, so little time.
I guess they get points for consistency?
goblue72
@catclub: I’m all thumbs on the keyboard. My typos have typos.
singfoom
@Midnight Marauder: Hey, like I said, I’m glad the guy is no longer with us. I just can’t compare the feeling I felt in that moment after the speech and the panning over the WH crowd.
Please let me be clear, I’m not hating on those who were celebrating that full throated bloodlust outside the WH or anywhere else… I feel much the same way, except I’m not into shouting about it or going out into the street and yelling. It’s more of a inner smile.
The thing that struck me is that I’ve never seen a scene like that or shared in that kind of emotion during a live event (I’m a not sports fan, don’t get the emotional attachment to teams).
JasonF
My “favorite” reaction (by which I mean the one I find to be most out of touch with reality) has to be this cartoon.
goblue72
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ: Good point. An improving economy keeps those potential candidates with something to actually lose on the sidelines. And agreed – with some hard and luck, UE could be even lower than forecast. I’m just not counting on it given the long slog its taken so far to make a modest dent in it – and that residential housing, which is a key traditional driver of economic growth coming out of recessions, is still completely stalled out on the freeway.
And if we want to get even further ahead of ourselves – will Obama keep Biden on the ticket for 2012, or appoint him as SOS when Clinton leaves and find a younger running mate who could be well positioned to run for POTUS in 2016 as the Democratic candidate? Preferably a woman. I’d suggest a Governor/former Governor, but the field is pretty thin on the Democratic side for relatively popular female Governors. Granholm carries the taint of never really addressing any of Michigan’s structural (economic) issues. Sebelius would be an interesting choice, although I’m not that familiar with how charismatic she may or may not be. Napolitano has the national security cred, but she seems a bit of a bore, plus I’m not sure America is ready for its first female President to also be a lesbian. But stranger things have happened. Like a black President with a Muslim sounding name.
Xenocrates
Was it “over” when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor??
Shoemaker-Levy 9
@Poopyman:
What concrete steps do you recommend? The U.S. has long known that Islamist and anti-American sentiment is rampant in Pakistan and has maintained an alliance in an attempt to tamp down this sentiment. Do you really suggest the U.S. should take a more confrontational tone? Yet another cold war in the Muslim world to go along with all the hot ones? How exactly will this improve the situation?
Eventually — a long time from now, after all the elderly and poor have been relocated to Logan’s Run camps so that we can spend every last dollar on safety and security — our country will realize that invading, occupying, and performing extrajudicial assassinations in every Muslim nation on Earth is no longer a sustainable policy. Eventually.
Susan Kitchens
I came here way way late after this post was made simply to applaud the headline. epic win. Thank you!
JD Rhoades
During Obama’s announcement, from some Tea Party fuckwit named @NYKellen (Kellen Giuda) on Twitter:
I can literally see Obama’s eyes moving back and forth reading the teleprompter. Cheapens this historic moment. #teaparty #gop #tcot
What an asshole.
Amir_Khalid
@brendancalling:
I love this typo of yours. “Karut” is Malay for nonsense.
Joel
@geg6: I’m surprised the snark in that comment has gone unmissed for so far. The last line is a tell.
benintn
I’d say the Judson Phillips/Tea Party Nation argument that Bin Laden should have been buried in pig fat was interesting to say the least. (It brings to mind the goatf***er story that John posted a few minutes ago.)
BarbCat
@Califlander: It was dripping with big, fat sarcasm.
BarbCat
@JD Rhoades: Because “getting it right”, especially when it comes to complex issues & actions, has never been their concern.
debbie
@Nutella:
Reminds me of how they all cheered when Chicago lost its Olympic bid because it made, in their minds, Obama look bad.
NYT
My favorite reaction is Republican “strategist” Alex Castellanos:
“This will be a short term political plus for the President but long term it is a minus,” said Castellanos. “Alex’s Law: Nothing is more dangerous in politics than success.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/post/assessing-the-political-implications-of-osama-bin-ladens-death/2011/05/02/AFcnzwZF_blog.html?hpid=z4
Evolved Deep Southerner
@Mike Furlan: Is mofopolitics serious or snark? I honestly can’t tell whether it’s making fun of the Becks and Limbaughs of the world or venerating them.
CaliCat
Shorter above quotes: Who does that uppity N-word think he is?
Their vile, irrational hatred of our president oozes from their every word. I hope this victory eats the haters up inside and causes them vasts amounts of sleep.