I do not support the war on terror or US involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. I’d rather have a war on food poisoning, which kills many more Americans every year than 9/11 did in the single year 2001. But if we have to have a war on terror, I’d like it to focus on hunting down actual terrorists like Osama bin Laden, as opposed to invading countries that had nothing to do with 9/11.
I do wonder if the death of Osama bin Laden will quiet down the Obama-is-a-sekrit-Sharia-love crowd. Conor Friedersdorf (who has strangely improved greatly post-Sully) puts it well:
I am a staunch critic of his (Obama’s) policies in the War on Terrorism. Like many civil libertarians, I sometimes regard his actions to be unconstitutional, criminal, or both.
In this moment of triumph, none of that changes. But it ought to be an awkward moment for Obama critics who say he is afraid to take unilateral action against America’s enemies. And the embarrassment they feel should pale in comparison to those who’ve implied that he is somehow on the enemy’s side.
The quintessential example is Andy McCarthy, whose scurrilous attacks on American attorneys I recently criticized. His bestselling book asserts that “the left” is allied with our Islamist enemy in “a grand jihad” against America. “By the Left, I mean the modern hard Left led by President Obama,” he explained to National Review. “And when I say Islamists and leftists work together, I mean they have an alliance, not that they’ve merged.” This thesis has always been nonsense. But in this moment, Barack Obama having presided over military operations that killed Osama bin Laden, can we agree that any critic who insists the president leads an alliance with our Islamist enemy to sabotage America should be a universal laughingstock?
timb
Andy McCarthy should ALWAYS be a laughingstock. In that, this day is no different than any other
ploeg
No. SATSQ.
Short Bus Bully
The wingers will have to find new and really inventive ways to slam Obama now. The death of their great enemy is really the worst thing that could have happened to their cause.
ErikdaRed
Mr. Friedersdorf seems to make the (mistaken) assumption that individuals like mr. McCarthy have any kind of shame.
cleek
being a laughingstock to people with function cerebrums is no barrier to acceptance among the pundit class.
stuckinred
yawn
hilts
Has anyone seen any reactions from Rudy 9/11 Giuliani or Frank Gaffney?
Bulworth
He seem to also be under the illusion that our Media Villagers treats uncredible analysts as uncredible just because their predictions and theories are proven ludicrous.
General Stuck
I just thank the lard we have such clear headed consistent analysis of Obama’s REAL intent. It takes someone of Sully’s eminent perch in conservotard land to point out that Obama isn’t really a secret Sharia loving Moooslim. Just to set the record straight, of course.
Can we agree that it is mind fucking blowing that a top tier national media figure poses such a question in a serious manner? And can we agree that Glen Greenwald is no Sullivan, and Sullivan is no Glen Greenwald, and to set our blogging compasses on these mutually exclusive thoughts.
There is a reason this comment makes little sense. But it is classified.
srv
You folks just don’t get it.
You know who else was willing to sacrifice many of the great leaders of the revolution when needed? Stalin!
danimal
@ploeg:
Yes. They’ll find another BS meme to flog, but this one just passed its sell-by date.
(How’d I do on the food poisoning reference?)
hilts
“I do wonder if the death of Osama bin Laden will quiet down the Obama-is-a-sekrit-Sharia-love crowd.”
This crowd will simply revert to the Obama-is-an-incurable- narcissist argument and that he concocted this operation for cynical political advantage.
Reposting link from previous overflow thread
http://mediamatters.org/research/201105020005
Calouste
I may forget I don’t forgive.
eemom
what’s with the “Harlan”?
FlipYrWhig
Which group is more smug and tedious, the “civil libertarians” or the “fiscal conservatives”?
Bob Loblaw
As a general principle, once somebody is willing to start throwing down the “treasonous Islamist” card, they’re pretty much beyond redemption.
Chris
@hilts:
Or they’ll just say that he killed Osama because he hated competition and wanted to create HIS OWN Caliphate, much like they argue today that the reason fascism and communism were such fierce enemies is because they were both left wing and just trying to eliminate their competition.
(Seriously, somebody’ll pick up the “Obama killed Osama because he didn’t want to share power” meme – I’d bet money to the fact).
kindness
I can’t say whether Andy McCarthy’s statement is correct as I haven’t gotten my e-mail directions from George Soros yet.
trollhattan
@eemom:
Delicious snarky shot at one Glenn Harlan Reynolds, esq., UT, Galt’s Gulch, NAMBLA, NRA, etc. I’d been meaning to give a shout out, so, “Shout out.”
gex
@FlipYrWhig: This is a trick question. In the wild I’ve not seen a “civil libertarian” that isn’t a “fiscal conservative” trying to avoid being stained by the Christianism, racism, and homophobia of the right. Sexism, however, is probably acceptable.
