• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

  • About Us
  • Lexicon
  • Contact Us
  • Our Store
  • ↑
  • ↓
  • ←
  • →

Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

When do the post office & the dmv weigh in on the wuhan virus?

Republicans do not pay their debts.

Come on, man.

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

“Squeaker” McCarthy

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

The revolution will be supervised.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

I was promised a recession.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

White supremacy is terrorism.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

This fight is for everything.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

Mobile Menu

  • Winnable House Races
  • Donate with Venmo, Zelle & PayPal
  • Site Feedback
  • War in Ukraine
  • Submit Photos to On the Road
  • Politics
  • On The Road
  • Open Threads
  • Topics
  • Balloon Juice 2023 Pet Calendar (coming soon)
  • COVID-19 Coronavirus
  • Authors
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Lexicon
  • Our Store
  • Politics
  • Open Threads
  • War in Ukraine
  • Garden Chats
  • On The Road
  • 2021-22 Fundraising!
You are here: Home / Politics / An Unexamined Scandal / Only Real Men Torture Folks…

Only Real Men Torture Folks…

by Dennis G.|  May 6, 201110:25 pm| 95 Comments

This post is in: An Unexamined Scandal, Black Jimmy Carter, Crazification Factor, Election 2012, Open Threads, Republican Stupidity, Republican Venality, Assholes, Republican Crime Syndicate - aka the Bush Admin.

FacebookTweetEmail

In wingnutnopia heads explode and reconfigure and then explode anew over and over again. It is a byproduct of dealing with a Black man as President and the stone cold fact that he is smarter than they are.

A week ago it was all Donald Trump and yada, yada, yada as the beltway prepared for the White House Correspondent’s Dinner. The right–as usual–was in full flame Obama mode. Folks were lining up to get the Donald’s back while others took a phrase out of context from an 8,000 word New Yorker piece on Obama’s foreign policy to paint The President as weak and cowardly when it comes to protecting America and being a Leader. Naturally this wingnut meme had to be expressed with an illustration from the Jim Crow art school of scared big-eyed Negroes:

weeklystandard%20050911

The competition to pander to racists and fears of diminished white supremacy is the subtext of the modern Conservative era. It informs and drives every Conservative policy discussion, tactic and political strategy. And so it is not surprise that young Billy would use his magazine to push this latest “Who can save us from that uppity nigger” meme forward.

And then on Sunday:

Obama gets Osama

The popping sounds of exploding wingnut heads could be heard when the news broke.

And ever since the mighty Wingnut Wurlitzer has been looking for a meme to discredit and/or discount President Obama’s involvement in the end of Bin Laden. So many efforts are being tried that it is getting hard to keep track of them, but they all fall into a few very rusty old buckets:

  • He only did what his white handlers told him to do and was forced into it.
  • It was the great plan that George W. Bush put into motion and tried as he might Obama could not stop it.
  • After the fact Obama has become (as usual) a credit hog and showboat who is very disrespectful to his betters: men like GW Bush.
  • Obama got lucky and he was too frighten to do the job right–and so it was a defeat.

That last point was on display when John Yoo told CNN on Thursday night the President Obama was too afraid to capture Osama bin Laden so he ordered his shot on sight. In Yoo’s view the entire incident was a failure because Obama did not have the backbone to support torture. In Yoo’s rich fantasy life real men torture and Obama is not a real man because he does not embrace the “enhanced interrogation techniques” celebrated by Yoo (and his fellow travelers).

It is a batshit crazy meme, but I suspect it will get some traction. It fits in with the “always frightened and in-over-his-head black man” meme that wingnutopia is selling for 2012. Also, too it fits in with the “weak leader/Black Jimmy Carter” meme. And it fits in with the “he is not one of us (wink, wink, nudge, nudge)” meme they have spent millions to sell.

In wingnutopia to be a Real Man–to be a Real Leader–you must embrace torture. In reality it is quite the opposite, but these folks do not like reality. And yet, this–and things like this–is how the Right is defining the issues for 2012 and beyond. Their world view is pretty fucking nihilistic. We need to organize for 2012 like our lives depended on it, because they do.

Cheers

FacebookTweetEmail
Previous Post: « Watermelon “Foetus”
Next Post: FOX Picks Its Next GOP Novelty Act »

Reader Interactions

95Comments

  1. 1.

    No one of Importance

    May 6, 2011 at 10:29 pm

    In Yoo’s rich fantasy life real men torture and Obama is not a real man because he does not embrace the “enhanced interrogation techniques”

    In the real world, men who don’t torture other people are considered good and moral.

    I’ll be so pleased when America rejoins Planet Earth.

  2. 2.

    ABL

    May 6, 2011 at 10:30 pm

    the Jim Crow art school of scared big-eyed Negroes

    Fanfuckingtastic.

  3. 3.

    Corner Stone

    May 6, 2011 at 10:36 pm

    I keep wondering why people have wiped away the memory of the death of those pirates who got iced by (I think) SEALS.

  4. 4.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    May 6, 2011 at 10:41 pm

    The bottom of the Bullseye at the back of Entertainment Weekly had this next to the picture of Trump: “Last weekend, Obama finally took out the White House’s diabolical, nutty nemesis.”

  5. 5.

    arguingwithsignposts

    May 6, 2011 at 10:42 pm

    in before mclaren/joe beese. yeah. torture is wrong. And John Yoo – he can DIAF and I wouldn’t feel a moment of shame. even if he took two taps to the forehead first. So sue me.

    ETA: I’m just adding for the Marc fucking Thiessen bullshit. he can DIAF too.

  6. 6.

