Think happy thoughts.
The Dimmest Bulbs on the Internet
Sometimes you just never can tell what the fauxtrage du jour from the right will be, and this one caught me off-guard (or, in Republican speak, with my pants down and my hand underneath a bathroom stall):
During the course of the hearing, Congressman and Obama Superdelegate William Delahunt (MA-10) asked Mr. Addington about water boarding. Mr. Addington responded that he would not go into details because Al Qaeda is probably watching.
Congressman Delahunt’s response was, “I’m glad they finally have a chance to see you.”
Mr. Delahunt now denies he meant what he said. But what he clearly said was “I’m glad they finally have a chance to see you.” Al Qaeda now knows the face of one of the men who relentlessly pursues its henchmen and deals with their interrogations. Mr. Addington volunteered for public service, not a death sentence with Congressional encouragement. Mr. Delahunt is both a vile liar and a cowardly lion willing to roar down at Mr. Addington while encouraging terrorists to do his dirty work in a war he has been ineffective at stopping.
The left, while attacking Charlie Black for stating the obvious — that a terrorist incident helps the GOP politically because they are seen as more competent in the national security arena — is defending this degradation of congressional discourse and vile swipe at Mr. Addington.
This discourse — a member of Congress glad Al Qaeda has a face it can pursue — is beneath the dignity of the Congress and beneath the dignity of civil discourse in this country.
They are, apparently, serious. Think about that for a minute.
They are now demanding censure of Delahunt under the laughable premise that Al Qaeda is now going to hunt down David Addington. Never mind that John Yoo, who is just as responsible for much of administration policy, has had his face plastered all over everything for years and has been the target of approximately ZERO assassination attempts. At any rate, I think after they punish Delahunt, I think they should go after some other more high profile sources, who have clearly been posting Addington’s likeness in an attempt to have him offed by evil terrrorists. We can start with the following:
The Associated Press
Wikipedia
US News
Matt Yglesias
MSNBC
The Washington Note
Granted, finding all of those pictures requires a passing familiarity with the internet and “a google,” and these are Republicans at Red State and McCain supporters, so maybe this technology eludes them, too. But if Al Qaeda is watching C-Span as Mr. Addington asserted in one of his dodges during questioning, I am betting they use the intertrons.
Regardless, on and on it goes- it seems as if the entire establishment is calling out for Al Qaeda to attack Addington. And mind you, this is the same media that tried to have Cheney and Rumsfeld offed by publishing photos of their vacation homes, so this is not a new thing for these terrorist enablers.
And if you don’t find it troubling enough that all of these sources have “lowered the discourse” and provided Al Qaeda with a target to pursue, you don’t even realize the true extent of the perfidy- here is an entire PBS show flashing pictures of Addington and other members of the inner circle (event moving pictures, Sen. McCain) for Al Qaeda. A government subsidized network, in league with the terrorists.
But, my friends, brace yourself. It only gets worse. If you look here, you will see that the rot is deep and the fix is in. The White House itself is in on this:
Vice President Dick Cheney attends a classified briefing, Friday, May 11, 2007, aboard the aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis in the Persian Gulf. Seated with the Vice President from left is U.S. Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates Michele Sison; U.S. naval commander Vice Admiral Kevin J. Cosgriff; USS John C. Stennis Strike Group Commander Rear Admiral Kevin Quinn; Chief of Staff to the Vice President David Addington. White House photo by David Bohrer.
In fact, a quick search of the White House website reveals several photos of Addington, as well as information that could be used to “pursue” him. Why does the White House hate America?
Oh, and by the way, this quote from David Addington somehow seems relevant:
“We’re one bomb away from getting rid of that obnoxious court.”
HAHAHA, funny shit, amirite, Red State?
*** Update ***
The Newshoggers have heard of “a google” too. And really, anyone who thinks this is a defense of Delahunt is just looking for an excuse to be outraged. Delahunt may be a total jackass, and I don’t know why he said what he said, but the notion that Al Qaeda now has a fix on Addington’s “super duper secret” identity is even dumber than Delahunt’s initial remarks. As one commenter quipped below, maybe we should just give Addington a Valerie Plame mask.
Things I Am Not a Fan Of
Cher
Dance music (although I do like some)
Rainbow flags
Drag Shows
Decorating
Madonna
Abercrombie & Fitch
The Wizard of Oz
Queer as Folk
Janet Jackson
Wine Coolers
South Beach
Morrissey
The Human Rights Campaign
“Manscaping”
Rainbow stickers on my car
Queer Eye for the Straight Guy (*cringe*)
and countless other things…
That being said, I do love me some West Hollywood, but not because it’s gay. It’s just a nice place to visit. I’ll just take this opportunity to wish anyone who cares a Happy Pride Month. I’ll be volunteering with the Atlanta Humane Society at their booth next weekend at the Atlanta Civic Center. I’ll probably also be walking a dog in the parade.
Stop by and say “Hey gurl” and watch me look at you like you’re an idiot.
