Joe Galloway

Is having NONE of the apologia for McNamara, NONE, ZIP, NADA, ZERO...and David Broder and his ilk can kiss his ass. He's published not one, but now two editorials about why if there isn't a hell, it will be necessary to invent one for Robert McNamara:

Who out there remembers Mr. McNamara's — he was the ultimate bean-counter who knew the cost of everything but the worth of nothing — Project 100,000?...

Beginning in 1965 and for nearly three years McNamara each year drafted into the military 100,000 young boys whose scores in the mental qualification and aptitude tests were in the lowest quarter — so-called Category IV's. Men with IQ's of 65 or even lower...

By drafting them the Pentagon would not have to draft an equal number of middle class and elite college boys whose mothers could and would raise Hell with their representatives in Washington.

The young men of Project 100,000 couldn't read, so training manual comic books were created for them. They had to be taught to tie their boots. They often failed in boot camp, and were recycled over and over until they finally reached some low standard and were declared trained and ready.

They could not be taught any more demanding job than trigger-pulling and, so, all of them were shipped to Vietnam and most went straight into combat where the learning curve is steep and deadly. The cold, hard statistics say that these almost helpless young men died in action in the jungles at a rate three times higher than the average draftee.

McNamara's military even assigned the Project 100,000 men special serial numbers so that anyone could identify them and deal with them accordingly...

The Good Book says we must forgive those who trespass against us — but what about those who trespass against the most helpless among us; those willing to conscript the mentally handicapped, the most innocent, and turn them into cannon fodder?

Goddamn, that is some righteous indignation I can believe in.

Oh the irony

If only the Doughy Pantload was diagnosed as a celiac!

Sadly, No slaps him around more than Jonah slaps his li'l smokie.

Thanks for all the Reverse Cowgirl

Simply because it gives me a higher opinion of Mark Sanford:

I love this picture

From the Iranian protests today -- using one iconic image cleverly modified:

The Republican Way

Well, from the Bushs to the Kristols to the Kagans this is how it is done. But still, one does revel at the conversation that led to this:

In April 2008, Senator John Ensign's parents each made gifts to Doug Hampton, Cindy Hampton, and two of their children in the form of a check totaling $96,000. Each gift was limited to $12,000. The payments were made as gifts, accepted as gifts and complied with tax rules governing gifts.

Mommy and Daddy pay off your mistress and her cuckolded husband. Now THAT'S the Republican way!

The Grifter

I don't know who started the Sarah Palin = Grifter equation -- maybe it was me, but I doubt it, though it seemed to easily waft into my posts as if I did (next up, putting a claim on all photoshopping). Maybe it was Watertiger or TBogg or even Josh Marshall. Whoever first came up with it latched onto the world's most obvious fact.

But it is nonetheless stupifying that we dirty fucking hippies (and to his credit, David Frum) are still required to call out the obvious reason for Palin's departure and it is....CA-CHING!

As I think a number of others have said, I've always thought Palin's character was essentially that of a grifter. And when these folks blow out of town after a con has run its course, it's usually a pretty hasty exit.

But Palin herself is sure she's 'Supply Side Jesus'.

Fox News hates America

Remember the old "Melting Pot" bromides, the saying that is still the National Motto "E Pluribus Unum" ("out of many, one")?

Brian Kilmeade goes "la la la"

"We are — we keep marrying other species and other ethnics and other ... See, the problem is the Swedes have pure genes. Because they marry other Swedes .... Fins marry other Fins, so they have a pure society."

Other species? What the Santorum?!!!

This is the kind of discourse you get on FoxNews ladies and gentlemen. Racism and Eugenics is its distilled moronic form.

Hey Brian, you know what the Swedes and Fins have that we haven't got?

Universal Health Care!

Suck.on.that. Dumbshit.

What a shock

NewsCorp., populated by douchebags everywhere:

Rupert Murdoch's News Group News­papers has paid out more than £1m to settle legal cases that threatened to reveal evidence of his journalists' repeated involvement in the use of criminal methods to get stories.

The payments secured secrecy over out-of-court settlements in three cases that threatened to expose evidence of Murdoch journalists using private investigators who illegally hacked into the mobile phone messages of numerous public ­figures to gain unlawful access to confidential personal data, including tax records, social security files, bank statements and itemised phone bills. Cabinet ministers, MPs, actors and sports stars were all targets of the private investigators.

Today, the Guardian reveals details of the suppressed evidence, which may open the door to hundreds more legal actions by victims of News Group, the Murdoch company that publishes the News of the World and the Sun, as well as provoking police inquiries into reporters who were involved and the senior executives responsible for them.

Who will be shocked if it is found they have done EXACTLY the same thing over here?

(via AmericaBlog)

Thanks George Bush

Freeance!