    The Dangerman

    May 6, 2011 at 10:45 pm

    I’m pretty sure I saw pigs flying today as multiple Fox News talking heads were saying this was a straight up kill, thus placing them squarely in agreement with Michael Moore. Never thought I would see the day…

    …and, ya know, it probably WAS a straight up assassination as the Right would have not only wanted to torture OBL, but to put it on TV on Sunday Night. If Obama wouldn’t waterboard OBL on weekend primetime, well, he would be pussy footing around. Let’s do some polling and see how many people are concerned this was a straight up assassination; I’m guessing around 10^, roughly the same number of ignorant shits that still believe Obama wasn’t born in America (i.e. really, really stupid people).

    Also, O/T, and in reply to Yutsano, from early this AM:

    – Sadly, the Pismo Clam has been heavily depleted; not only through man (which was bad enough), but through the resurgence of the sea otters locally (which, BTW, are still threatened). Sea Otters are eating machines and they done luv them some clams (I’ve seen estimates of up to 80 per day). Pismo Clam Chowder, some of the best around, gets clams from back east last I heard. I doubt the Pismo Clam ever rebounds (which makes me sad; it’s roughly the same story as the local Abalone).

    – As for Seattle Sushi/Sake, yes, the Japanese Food there was glorious, but … I’m a CA boy (read Wintertime Wuss).

  7. 7.

    Suffern ACE

    May 6, 2011 at 10:45 pm

    God, Marc Theissen and Berkley Professor Yoo were bad enough when they were trying to hide and deny torture – like every fucking sane person would – but since they so openly want it known that the U.S. tortures and won’t shut up until we all agree that it is like the greatest idea evah…they really need to be locked up and kept away from human beings…anything living actually. CNN needs to be burned to the ground as well.

    Not that torture is better when it is covered up, but at least pretend to be ashamed by it. Its as if our political choices are so out of whack now that one either supports the Democrats or is stuck with a Burmese junta. But the junta at least has some class.

  8. 8.

    Smitty Werbenjagermanjensen

    May 6, 2011 at 10:45 pm

    The thing is, if they hadn’t shot and killed BinLaden then all the wing nuts would be screaming that Obama didn’t have enough balls to finish the job. It comes right out of the Republican “Heads I win, tails you lose” Playbook.

  9. 9.

    Danny

    May 6, 2011 at 10:45 pm

    The reason they’re so frantically aiming to hijack the narrative (apart from that being what they always do) is that they desperately don’t want to talk about Bush failing to get Bin Laden for seven long years.

    For all the republican “ownership” of National Security, they tried for seven years and failed, and now Obama has succeeded where they failed. If the talking heads weren’t talking about torture and what amount of credit Bush deserves, they would be asking republicans how come Bush failed and Obama succeeded.

  10. 10.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    May 6, 2011 at 10:46 pm

    Aren’t bullets to the head the ultimate in enhanced interrogation techniques: We got out of him exactly what we wanted – what was in his head – in the most physical way possible.

  11. 11.

    The Dangerman

    May 6, 2011 at 10:47 pm

    [Ah, shit, I quoted Sarah Palin and ended up in Moderation; I wonder what happens if I try again?]

    I’m pretty sure I saw pigs flying today as multiple Fox News talking heads were saying this was a straight up kill, thus placing them squarely in agreement with Michael Moore. Never thought I would see the day…

    …and, ya know, it probably WAS a straight up assassination as the Right would have not only wanted to torture OBL, but to put it on TV on Sunday Night. If Obama wouldn’t waterboard OBL on weekend primetime, well, he would be (p word removed) footing around. Let’s do some polling and see how many people are concerned this was a straight up assassination; I’m guessing around 10%, roughly the same number of ignorant shits that still believe Obama wasn’t born in America (i.e. really, really stupid people).

    Also, O/T, and in reply to Yutsano, from early this AM:

    – Sadly, the Pismo Clam has been heavily depleted; not only through man (which was bad enough), but through the resurgence of the sea otters locally (which, BTW, are still threatened). Sea Otters are eating machines and they done luv them some clams (I’ve seen estimates of up to 80 per day). Pismo Clam Chowder, some of the best around, gets clams from back east last I heard. I doubt the Pismo Clam ever rebounds (which makes me sad; it’s roughly the same story as the local Abalone).

    – As for Seattle Sushi/Sake, yes, the Japanese Food there was glorious, but … I’m a CA boy (read Wintertime Wuss).

  12. 12.

    Mike in NC

    May 6, 2011 at 10:47 pm

    We need to organize for 2012 like our lives depended on it, because they do.

    For starters, can we waterboard Rummy, Cheney, Dubya, Feith, Yoo, Rice, Kristol, Krauthammer and every other wingnut scumbag who happily killed thousands of people and pissed away a trillion dollars for their neocon fantasy of turning the Arab Middle East into a Randian paradise?

  13. 13.

    Corner Stone

    May 6, 2011 at 10:49 pm

    I think Faith Hill is an alien. She keeps getting way hotter, year after year.

  14. 14.

    Trainrunner

    May 6, 2011 at 10:49 pm

    I’ve been heartily enjoying watching the wingnut’s epic id clash this week, sitting back and seeing whether their Urge to Kill Muslims or their Hatred of Black People will win out.

    It’s been fun.

  15. 15.

    Danny

    May 6, 2011 at 10:50 pm

    @Suffern ACE:

    they really need to be locked up and kept away from human beings…anything living actually

    I think you’re on to something. Admitting, even glorifying, our torturing past does indeed endanger the troops. And endangering the troops is not only unamerican – it amounts to treason. Aid and comfort to the enemy and all that. Paging Ann Coulter!

  16. 16.