Troglodytes
McConnell, DeMint, Burr, Bunning, Chambliss, Vitter, and Sessions:
Bush’s AIDS program has been described by many, including even his critics, as his greatest diplomatic and foreign policy success and has alleviated the suffering of millions. But now seven Republicans are calling a halt on an expansion of the program, “the best ambassador the U.S. has ever had”, because they’re scared about straight talk and direct action on the ways in which gay sex and drug use affect the spread of the disease.
The opposition is based on the bill promoting immoral behavior. Maybe some more wildly successful abstinence only is the way to go, because as we all know, if you just tell people not to screw around, they don’t.
Am I right, Senator Vitters?
*** Update ***
More win here, as we learn that Larry Craig and David Vitters are co-sponsors of a new Federal Marriage Amendment, just in time for the fall elections. Presumably there will be prohibitions against using high-priced call girls and engaging in anonymous gay sex in the bathroom, but who knows. Not to mention, given Republicans of late, they might not favor banning anonymous gay bathroom sex. I am not sure about this- “Save my marriage before I cheat again” doesn’t seem to have much of a rhetorical flourish to it, so they might want a better rallying cry for socially conservative issues.
By the way, do people still want to flame Obama for his comments in PA, in which he pointed out that the GOP fails to help people economically, so they cling to issues they can control?
Unity in Unity
Long-time readers will instinctively know how I feel about the whole unity tour going on right now in Unity, NH- it makes me want to barf, as platitudes like this often do. However, for those of you, who, like me, thought that the joint Obama/Clinton appearance today was most likely going to be a kiss on the lips with no tongue, you are in for a rude awakening. Clinton and Obama are both pretty damned fired up, and seem about as united as is humanly possible with clothes on (sorry for the imagery).
At any rate, a couple quick notes:
1.) I simply still do not know how Hillary does it. I really don’t. She is standing there, nodding, clapping, looking like she is actually enjoying herself, and I simply wish I had 1/10th her drive and toughness. Whatever you think about Hillary, and I have had some harsh words, her drive is just amazing.
2.) Obama had a line about women not being held back by anything after Hillary’s campaign, and that women can do it better than men and in high heels. This reminded me of the old quip about Ginger Rogers, who, as the saying goes, did everything Fred Astaire did but did it backwards while in heels. Always love that line.
3.) You will be happy to know there was a DFH sighting on the MSNBC coverage. Standing prominently is a long-haired beareded red-headed guy wearing a tie-dye.
4.) I would hope this would put all the stupid damned stories about the divided camps behind us, but I really doubt it.
Winning the Battle, Losing the Issue
This Mark Murray piece seems to make a lot of sense:
Yesterday’s Supreme Court decision on the 2nd Amendment elevated an issue — guns — that hadn’t received that much attention until now. Remembering that the subject hurt Al Gore in 2000 and somewhat damaged Kerry’s image in 2004 (after his widely panned hunting excursion) will guns also be a problem for Obama? On the one hand, many of the swing states (actually check that, EVERY swing state) are places where the electorate tends to have pro-gun views and where the Mike Bloomberg position wouldn’t fly. On the other hand, as some have pointed out today, the Supreme Court ruling may actually help Obama because Republicans might no longer be able to argue that Democrats want to take your guns away. “The Supreme Court has said you can’t do that,” Democratic pollster Geoff Garin told the Washington Post.
Given that ownership of guns as an issue has been taken off the table by the Supreme Court, and that Scalia, one of the most conservative members of the Court wrote the majority report and affirmed almost every bit of gun control legislation short of outright bans in his opinion, it sure would seem that it is going to take some real creativity on the part of Republicans to get any traction on the issue of guns anymore. The only thing they could probably do is to lurch rightward, but then they run the risk of alienating the middle, who I presume favor many common sense approaches to gun control (not allowing them in bars, not allowing felons to own guns, etc.).
At any rate, this could be a major loss for Republicans in states like West Virginia, where the gun issue went a long way to defeating Al Gore. SCOTUSBLOG has a related discussion of the future of gun control here.\
Another piece on the same issue here.
Busy Busy Busy
Entertain yourself. DOW is down again.
**** Update ***
I don’t know much about Mr. Greenwald and I didn’t read his full piece, but I do know that the snippet he’s taken out of the transcript of my conversation with Jon Alter last night makes it sound like I was saying defying the left was a good thing.
For the life of me, I will never figure out why media figures always seem to have some sort of variation of this in their response to critics in the blogosphere. Read the whole piece, for chrissakes. It will take about 5 minutes.
But more to the point, it makes no sense. How are you supposed to capably or competently defend yourself if you don’t even know the totality of the allegations alleged against you? There have been multiple times when I have stated in a post that I have “not read the whole thing<' but usually it is when there is a long bill or .pdf attached, or something I am not going to understand anyway, so I implore readers to read the whole thing for themselvesand acknowledge I have not. "I haven't read the whole thing," in this context, just reeks of arrogance and condescension- why not go the whole nine yards and stroke your mustache, remove your pince-nez, and then call Greenwald an insignificant rodent? At any rate, Glenn responds, and he has read your entire piece, KO.