Predictions.
The Bush White House, In a Nutshell
This is teh awesome:
A day after warning that potentially critical terrorism intelligence was being lost because Congress had not finished work on a controversial espionage law, the U.S. attorney general and the national intelligence director said Saturday that the government was receiving the information — at least temporarily.
Shorter Bush Administration: We are so full of shit that even when we are full of shit, we are full of shit.
Lapel Pin Patriotism, Round Two
I thought we had already dispatched this nonsense once, but it appears to have resurfaced with Nedra Pickler’s insightful piece:
Sen. Barack Obama’s refusal to wear an American flag lapel pin along with a photo of him not putting his hand over his heart during the National Anthem led conservatives on Internet and in the media to question his patriotism.
Doing due diligence to get the story right, Nedra goes to an expert for his opinion:
The AP’s Nedra Pickler asks disgraced Republican dirty-trickster Roger Stone for his opinion. Stone you’ll remember is the guy who got caught making threatening phone calls to New York Gov. Spitzer’s (D-NY) elderly father and last month set up an anti-Hillary group with the acronym C-U-N-T.
Surprisingly enough, Stone thinks the answer is yes.
Since Obama and the Democrats seem to have such a big problem with patriotism and lapel pins, I guess we need to have yet another photo montage of prominent Republicans demonstrating how to wear a lapel pin. Here goes:
Rick Renzi (R-AZ), recently indicted on multiple counts of conspiracy, wire fraud, money laundering, extortion and insurance fraud, looks positively patriotic with his lapel pin.
Always the dapper and patriotic dresser, Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA) displays his lapel pin after having his house raided by the Feds after a two-year investigation.
No one can deny that Rep. Randall “Duke” Cunningham (R-CA) doesn’t make a statement with this lapel pin. Sadly, the Duke’s fashion choices are now limited as he is incarcerated for up to ten years after pleading guilty to tax evasion, conspiracy to commit bribery, mail fraud, and wire fraud. Come 2016, the Duke will no doubt be modeling his patriotism in the form of a dashing lapel pin once again.
Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH) looks tanned and very patriotic with his red hair and blue suit and patriotic lapel pin. Sadly, his red hair might be gray before he can once again get the perfect tan, as he is currently serving a prison term for conspiracy to defraud the United States and for a charge of falsifying financial disclosure forms.
Former Governor Bob Taft (R-OH) is dressed to impress with this lapel pin. Taft plead no contest to multiple misdemeanors.
Larry Craig looks positively magnificent as he models this doubly patriotic lapel pin during his mug shot for a widely discussed bathroom incident.
You know, now that I think about it, maybe it isn’t that big of a deal whether or not Obama wears a lapel pin.
*** Update ***
Oh NOES! Obama may or may not have worn “Muslim-like gear.” I sure hope the sweet dears at Sweetness and Light don’t see this:
President Bush in Africa, embracing brown people doing a “Death to America” tribal dance.
Seriously, these people are ridiculous.
Sunday Morning Open Thread
Go read Frank Rich. Of course, what he says doesn’t count because he is a hater.
Nader’s In
Whaddya think? Will it make a difference?
Late Night Open Thread
Can’t sleep.
Are They Really That Dumb?
John Keegan Ace writes:
Bob Krumm writes Obama’s claims are wrong in detail but right in overall thrust — but he’s still wrong.
The link to Bob Krumm has the following gem:
The truth behind the story is far less damning–if even damning at all. The captain (he is a captain now, but was a lieutenant when all this occurred back in 2003!) didn’t have half his platoon in one theatre while the rest was deployed somewhere else. Instead his unit, as a result of normal personnel rotations, had lost soldiers who had been transferred elsewhere and hadn’t yet been replaced.
I can only state the following in response- no fucking shit. Let’s review what Obama stated:
I heard from a Army captain, who was the head of a rifle platoon, supposed to have 39 men in a rifle platoon. Ended up being sent to Afghanistan with 24, because 15 of those soldiers had been sent to Iraq.
Did these military geniuses really think Obama was suggesting this guys platoon was cut in half, with first and second squad sent to Afghanistan, and third and fourth sent to Iraq? Because if that is the case, these folks have clearly OD’d on Cheeto dust and are dumber than I even thought they were.
Of course that is what happened- soldiers were moved to fill out units deploying to Iraq and elsewhere, as THAT WAS THE PRIORITY AT THE TIME. His unit, not deploying to Iraq, was given a lower priority on replacements. Which is, as you may be aware, precisely the point Obama was trying to make:
Now that’s a consequence of bad judgment, and you know, the question is on the critical issues that we face right now who’s going to show the judgment to lead. And I think that on every critical issue that we’ve seen in foreign policy over the last several years — going into Iraq originally, I didn’t just oppose it for the sake of opposing it. I said this is going to distract us from Afghanistan; this is going to fan the flames of anti- American sentiment; this is going to cost us billions of dollars and thousands of lives and overstretch our military, and I was right.
Jesus. We need some better wingnuts. I don’t want to get all syrupy about the soft bigotry of low expectations, but if they simply drool on themselves it is a step in the right direction from this kind of deep thinking.
*** Update ***
And the mind-meld continues.