    Spaghetti Lee

    May 6, 2011 at 10:50 pm

    It’s always struck me, as a part-time artist, that the cover art on some of these conservative rags is quite well-drawn. Too bad the subject matter is a stinking pile of bear shit.

  17. 17.

    danimal

    May 6, 2011 at 10:52 pm

    Yoo and Thiessen deserve every torment hell can provide. They are on a crusade to destroy every remaining fabric of American integrity and leadership by pushing for torture.

    And for what? To save their sorry asses and the former President Bush. I won’t cry if they ever find their testicles in a vice, slowly being crushed.

    Yoo’s statement that Obama was afraid to capture Obama is disgusting. It’s especially ironic since it was Bush who wouldn’t commit American troops to Tora Bora when we had OBL cornered. Conservative projection, yet again.

  18. 18.

    Spaghetti Lee

    May 6, 2011 at 10:52 pm

    Also, is that cover really what’s getting published this week, and presumably went to press before the bin Laden news broke? Hilarious. Like “Dewey Defeats Truman” all over again.

  19. 19.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    May 6, 2011 at 10:54 pm

    I’ve been waiting for my winger customers to broach the subject of Bin Laden and there has been nothing but silence from them so far. It’s as if his death has dealt them a hand that they have no idea what to do with. That or they are waiting for the teahadist/winger theme to come along so they can get their groove on once again.

    My takeaway from Luntz’s audience polling after the Faux Reptilublican ‘debate’ in SC is: We want to pit our black dood against your black dood! The one line answers to Luntz’s question of What did you like about Cain? were completely detached from the reality of his answers.

    It’s as if they think they can pick some other guy who is the same color as the guy they love to hate and somehow win the election.

    I did laugh at the audience applauding Ron Paul and his push to legalize heroin…lol! The Republicans in South Carolina luvs them some heroin, eh?

    Maybe they need it.

  20. 20.

    hilts

    May 6, 2011 at 10:59 pm

    Dan Froomkin is one of the only reasons left for visiting the Huffington Post

    Torture May Have Slowed Hunt For Bin Laden, Not Hastened It
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/06/torture-may-have-slowed-h_n_858642.html

  21. 21.

    Mark S.

    May 6, 2011 at 11:09 pm

    Yoo is really one of the all-time shitstains. Spitzer did a good job of dismantling him. I loved it when Yoo sniffed that he probably wouldn’t come back on the show.

  22. 22.

    TooManyJens

    May 6, 2011 at 11:09 pm

    @Odie Hugh Manatee:

    It’s as if they think they can pick some other guy who is the same color as the guy they love to hate and somehow win the election.

    Because that worked so well for the Republicans in the 2004 Senate race.

  23. 23.

    General Stuck

    May 6, 2011 at 11:13 pm

    Yoo better keep his yapper shut, as there is no statute of limitations for crimes against humanity. I think they are getting the jitters that Obama and Holder pull some lawing out of the hat. And the more competent Obama comes off to the public, the more capital he has to use in the national security arena.

    There is no chance Holder is going to prosecute lower down grunts at the CIA. There is absolutely no one calling for that, and it would be poison to a liberal dem base. So that was a ruse. I do not expect indictments and trials, but I do expect SOME KIND OF PUBLIC RECKONING Obama and Holder have in mind, at some point. Prolly not in a first term.

    Mukasey, Bush, and Yoo taunting Obama like this, seems like more of a pre attack for whatever they fear is coming, which they don’t know what. But the more they yammer in public like this bragging and talking like what they did is and should continue to be good American policy is going to HAVE to be reckoned with. As a matter of legacy for Obama. I don’t know how exactly, but I do predict it in a second term, whatever it be.

    And yea, I’m an optimist. sosume

  24. 24.

    JGabriel

    May 6, 2011 at 11:14 pm

    John Yoo almost makes me want to believe in reincarnation — because Yoo really deserves to come back as a kid whose testicles are cut off ’cause his daddy won’t talk.

    .

  25. 25.

    Dennis G.

    May 6, 2011 at 11:14 pm

    @ABL: Thanks. I had been struggling for the right words since I saw the cover a few days ago.

    Cheers

  26. 26.

    danimal

    May 6, 2011 at 11:16 pm

    @TooManyJens: …and the Michael Steele show was so full of win as well.

    Maybe they really think Obama is just a mediocre creature of Affirmative Action and any semi-accomplished African-American can do the same job. Oh well, I suppose there are worse things than being underestimated, at least when it comes to electoral politics.

  27. 27.

    Roger Moore

    May 6, 2011 at 11:17 pm

    @Odie Hugh Manatee:

    That or they are waiting for the teahadist/winger theme to come along so they can get their groove on once again.

    I think that’s exactly right. Wingnuts are generally incapable of deciding what to think about things on their own, so they let an authority figure decide for them. But it’s really hard for wingnut central to come up with an acceptable explanation for why killing bin Laden was a bad thing, so they’re staying quiet or changing the subject.

  28. 28.

    danimal

    May 6, 2011 at 11:18 pm

    @General Stuck: You’re only being an optimistic Obot because Beese hasn’t gotten here yet.

  29. 29.

    kdaug

    May 6, 2011 at 11:19 pm

    @Corner Stone: 3 pirates and OBL. But he’s weak on national security.

  30. 30.

    snaporaz

    May 6, 2011 at 11:23 pm

    Give me a break Dennis, there is nothing racist about that picture, Obama’s eye’s arent bug-eyed stereotypes and you dragging race into it just distracts from the legitimate point.

    But hey, there’s nothing our side loves more than calling the other racist, right?