Two suicide bombers on Thursday killed at least 34 people and injured 70 in an attack on the home of an anti-terrorism officer in northern Iraq, while three roadside bombs in Baghdad killed seven others, authorities said.

The surge was always just a more policy and publicity friendly manner of allowing ethnic cleansing to be continued and concretized. The Sunnis are going to engage in reprisals for generations (with Shiia reprisals and crackdowns). All midwifed by the U.S. of A!

It's reignin'!

An explosion outside a school south of the Afghan capital on Thursday killed at least 25 people, including 15 students, officials said, the worst toll from a single blast in a year.

Another few months on the latter and we'll be able to start thankin' a new President.

Suddenly, I'm ready for the world to end

Rather than let this nonsense continue...

Oh those analogies

I love right-wingers coming up with "stories" about the random Canadian who had to wait in line to get their flu-shot.

Like Americans never have to wait in a line for health care.

Oh, one other thing about Canada. They LOVE their health care system.

Who's the greatest Canadian of all time to -- y'know -- Canadians?

Why Tommy Douglas.

Who is he?

As leader of the Saskatchewan Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) from 1942 and the seventh Premier of Saskatchewan from 1944 to 1961, he led the first socialist government in North America and introduced universal public healthcare to Canada.

If at First You Don't Succeed ...

...Fail! Fail! again!

WSJ: Financial News -- Meriwether to Shut Hedge Fund After Losses

John Meriwether, the trader who founded Long Term Capital Management, the hedge fund that spectacularly crashed in 1998, is reportedly shutting the portfolio he established afterwards. The move comes after the fund suffered large losses after the collapse in Lehman Brothers, which left its annual return since launching at less than 2%.

Meriwether is shutting down the flagship hedge fund he founded in 1999 at his firm, JWM Partners, according to Bloomberg, after it lost 44% between September 2007 and February this year.

You remember Long Term Capital Management, right? You ought to. Does this ring a bell?

Meriwether's losses at JWM are less than half the fall by LTCM, the fund whose collapse in 1998 sent shockwaves through financial markets. The event is still often cited as emblematic of the damage hedge funds can do to financial markets.

This failure, whose effects were magnified by high levels of borrowings the fund made to invest in markets, led the U.S. Federal Reserve to organise a bailout by the portfolio's creditors, and to begin examining the role of hedge funds in financial markets - an examination which continues to this day, and which arguably has intensified since LTCM failed.

Don't you worry your pretty little heads, though. There will always be suckers investors around to fling their money at the Meriwethers of this world.

That's because it reflects "real life"

Hilarity from the NY Times:

The pornographic movie industry, in response to the Internet, is focusing even less on narrative arcs these days.

I find it hard to believe this movie had little in the way of dialogue.

"Wholly without merit, both factually and legally"

Ah, the immortal words of U.S. District Court Judge Denny Chin in Fox News v. Franken. Bill O'Reilly was on vacation last week, but at least we know events conspired to ruin it.

In a sad day for America, Al Franken is now a U.S. senator. The Minnesota Supreme Court ruled he won the election by about 300 votes. Franken is a blatantly dishonest individual, a far-left zealot who is not qualified to hold any office, a man who trafficked in hate on his failed Air America radio program. If you want proof, check out Page 96 in my book Culture Warrior. With people like Franken on the Hill, this country is in deep trouble.

How's this all worked out for you so far Bill?



I do love the fact that Bill-O took the time to damn Franken while simultaneously giving a gratuitous book plug. Classy.

And Bill O'Reilly mentioned plugging.



[cross-posted, for the most part, to Firedoglake]

Oh well, you never know

The perils of blogging in retrospect.

Radio Radio

I have nothing to add to already encyclopedic coverage of Michael Jackson's death. I did remember today, however, that an MJ cover was the first pop song I ever recall hearing (on WABC 770 AM in New York, which at that time, was top 40, not wingnut central). Also remember hearing Neil Young doing "Heart of Gold" and, obviously, "American Pie" about the same time.

Deep Thought

How much does Jake Tapper spend on grooming?

Stars bursting....

Yeah, Palin's just awesome:

But as for whether another pursuit of national office, as she did less than a year ago when she joined Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., in the race for the White House, would result in the same political blood sport, Palin said there is a difference between the White House and what she has experienced in Alaska. If she were in the White House, she said, the "department of law" would protect her from baseless ethical allegations.

"I think on a national level, your department of law there in the White House would look at some of the things that we've been charged with and automatically throw them out," she said.

Yes, and it is run by the "Law Talkin' Guy".