(This is not to say that there aren’t true civil libertarians. I’ve just not seen one that isn’t a glibertarian.)
Doug Harlan J
@eemom:
Making fun of Instapundit.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
Haters gotta hate. We can’t do much about that. The question is, how does the low-info middle part of the electorate react (you know, the people who for better or for worse actually swing elections). I’m thinking that a large spontaneous crowd singing patriotic songs in front of the WH is a visual/emotional image that no amount of partisan bullshit from the Right can completely erase.
Stillwater
Young Conor, open your eyes! Killing OBL is just part of the plan! It’s confirmation that Obama will stop at nothing to destroy America from within!
bryan rasmussen
OMG – President Obama has made one of the essential moves in his 11th dimensional chess game to control the world – played from Kenyan pre-birth – he has taken out Osama Bin Laden to assume secret top illuminati freemason grandmaster control of AL Quaeda!!!!!!!->[assume exclamation marks extend to infinity]
bobbo
If you believe that the freaking President of the freaking U.S. and A. is in league with the enemies of the freaking U.S. and A., there is nothing said President can do to change your mind. Nothing.
Studly Pantload, now with enhanced schmuckosity
Even before the ’08 election, many on the right had embraced the meme that taking down bin Laden would serve no useful purpose, so it was ok-fine that he slipped away to comfortable life of semi-retirement on Bush’s watch. I haven’t had the fortitude (or time) to look today, but I suspect many of The Clan are shrugging their shoulders saying this is no big deal, unable to comprehend why the news shows are covering it incessantly, why the headlines on the papers are so large, and why people were celebrating in public gatherings.
srv
@gex: Bill Maher? And Greenwald isn’t a libertarian.
Huckster
@hilts: Is that the birther crowd, or the PUMA crowd?
Midnight Marauder
@Studly Pantload, now with enhanced schmuckosity:
The life of a 27% is a lonely one, so they say.
Fuzz
Last night I was at a friend’s house, his uncle came in right around the time that this news was breaking and is apparently a birther. His take was that Obama was probably going to apologize to the Muslim world and “make bin Laden’s funeral arrangements.” There is nothing Obama can do to placate those people, he literally just killed Bin Laden and it’s still not enough for them.
PS- In typical modern day Republican fashion, he is old, white, male, collects social security and disability, yet he really hates the government. There is no reasoning with these people.
Bob
Didn’t you know, until yesterday, Pres. Obama was 2nd in command of al Qaeda?
Brachiator
One would hope. But I’ve already seen wingnuts claim that Obama, not smart enough to craft his own plan with his own advisors, was only following “Bush Doctrine.”
These fools are hopeless, and clearly do not mind being made a laughingstock.
You would think that they would get a clue from the throngs who came out to celebrate near the White House. Instead, they inhabit their own fantasy realm, a world in which Republicans are the natural leaders of the free world and in which Democrats, especially black presidents, are doing good only when they are doing what they are told as directed by the GOP and the Tea Party People.
Linnaeus
No way. The wingers will find some way out of the contradiction between what they believe about the president and what he actually does. They’re too invested in despising him.
Pundit Zero
You Obots are a bunch of real idiots. The timing of this killing is proof that Donald Trump’s birther rants were just a false flag operation being run out of the White House! How stupid do you have to be to not see it? How can all this be a coincidence? Obama is the lowest he has ever been in the polls and then suddenly a guy who has given tons of money to every Demo-rat within pissing distance wants to see his birth certificate? Then, finally, Obama makes it public! And now we have proof positive that we got Osama bin Laden?
NonyNony
There’s a strong overlap between that and the folks who refuse to believe that Obama is actually an American.
So I’m for “no”. I’m just waiting for the folks who insist that this was all an elaborate operation by Obama to help bin laden fake his own death.
FlipYrWhig
@srv:
He’s a lot closer to libertarian than to liberal.
Studly Pantload, now with enhanced schmuckosity
@Midnight Marauder:
Oh, they have the voices in their heads to keep ’em company. (Or, since their heads are all up their butts, I guess you could say they have the voices in their butts to keep ’em company.)
PeakVT
“By the Left, I mean the modern hard Left led by President Obama,”
I hope we really do elect a hard left president some day, if for no other reason than to see people like that lose their shit in public.