  31. 31.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    May 6, 2011 at 11:23 pm

    @TooManyJens:

    As simple minded as those fuckwits are you can bet this is what they are thinking. As danimal says above, they think that any guy who is the same color as their enemy can win as long as he has ‘done something’.

    @Roger Moore:

    Yup, they are waiting on the proper messaging from the hive mind of insanity because they are too stupid to think for themselves.

  32. 32.

    General Stuck

    May 6, 2011 at 11:28 pm

    @danimal:

    Beese is likely running low on bullshit and over at Fort Idiot restocking for a new offensive.

  33. 33.

    ...now I try to be amused

    May 6, 2011 at 11:30 pm

    It fits in with the “always frightened and in-over-his-head black man” meme that wingnutopia is selling for 2012.

    As opposed to the always frightened and in-over-his-head child of privilege that was Dubya.

  34. 34.

    ABL

    May 6, 2011 at 11:34 pm

    @snaporaz: AL? That you?

  35. 35.

    Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel)

    May 6, 2011 at 11:34 pm

    @General Stuck: The threat of indictment over their heads like the sword of Damocles. If I was Obama I’d spend the next 6 years head faking those bastards. That’d be torture.

  36. 36.

    danimal

    May 6, 2011 at 11:36 pm

    @…now I try to be amused: There is so little in wingnutopia that can not be ascribed to the following two words: conservative projection.

  37. 37.

    Suffern ACE

    May 6, 2011 at 11:37 pm

    @TooManyJens: Well, to be honest, every election from the 1790s throgh 2004 featured two men of the same color. 2008 was an exception, so maybe the goal is to return to the pattern where both parties match.

  38. 38.

    JGabriel

    May 6, 2011 at 11:38 pm

    snaporaz:

    Give me a break Dennis, there is nothing racist about that picture, Obama’s eye’s arent bug-eyed stereotypes …

    Right. Wide-eyed reaction shots were never a staple of Stepin Fetchit type performances. Nothing in that illustration evokes the memory of Fetchit. I’m sure the illustrator never intended such an interpretation. Farthest thing from his mind. Don’t know why I even thought of it.

    [/sarcasm]

    .

  39. 39.

    ...now I try to be amused

    May 6, 2011 at 11:39 pm

    @danimal:
    Yep. Projection makes them easy to read.

  40. 40.

    General Stuck

    May 6, 2011 at 11:41 pm

    @ABL:

    Folks just don’t get it. Their self affirming white brains tell them that if it was a white man, say Clinton, in that picture, that automatically makes it non racist when a black man is presented that way.

  41. 41.

    Hill Dweller

    May 6, 2011 at 11:44 pm

    @General Stuck:

    I agree. I think the Bushies almost immediate attempts to validate torture by claiming it resulted in the successful OBL mission was borne of fear. They know there is a reckoning coming on torture. It might not be from prosecution, but the specifics will eventually come out. And when/if said details emerge, whatever legacy the Bushies had will be destroyed.

    Even Frum, who has actually been relatively sane in the last couple of years, immediately trotted out the ‘Obama just continued Bush’s policies’ and ‘the CIA shouldn’t be investigated’ talking points on Real Time tonight.

    They’re scared. All the Bushies are desperately trying to shape the narrative, because they know that Obama knows about the criminal activity post-9/11 in that administration. But now he has the political power.

    And while Obama might have been inclined to look forward early in his Presidency, the entire republican corporate/political machine’s attempts to destroy him probably changed that view.

    Moreover, I suspect they’ve come to the realization Obama is as cold-blooded as any man that has sat in the Oval office…when he thinks its warranted. And I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if he feels destroying Cheney, Yoo, Rove, etc. is warranted.

  42. 42.

    Danny

    May 6, 2011 at 11:47 pm

    @efgoldman:

    But they don’t dare risk a show trial, for fear that our illegal interrogation methods be described in open court.

    Couldn’t they have just gone right ahead and ignored the complaining unamericans?

  43. 43.

    General Stuck

    May 6, 2011 at 11:52 pm

    @Hill Dweller:

    I am sure he doesn’t care much for Cheney et al, but the question is will he leave hanging and unchallenged the notion that the policy of this country include torture. It is a matter of legacy, but also fundamental respect for the law and constitution for such a brazen breach.

    Presidents care deeply about what footprint they leave on history, and for Obama to skip over this steaming pile of evil shit would mean a huge asterisk on his presidency. IMHO. It wouldn’t define it, but leave undone something vital for a constitutional expert/president./

    And every time these morons open their mouths to seal torture into our national moral matrix, it ups the stakes that much more.

  44. 44.

    kdaug

    May 6, 2011 at 11:53 pm

    @JGabriel:

    whose testicles are cut off crushed

    For the record. That’s what Yoo was asked.

  45. 45.

    JGabriel

    May 6, 2011 at 11:57 pm

    @kdaug: Yes. Thank you for the fix. I tried to fix it myself, but sadly realized my error only after the editing time window had closed.

    .

  46. 46.

    SFAW

    May 6, 2011 at 11:58 pm

    But hey, there’s nothing our side loves more than calling the other racist, right?

    Wrong.

    Things we like more:
    1) Sanctimonious “family values” pricks getting caught with someone not their wife.
    2) Wholesale indictment of Bushies like Yoo, Rummy, Cheney, etc.
    3) Karl Rove in prison
    4) Winning elections, especially ones that matter a lot
    5) Seeing Sully moved to “BWMAMAN”
    6) All the latter-day Randians going Galt already, as long as they STFU after they leave.

    and the list could go on for awhile, but one hopes you got the point already.

    That being said: whether we like it – although we don’t – is immaterial. The people running the Rethug party – and I don’t just mean the RNC “brain” trust – are generally racist, even thought they try projecting it on Dems/liberals. (Slightly OT – I’m a little amazed that we don’t see more usage of “HNIC” on wingnut blogs.)