Ladies and Gentlemen, Sarah Palin's Cabinet:

"Department of Law"
"Department of Filthy Foreigners"
"Department of Kickin' Ass and Takin' Names"
"Department of Payday Loans"
"Department of Murkowskis and Brother-in-Laws"
"Department of MILFs"
"Department Store of Departments"
"Home Depot"
"Department of Bold Barbecue Sauce"
"Department of Slaying Salmon"
"Department of Prop Babies"
"Department of Teabagging"
"Department of Rapturin'"
"Department of Lieberry watchin'"
"Department of Knockin' Up"

Impaled by Vlad

10 AM and I'm already irritated.

Do you get energized by being irritated? If so, read this Economist article, which demonstrates how Republican foreign policy going back to Bush I has screwed up our relationship with Russia. You will pep right up.

Thank God crack Sovietologist Condi Rice's sphere of influence is now contained to Stanford students.

"That'll teach you Nico Pitney!"

Real journalists ask SERIOUS questions!

War and peace, nuclear weapons, democracy, an ailing world economy – President Obama’s agenda on his first visit to Russia in office has no shortage of weighty issues.

So when he granted separate interviews in Moscow to each of the five major American television networks on Tuesday morning, what was the one thing all five made sure to ask about? The death of the pop star Michael Jackson.

Now that's an editorial

Joseph Galloway on the death of Robert McNamara:

McNamara was the original bean-counter — a man who knew the cost of everything but the worth of nothing.

Back in 1990 I had a series of strange phone conversations with McMamara while doing research for my book We Were Soldiers Once And Young. McNamara prefaced every conversation with this: "I do not want to comment on the record for fear that I might distort history in the process." Then he would proceed to talk for an hour, doing precisely that with answers that were disingenuous in the extreme — when they were not bald-faced lies.

Upon hanging up I would call Neil Sheehan and David Halberstam and run McNamara's comments past them for deconstruction and the addition of the truth.

The only disagreement i ever had with Dave Halberstam was over the question of which of us hated him the most. In retrospect, it was Halberstam.

Halbertstam must have REALLY hated him.

Welcome to a preview of your obituary Donald Rumsfeld.

Now compare Galloway's editorial to the mealy-mouthed apologia from Fred Hiatt and his cast of enablers. I hope Galloway lives long enough to write a few more Op-Eds.

Jake Tapper - Full Grown Tool(?) (like we need to ask)

It took three people to write that too.

(via MediaMatters)

More of this please

If you're gonna suck up Big Pharma and Insurance money like a hoover, Republican or Democrat you should have to suck it up and defend it:

My real fear this evening is...

That even the "SPEED" channel will cover the Michael Jackson Memorial Service.

Set Phasers to "Ignore" (or "Point and Laugh Hysterically")

Mark Halperin weighs in with some characteristically crack analysis of Sarah Palin's latest bold move.

This was my favorite bit of Halperin Campaign 2008 analysis. It was so utterly incomprehensible that even Wee George Stephanapolous couldn't make sense of it. (The setup was that McCain's 2,217 houses was definitely bad news ... for Obama.)

"White Trash Concupiscence"

Look, Sarah Palin is an asshole.

And Ross Douthat is a bigger asshole.

But Andrew Sullivan is the biggest asshole of them all.

Speaking of Intellectual 4-Year Olds

Not named Sarah Palin. Let's not forget her intellectual peer and spiritual "Oh Gawdfather":

...when the library for George W. Bush opens in 2013 on the campus of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, visitors will most likely get to see one of his most treasured items: Saddam Hussein’s pistol.

Abridged Douchehat

Sarah Palin represents the kind of "common", "ordinary", "representative" American that forms the readership the NY Times hired me to reach.

Stupid people too dimwitted to recognize their own ignorance.

Let me ignore a few facts about American history to tell you a few items of unadulterated bullshit.

Just 10 more months until they ship in the next pathetic right-wing asshole at the Times.

(picture screams lovechild of Kelsey Grammar and Lindsey Graham)

Well this FoxNews viewer can spell*

...now he just has to conquer 'toilet training'.

(pic from here)

(* or not...as "pea" does not equal "pee")

The Bullshit is even thicker

What reform comes up against...what your health insurance premiums (well, those of us who can afford it) pay for:

The nation's largest insurers, hospitals and medical groups have hired more than 350 former government staff members and retired members of Congress in hopes of influencing their old bosses and colleagues, according to an analysis of lobbying disclosures and other records....

The hirings are part of a record-breaking influence campaign by the health-care industry, which is spending more than $1.4 million a day on lobbying in the current fight, according to disclosure records.

Hmmmm.....

Bad week to take a vacation Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert.

Good week to be David Letterman though.

Do you think from her observatory in Wasilla, Palin ever wonders if North Korean tantrum-enthusiast Kim Jong Il is her "soul-mate"?

The tea bag doesn't seep twice

Not only was "Teabagging, Ball Deux" badly attended, some of them went Full Godwin.