Tonal Crow
Fixed.
Bill Arnold
@Fuzz:
And what happens? No apology, and the body gets dumped in the ocean after a DNA sample is taken. (One wonders a teeny bit whether a body part was retained as a “spare source of DNA samples”.)
cokane
I can’t stand Friersdorf even when he says things I agree with. His whole blogging/writing career seems obsessed with analyzing our own feelings and reactions to events. He never seems to deal with the substantive results of policies, just incessant wanking about trivial bullshit imo. Yes of course we can agree McCarthy is insane, almost everyone agree already, and those that didn’t will never be moved!
Also Friersdorf epitomizes the work ethic of the modern day citizen-journalist. Little to no research, poorly edited postings, just wanking garbage imho.
M. Bouffant
@hilts:
I read that the BBC had Gaffney on to spew.
FlipYrWhig
@cokane:
Any chance he and Matt Yglesias are pals?
tkogrumpy
Well I’m laughing at the assholes, but I am definitely on the fringe.
Elie
@Bill Arnold:
Don’t need the whole body for DNA samples. They got blood, hair,off of the body and also the DNA of his first degree relatives as well…
Citizen Alan
All these comments about what right wingers will or should say, and no one, not even here at a fairly left-wing blog, will say the awful truth that dare not be said aloud: Al-Qaida has had no greater friend in the world than the GOP.
Republicans ignored intelligence that Al-Qaida was planning to attack us with planes. Republicans allowed members of Bin Laden’s family to leave the country without even a cursory interrogation by the FBI. Republicans allowed Bin Laden to escape at Tora Bora. Republicans dismantled the CIA task force assigned to tracking Bin Laden down. Republicans diverted resources from Afghanistan to Iraq. The last Republican candidate for President publicly announced that he would not pursue Bin Laden in Pakistan without permission from the Pakistani government, and indicated that he thought a contrived war against Iran was more important than Al-Qaida. Even before 9/11, when Clinton was trying to take out Bin Laden with surgical strikes, the Republicans undermined him, claiming that he was “wagging the dog” to distract people from the Lewinsky scandal.
At every step, the Republicans have to defend Al-Qaida, even as they have falsely claimed to seek its destruction. As far as I am concerned, the GOP is the party of traitors and terrorist sympathizers, and it should be flung in their face at every opportunity.
Elie
Its not going to “calm down” for the media and blods as they need to generate buzz. But I think this pretty much calms down most folks — even some of the 27% who have to be pretty confused having believed their own bs for so long and now having to incorporate reality, if only for a short time before reverting back to insanity.
Meantime, Obama just goes to work and does the people’s business. Sometimes he makes better decisions than others, but he is a for real leader and he is doing what real leaders do — keeping his eye on the important things and ignoring the huge heaps of bullshit thrown his way. I believe his most amazing capacity is to ignore the screechers. I could never do that and it always amazes me that he really seems to.
Silver
@FlipYrWhig:
Yglesias doesn’t even seem to bother with poorly editing…
NonyNony
@cokane:
I believe that you mean citizen editorialist. A citizen journalist goes out and finds stories. A citizen editorialist is running at best a new version of the editorial page of a newspaper and at worst a one-man “letters to the editor” page.
So little to no research wanking garbage is par for the course. The big difference between our 21st century citizen editorialist and our 20th century editorialist is that the older model got some spell checking and grammar checking while the new model does not. Nobody, though, ever bothered to fact check David Brooks or George Will, so why should we expect the new model to be any different?
lacp
I think we can all agree that Osama Bin Laden is Barack Obama’s Vince Foster.
Ruckus
@Studly Pantload, now with enhanced schmuckosity:
It’s probably all that chettos flatulence whistling past their ears.
Delia
Obviously not. But it drives them ever closer to the Wingularity.
General Stuck
Cha Cha Cha Changes,
Doug Harlan J
@General Stuck:
Thank you!
Joey Maloney
@FlipYrWhig: Greenwald is a civil libertarian, and darn near absolutist in that position.
But that’s nearly all he ever writes about (and writes, and writes, and writes…) I can’t say whether in his other opinions he’s closer to libertarian or closer to liberal, because I don’t know what his opinions are. For the most part he doesn’t share them.
I know that he probably favors drug legalization because he did a study of Portugal’s relaxation of its drug prohibition that drew very favorable conclusions. But while that is one of libertarianism’s signature issues, it’s also widely supported by liberals.