    Got it?

  47. 47.

    WereBear (itouch)

    May 6, 2011 at 11:58 pm

    Rock and a hard place, how I love you! When it is Wingers you are embracing, that is.

    They lusted after this result for YEARS. To have President Obama give it to them; freakin’ priceless.

    And I agree that addressng the torture issue is a second term endeavor; and now that he has some of the heavier National Security thread with the masses, it’s even more feasible.

  48. 48.

    Danny

    May 7, 2011 at 12:01 am

    If this was an episode of cold case, after the detectives cracked the case some investigator that did work 5 years prior would turn up confessing to beating up a witness back then, claim credit for catching the perp, and demand gratitude from the victims mother. Then he would assert it is now proven that beatings are a crucial component of successful police work.

  49. 49.

    Bob Loblaw

    May 7, 2011 at 12:03 am

    @General Stuck:

    I do not expect indictments and trials, but I do expect SOME KIND OF PUBLIC RECKONING Obama and Holder have in mind

    They already did that, dumbass. They made a big show of “ending torture” by executive action, and that’s that. Obama’s election (and reelection) is the SOME KIND OF PUBLIC RECKONING. That’s the way things work.

    I’m sorry your justice boner has subsided from that event and you’re now feeling sexually frustrated, but just imagine bin Laden getting his head blown off or something and you’ll feel right as rain.

    @Hill Dweller:

    It might not be from prosecution, but the specifics will eventually come out.

    The specifics are already out. It’s over. For fuck’s sake, you even know the exact number of times Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was waterboarded. What more do you think is out there?

  50. 50.

    SFAW

    May 7, 2011 at 12:04 am

    Danny @ 49 –

    Or, as they say in Latin ‘Murica: “Post hoc, ergo propter hoc”

  51. 51.

    Angry Lurker

    May 7, 2011 at 12:09 am

    @General Stuck: @General Stuck:

    Folks just don’t get it. Their self affirming white brains tell them…

    Um, ALL brains are white (or grayish white) right? ;)

  52. 52.

    Roger Moore

    May 7, 2011 at 12:09 am

    @SFAW:

    Things we like more:

    I think you missed a big one: getting our agenda items passed. HCR was pretty sweet, even sweeter than the taste of wingnut tears.

  53. 53.

    General Stuck

    May 7, 2011 at 12:10 am

    @Bob Loblaw:

    I’m sorry your orgasm has subsided from that event and you’re now feeling sexually frustrated, but just imagine bin Laden getting his head blown off or something and you’ll feel right as rain.

    when someone writes something as lame as this with sexual themes, it is almost always from pure projection. And in your case, some pretty loose screws in other areas that lend to some wild swings on about every issue we discuss here.

    Get some help loblaw. Otherwise, I will just say I disagree with your analysis which almost always turns out to be wrong. It is laughable to equate Obama’s election with some kind of resolution to the systematic Bush torture regime. And I lay odds Obama feels the same way.

  54. 54.

    SFAW

    May 7, 2011 at 12:15 am

    I think you missed a big one:

    Yeah, Mrs. SFAW says I’m missing a big one, too.

    In any event, the list was not meant to be exhaustive (nor even exhausting), so feel free to add to it, as you already have done.

    Thank ye kindly!

  55. 55.

    Bob Loblaw

    May 7, 2011 at 12:15 am

    @General Stuck:

    And I lay odds that Obama can go fuck himself because it doesn’t matter what he thinks. As Gitmo proved oh so well.

    90-8 in the Senate. For the least controversial part of the fiasco. 90-8. Thank you for stopping by.

  56. 56.

    fhtagn

    May 7, 2011 at 12:17 am

    @Bob Loblaw:

    So, have you and matoko set a date for the wedding yet?

  57. 57.

    General Stuck

    May 7, 2011 at 12:22 am

    @fhtagn:

    loblaw and Matako. Matter/ anti matter union

  58. 58.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    May 7, 2011 at 12:22 am

    @fhtagn:

    I like to know if it’s so, then I can send a box of clinkers as a present for them to chew on.

  59. 59.

    Failure, Inc.

    May 7, 2011 at 12:31 am

    90-8 in the Senate. For the least controversial part of the fiasco. 90-8. Thank you for stopping by.

    A brutal truth that you’ll never get a firebagger to acknowledge. Obama is the President, not the Dictator, and if the Senate says it isn’t getting done, it ain’t getting done.

  60. 60.

    Angry Lurker

    May 7, 2011 at 12:33 am

    @SFAW:

    The people running the Rethug party – and I don’t just mean the RNC “brain” trust – are generally racist,

    I generally agree, as I agree with most of the main post. But as for the cover cartoon, it struck me as more in the vein of Bertie Wooster on the cover of an old Jeeves novel. Nor do Obama’s eyes appear to be all that googly in the cartoon– his upper lids are clearly visible, adding to the effete-gentleman-adventurer vibe provided by the pith helmet.

    Pretty standard political cartoon fare, used freely on both sides, if you ask me. No need to start reading racism into every random image the other side produces, they’ve certainly provided a vast array of more obvious (and significant) examples of race-baiting in recent years.

  61. 61.

    General Stuck

    May 7, 2011 at 12:44 am

    @Failure, Inc.:

    If, and I don’t think anyone will be formally prosecuted for the torture crimes, but if it came to than, there would be nothing congress could do. The reason they, congress, were able to use their purse string power, was that those to be tried are not US citizens and their alleged crimes are war related. So there is a debatable point that they be tried in military commissions.