Remember the hissy fit the Michelle Malkins of the world had over a mere submission to a contest at 'Move-On'?

Well, funny that. Jonah Goldberg thinks it's awesome though.

(pic via La Figa)

Quitter

An excellent observation -- naturally, because I didn't think of it -- I now declare it my idea!...okay, not really:

“I’m gonna take my ball and go home” move is standard Wasilla Snowbilly behavior: “She didn’t finish her term as mayor, stepping down to run for Lt. Governor. She didn’t finish her term on the petroleum board ethics panel, she resigned in protest and then ran for Governor. She doesn’t want the office, she just likes running for office. She doesn’t want (can’t actually) accomplish anything, she just wants to talk about it.”

Rich Lowry and Bill Kristol won't quit you Sarah, though the former is disappointed you haven't called lately. And they've got the stuck together campaign flyers to prove it!

Wow

When it comes to motor sports, the guys who run Formula One make the average NASCAR fan look like a damned commie.

It's bad enough the President of F1 is the son of Britain's original Hitler Sympathizer (no, not Edward VII) and likes to dress up and partake in the occasional fascist sex-fantasy. I mean the latter is bad, but it's nothing Ann Coulter doesn't do.

But now the guy who bankrolls F1 makes it clear, he too, likes his Hitler fresh and new:

"If you have a look at a democracy it hasn't done a lot of good for many countries - including this one. I like people who make up their minds...
"In a lot of ways, terrible to say this I suppose, but apart from the fact that Hitler got taken away and persuaded to do things that I have no idea whether he wanted to do or not, he was in the way that he could command a lot of people able to get things done.

My feelings are hurt

Sarah Palin hasn't threatened to sue me about anything.

On Resignation

Mark Sanford: It would be too easy to resign.

Sarah Palin: It would be too easy not to resign.

Leading by Not Leading

Somewhere, a negotiation is ongoing ....

A: The governor feels that 15 Central Park West would be appropriate.

B: The Robert A.M. Stern building? You're kidding, right?

A: The governor feels that this is the caliber of address that would befit the network's newest addition, who, may I add, has a "Q" score in the high eighties.

B: We might be able to do a studio.

A: A four-bedroom is going to work better for a large family.

B: Isn't this just meant to be a pied-à-terre? Isn't she going to be traveling home on weekends?

A: I'm glad you brought that up. Of course the travel will be via private jet.

B: /sighs Fine. You've got the apartment at 15 CPW. What else?

A: The jet.

B: Yes, the jet. The jet!

A: Well, the girls will have to be enrolled at Brearley.

B: We can't make that happen.

A: We have full confidence that you can, in fact, make that happen. And may we remind you that the boss is very heavily invested in the success of this new program, as is Wendy.

B: I can't even make that happen for my own kids!

A: /silence

B: I suppose it will be Trinity for the boys.

A: Collegiate.

B: That's on the Upper West Side, you know. It's liberal heaven.

A: Of course, the terms of the agreement must remain confidential.

B: Right.

A: Now about the clothing allowance...

Deep Thought

Sarah Palin can handle Mahmoud Ahmadinejad even though she couldn't handle David Letterman.

Palin/Gingrich '12!

MATLOCK!!!

Bipartisanship is important in that it never require ANYTHING of Republicans -- and their insanity should always be accommodated.

That's what bipartisanship is all about for David Broder.

Your Fox News All-Stars

"Quality" you can trust...as in quality crazed bullshit:

Peter Ferrara, who says Palin's resignation is "a brilliant liberating move for her career, and a potential turning point for the national conservative movement," writes at FoxNews.com: "She should also lead the nation's mothers to oppose mandating replacement of incandescent light bulbs with the new mercury poison gas bulbs."

They always take the crazy to "11".

Yes, quitting on your promise to hold the office for which you are elected is a true sign of someone who can handle the pressures of being...well, nothing. Except apparently, a crusade against lightbulbs -- apparently the new fluoridation.

She's done. She would never have gotten the nomination anyway, but Republican or Democrat this is a pariah-type move, her spur of the moment stupidity is going to rest upon her like a cement block truck.

(pic from here)

Happy Independence Day

As ever, mock the red coats.

Kind of embarassed for the national press and pundits myself

That I seem to be the only one that can report that Sarah Palin has been named the new President of Honduras.





(what are the odds that Carmen Miranda would become a regular feature of mocking Republicans?)

Oh yes, "Democracy"

Honduras last seen inaugurating Sarah Palin being called an awesome example of democracy by Rich Lowry and other rank geniuses, has furthered it's steps for popularity amongst peoples everywhere.

Honduras's interim rulers spurned a demand from the Organization of American States on Friday to restore leftist President Manuel Zelaya to power and said they would no longer recognize the OAS charter, deepening Central America's worst political crisis in decades.