    For any member of the Bush administration, they are US citizens, whose alleged crimes occurred on US soil that they themselves live on.

    There exists no option to try former and current members of the former administration by military commission. And congress cannot prevent the executive branch carrying out it’s express duties under express constitutional powers.

    So the analogy of the 9-11 terrorist trials is a phony one and not relevant to any congressional vote for blocking those.

  62. 62.

    Suffern ACE

    May 7, 2011 at 12:47 am

    @Bob Loblaw: A more principled president would have resigned twenty times over the issue. He should resign at least three times a week.

  63. 63.

    JGabriel

    May 7, 2011 at 1:00 am

    @Angry Lurker:

    Pretty standard political cartoon fare, used freely on both sides, if you ask me. No need to start reading racism into every random image the other side produces …

    Yes, of course. It’s difficult to do a caricature of a black man with it coming across as … a caricature of a black man. Which conservatives would never intend to do.

    I think maybe you’re being a little naive. Though it is possible I’ve become too cynical about conservatives.

    Nah, it’s not possible to be too cynical about conservatives.

    .

  64. 64.

    Bob Loblaw

    May 7, 2011 at 1:03 am

    @Suffern ACE:

    I couldn’t care less about the issue, frankly.

    Let me know when the US stops allying itself with torture states like Kuwait, Jordan, Morocco, and Bahrain, and we can talk about our “principled commitment against torture.” Better yet, let me know when we take a stand against the Iraqi and Afghan torture states that chug along while we have 160,000 troops still stationed there within.

    As if the international torture conspiracy began and ended with Bush and Cheney alone…

  65. 65.

    tomvox1

    May 7, 2011 at 1:04 am

    Aw, head explosion & pretzel logic is not just for wingnuts, DG. It’s also for “principled” civil libertarians:

    Then there’s the strange indifference to finding out whether bin Laden was actually captured before executed. Not only have reports conveyed, via Pakistani officials, that his daughter claims this (a report [like U.S. government claims] deserving substantial skepticism, though not dismissal), but also the President’s formulation when first announcing the killing provides added evidence for that possibility (though the CIA denies this happened). How can that not matter?…Shouldn’t we want to know if bin Laden was captured before being killed, and wouldn’t that make some difference in assessing one’s views of his killing?

    Quelle douche.

  66. 66.

    asiangrrlMN

    May 7, 2011 at 2:30 am

    dengre, this is an excellent post as usual. That picture stuck in my craw as well. Thank you for reading this crap so I don’t have to–you’re really taking one for the team.

  67. 67.

    Alison

    May 7, 2011 at 2:42 am

    Interesting – in a disgusting sense – how they want to portray Obama as both the Angry Black Chicago Gangster Thug Monster, but also as a weak, wimpy pussy who could get taken down by a toddler with a Nerf weapon.

    (Do they still make Nerf shit? Am I old?)

    It’s aaaaaaaaaaaalmost like they’re just full of shit. Imagine that.

  68. 68.

    JR

    May 7, 2011 at 3:51 am

    I’ve said this before, but not here.

    The reason the Germans were the bad guys in WWII was (in large part) because they killed and tortured people to death, millions of them. Bergen-Belsen, Dachau, the list is painfully endless.

    The reason the Japanese were the bad guys in WWII was because (in large part) because they tortured people to death, Bataan Death March, Rape of Nanking, thix list is also endless.

    So now Yoo, Cheney and Bush want America to Torture People… how does that make us the good guys here? It makes Yoo, Cheney and Bush just as evil as Japanese General and Prime Minester Tojo (hung as a war criminal in 1948) Goering (who committed suicide the night before he was to be hung as a war criminal).

    Whether these guys ever see an International Criminal Court or not, they are famous war criminals at exactly the level of the famous Germans and Japanese war criminals we hung. They won’t dare to travel to Europe lest they be arrested on a secret indictment. George W. has already cancelled a trip he had planned to make a speech (like his Dad) and a ton of money. So he’ll have to make his speech money here domestically.

    So sad!

    I would personally like them to visit and get to know Mr. Prison, perhaps even in Cuba…

    But just being known across the whole world as the vile objects of failure they are, all of them, that’s almost enough.

  69. 69.

    TenguPhule

    May 7, 2011 at 3:55 am

    It fits in with the “always frightened and in-over-his-head black man” meme that wingnutopia is selling for 2012.

    Obviously the only way to counter it is to give Obama a pistol and have him put a big hole in the back of Yoo’s head.

    And then every night we celebrate the New Reality Show: Tonight, A Republican DIES!

  70. 70.

    Uriel

    May 7, 2011 at 4:03 am

    @JR:

    The reason the Germans were the bad guys in WWII was (in large part) because they killed and tortured people to death, millions of them.

    Wrong! It was because of soclalimised medicines, vegitarinisms, and genemreralized PC liberalities.

    Jonah Goldberg says ‘you’re welcome!’

  71. 71.

    piratedan

    May 7, 2011 at 4:05 am

    @TenguPhule: Amerika wuld Lub this! we can have celebrity shooters and we”d get to vote and stuff!

  72. 72.

    Uriel

    May 7, 2011 at 4:09 am

    @Uriel: Also, I would imagine soccer played a role, just as general principle.

  73. 73.

    Jani

    May 7, 2011 at 4:11 am

    Am i the only one who first through the person in the picture was George W Bush?
    It was the ears, i immediatly thought of GWB.

  74. 74.

    SFAW

    May 7, 2011 at 8:11 am

    No need to start reading racism into every random image the other side produces, they’ve certainly provided a vast array of more obvious (and significant) examples of race-baiting in recent years.

    No need, perhaps (and I semi-agree that the drawing is not especially Stepin-Fetchit-like), but racism is the bed the Rethugs have made for themselves – and not by accident – so I have no great upset over highlighting that whenever not-completely-unreasonable.

    The reason the Germans were the bad guys in WWII was (in large part) because they killed and tortured people to death, millions of them. Bergen-Belsen, Dachau, the list is painfully endless.

    And here I was thinking that it was because they (A) invaded Poland and many other European countries subsequently, and (B) exterminated 6 million Jews (tortured or not). I guess I done larned from one o’ them DFH history book thingies, much to my chagrin.

    Also, I would imagine soccer played a role, just as general principle.

    Well, not so much soccer in-and-of itself, but rather as the vehicle by which we get to see Sylvester Stallone be a soccer star. (Although that Pegleg (?) guy seemed to know how to kick the ball a little.)

    Am i the only one who first through the person in the picture was George W Bush? It was the ears, i immediatly thought of GWB.

    Careful! Now you’re starting to encroach on Orange County Rethug territory, and they won’t like someone thinking/hinting that Bush looks like a drunken chimp.

  75. 75.

    Mark B

    May 7, 2011 at 8:24 am

    One thing which would complete the picture is a word balloon above Obama’s head saying “Meessa bin Laden–He daid”

  76. 76.

    Malron aka eclecticbrotha

    May 7, 2011 at 8:26 am

    Has any other man ever been so wrong about as many things as Little Billy Kristol has?

  77. 77.

    Calouste

    May 7, 2011 at 8:29 am

    Every time I see a picture of Yoo, I think that the main reason he supported torture was so that he could be the guy raping eight year old kids in front of their parents.

  78. 78.

    kay

    May 7, 2011 at 9:04 am

    I’m completely enjoying the nervous breakdown on the Right.

    Every minute. I so appreciated the insane reaction to Jake Tapper’s tweet.

    Media won’t be able to palm this off on the “crazies” either. Yoo and Rice and the rest of the people engaged in a mad scramble to rewrite facts and history are the serious conservatives.

    No sane person who bases opinions on observable facts and recent history thought Obama was weak.

    But the whole brain trust on the Right did, and they STILL do. Like everything else with them, it’s an article of faith. It has nothing whatsoever to do with the reality most people live in.

    Yoo, the Right’s (allegedly) brilliant lawyer and intellectual super-star, pulled his theory completely out of his ass. It’s him. It has nothing to do with Obama. It’s about him.

  79. 79.

    Dennis G.

    May 7, 2011 at 9:13 am

    @Hill Dweller:
    I think the Bushies are also frightened of the intelligence that was gathered. OBL’s view of their policies may be what makes them nervous. It is one thing for a DFH to say that Bush just did what OBL wanted him to do, that Bush’s policies played into OBL’s hands. It would be quite another thing to hear it confirmed by OBL. I suspect his view of Bush’s GWOT is in the documents and releasing OBL’s view creates a new way to revisit the crimes of the Bush years as incompetence that cost dearly in blood and treasure. That Obama has that card to play fills them with dread. And so they pull out all the stops and play louder.

  80. 80.

    Omnes Omnibus

    May 7, 2011 at 9:20 am

    @kay:

    Yoo, the Right’s (allegedly) brilliant lawyer and intellectual super-star, pulled his theory completely out of his ass. It’s him. It has nothing to do with Obama. It’s about him.

    I have read a bunch of what Yoo has written; it is not good. It is lawyerly on the surface, but he takes quotations out of context, uses cases law that has been called into question, and ( the biggie) never acknowledges contrary authority. The first two could be written off as aggressive advocacy by the charitably minded (of which I am not one), but the failure to acknowledge and counter the whole raft of precedent countering his theory is a killer. His job was to put out a justification for vile behavior that had surface plausibility. I hope he loses his license; he is a disgrace to the profession.

  81. 81.

    muffler

    May 7, 2011 at 10:30 am

    @Dennis G.: Or if the information gathered has documentation on dealings and communications between Bin Laden and high US officials.

  82. 82.

    kay

    May 7, 2011 at 10:43 am

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    If there was any doubt before, no one should hold any illusions that he’s ethical or “serious” now.

    Look at this garbage:

    Early reports are conflicted, but it appears that bin Laden was not armed. He did not have a large retinue of bodyguards—only three other people, the two couriers and bin Laden’s adult son, were killed. Special forces units using nonlethal weaponry might have taken bin Laden alive, as with other senior al Qaeda leaders before him.

    If true, one of the most valuable intelligence opportunities since the beginning of the war has slipped through our hands. Some claim that bin Laden had become a symbol, or that al Qaeda had devolved into a decentralized terrorist network with more active franchises in Yemen or Somalia. Nevertheless, bin Laden was still issuing instructions and funds to a broad terrorist network and would have known where and how to find other key al Qaeda players. His capture, like Saddam Hussein’s in December 2003, would have provided invaluable intelligence and been an even greater example of U.S. military prowess than his death.

    White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan said Monday that the SEAL team had orders to take bin Laden alive, “if he didn’t present any threat,” though he correctly dismissed this possibility as “remote.” This is hard to take seriously. No one could have expected bin Laden to surrender without a fight. And capturing him alive would have required the administration to hold and interrogate bin Laden at Guantanamo Bay, something that has given this president allergic reactions bordering on a seizure.

    This screed includes every weasel word and phrase on available. “Early reports” “it appears” “some say” “this is hard to take seriously” “would have”

    The Right’s intellectual star just accused 1. Brennan of lying and 2. Obama of deliberately not capturing OBL because of political concerns.

    Based on nothing. Not one fact. Yoo knows NOTHING other than what he (and we) read in media reports about what happened or why anyone made the decisions they did. Yet he felt free to launch two serious accusations in a major newspaper.

    Why did he do it? Because his giant ego and HUGE sense of self-importance is bruised.

  83. 83.

    SFAW

    May 7, 2011 at 10:49 am

    I hope he loses his license; he is a disgrace to the profession.

    Pretty harsh, coming from a guy who wouldn’t take my “bail me out!” call at 3 AM.

  84. 84.

    kay

    May 7, 2011 at 10:53 am

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Once again, a conservative is inside Obama’s mind, discerning intent and supplying motive and then moving right to the fact-free conviction on the charges he invented.
    He’s no different than a birther. This is a way of thinking, and it is not a coincidence that so many conservatives seem to suffer from it.
    On issue after issue issue, they supply the “facts”, they supply the motive, they supply the ill-intent. They operate in a closed circle. They start with the belief and then make the facts fit the belief. Again and again and again, and it isn’t limited to the dupes in the cheap seats who vote for them. It comes from the top.

  85. 85.

    Geeno

    May 7, 2011 at 11:17 am

    @JR: I’m not even sure that this is strictly true anymore, what with common usage continually evolving, but it was drilled in my head by my 9th grade English teacher. “Pictures were hung; people were HANGED”.
    Sorry – It’s a compulsion. I’m getting treatment.

  86. 86.

    A Farmer

    May 7, 2011 at 12:09 pm

    Am I the only one who gets a beastiality vibe from that picture? Leading from Behind? I guess that is the point I think conservatives have reached, that they’d make camel fucking jokes about the President.

  87. 87.

    ABL

    May 7, 2011 at 12:10 pm

    @kay: It’s not just people on the right who do that. Jus’ sayin’.

  88. 88.

    JGabriel

    May 7, 2011 at 12:11 pm

    @Geeno:

    I’m not even sure that this is strictly true anymore, what with common usage continually evolving, but it was drilled in my head by my 9th grade English teacher. “Pictures were hung; people were HANGED”.

    You’re right about common usage evolving. It just doesn’t look right when I put “well-hanged” in my Craigslist ad.

    .

  89. 89.

    Angry Lurker

    May 7, 2011 at 12:19 pm

    @A Farmer:

    Yes, you’re the only one.

  90. 90.

    BC

    May 7, 2011 at 12:21 pm

    They start with the belief and then make up “facts” to fit the belief.

    Fixed it for you.

  91. 91.

    fhtagn

    May 7, 2011 at 12:22 pm

    @Geeno:

    But was your English teacher well-hung as he drilled you?

    Inquiring minds want to know!

  92. 92.

    A Farmer

    May 7, 2011 at 12:25 pm

    Oops. I guess it didn’t help that Yglesias had a post about Florida banning human on animal sex, so I get the idea that it is on Republicans’ minds.

  93. 93.

    The Ancient Randonneur

    May 7, 2011 at 3:13 pm

    I volunteer to use “enhanced interrogation” techniques on John Yoo until he confesses to being a cowardly, twelve sandwich eating pussy.

  94. 94.

    Angry Lurker

    May 7, 2011 at 5:13 pm

    @A Farmer:

    Oops. I guess it didn’t help that Yglesias had a post about Florida banning human on animal sex, so I get the idea that it is on Republicans’ minds.

    Wow, I’m kind of stunned to learn that it wasn’t already banned, as I assume it is in all states. Has anyone told li’l Ricky Santorum about this? :P

  95. 95.

    Citizen Alan

    May 7, 2011 at 7:45 pm

    @TenguPhule:

    And then every night we celebrate the New Reality Show: Tonight, A Republican DIES!

    I know you’re being sarcastic, but at this point, I would totally watch that.

Comments are closed.

Primary Sidebar

Fundraising 2023-24

Wis*Dems Supreme Court + SD-8

Recent Comments

  • Odie Hugh Manatee on Saturday Night Maxwell Update (Mar 26, 2023 @ 2:24am)
  • Mike in Pasadena on Saturday Night Maxwell Update (Mar 26, 2023 @ 1:53am)
  • chris green on Saturday Music & Postcard Thread (Mar 26, 2023 @ 1:51am)
  • StringOnAStick on Saturday Night Maxwell Update (Mar 26, 2023 @ 1:40am)
  • Odie Hugh Manatee on Saturday Night Maxwell Update (Mar 26, 2023 @ 1:21am)

🎈Keep Balloon Juice Ad Free

Become a Balloon Juice Patreon
Donate with Venmo, Zelle or PayPal

Balloon Juice Posts

View by Topic
View by Author
View by Month & Year
View by Past Author

Featuring

Medium Cool
Artists in Our Midst
Authors in Our Midst
We All Need A Little Kindness
Classified Documents: A Primer
State & Local Elections Discussion

Calling All Jackals

Site Feedback
Nominate a Rotating Tag
Submit Photos to On the Road
Balloon Juice Mailing List Signup
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Links)
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Posts)

Twitter / Spoutible

Balloon Juice (Spoutible)
WaterGirl (Spoutible)
TaMara (Spoutible)
John Cole
DougJ (aka NYT Pitchbot)
Betty Cracker
Tom Levenson
TaMara
David Anderson
Major Major Major Major
ActualCitizensUnited

Join the Fight!

Join the Fight Signup Form
All Join the Fight Posts

Balloon Juice Events

5/14  The Apocalypse
5/20  Home Away from Home
5/29  We’re Back, Baby
7/21  Merging!

Balloon Juice for Ukraine

Donate

Site Footer

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Comment Policy
  • Our Authors
  • Blogroll
  • Our Artists
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2023 Dev Balloon Juice · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!