WEEEEEEEEEE!

If an American President has ever been more reckless, more deceitful and more just plain ol' delusional it's hard to fathom:

As President Bush told an Ohio audience that Iraq was returning to "normalcy," administration officials in Washington held meetings to assess what appeared to be a rapidly deteriorating security situation in many parts of the country.

My God, the idiot is quoting Warren G. Harding!

Meanwhile in 'Happy Land'

In Dayton, Ohio, on Thursday, President Bush praised Maliki's "bold decision" to confront Shiite militias and said it was evidence that the Iraqi military is increasingly confident and able to act on its own. In fact, the U.S. military is providing air cover, embedded advisers and ground reinforcements for the Iraqi offensive.

Three days into a U.S.-backed government offensive, however, the Mahdi Army retained control of key neighborhoods of the southern port city of Basra and was able to prevent Iraqi soldiers and police from penetrating its strongholds...

Clashes broke out in at least 10 Baghdad neighborhoods, and mortar rounds continued to rain down on the heavily fortified Green Zone, where the Iraqi and U.S. governments are housed. Mortar rounds struck the Interior Ministry compound, killing at least one person. In Basra, militants struck an oil pipeline.

The Mahdi Army also launched attacks in the Shiite holy cities of Karbala and Najaf, while fighting in Kut, Diwaniyah and Hilla. Across the south and in Baghdad, Mahdi Army militants torched offices of its rival Shiite party, the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, and Maliki's Dawa Party, which like the other two is a Shiite group supported by Iran.

So the Iraqi military, after five years, still struggles, we have to save it's ass and now we, once again get involved in a civil war to try to put down the largest and least favored by Iran of three Shiia groups?

Wow, now that's par for the course in Bush World.

Awwwwwwwww

You faithful readers know I'm a real sucker for a good Fred Kagan smack down.

Glennzilla delivers.

On Monday, Kagan was proclaiming the Iraq Civil War was OVER! Everybody was committed to getting along.

By Tuesday, of course, we found out what Juan Cole had been predicting for several weeks occurring (Kagan vs. Cole, talk about phonies versus actual experts).

But this was the most powerful part of Greenwald's takedown:

I just received the following email from a woman whose son has been serving in Iraq, along with a picture of him:

Mr. Greenwald,

Thank you for coverage of the war in Iraq. Since you posted a picture of one of the people who got us into this war, I would like to share a picture with you. I have attached a picture of my son, US Army XXX XXXX XXXXX. He spent XX months in Iraq in 2006-2007 and will return in XXX. 2009. He was lucky and came back OK, although he lost friends and had many narrow escapes. He is 23 years old, married for almost 2 years, and a wonderful man in every way. In the picture he's with a couple of Iraqi kids.I wish Kaplan (sic) and his fellow war cheerleaders could live as the parent or spouse of a deployed soldier or as an Iraqi parent for just a few days. He wouldn't be so quick to say the war is over.

Thanks again for your work,

XXXXX XXXXX

Generation Squeeb

Caught Matt Taibbi on Scarborough this morning. I couldn't tell if Scarborough was deliberately ignoring Taibbi calling out the print and TV talking heads (i.e., Scarborough) on the way they very deliberately try to inflame "America's squid heart" 0r if it went right over Scarborough's thick hack head, but I do wish that Scarborough would have Taibbi on more often.

Anyway, Taibbi's current Rolling Stone piece is worth a look. It's all about one of the noxious byproducts of our idiotic pundit culture. And yeah, I really need to stop watching Scarborough, who is precisely part of the problem Taibbi is talking about.

But whether or not any of [Reverend Jeremiah] Wright's "controversial" statements have any validity at all is beside the point. The point is that a country that had any balls at all — that was secure enough in its patriotic self-image to stare vicious criticism right in the face and collectively decide for itself, in a state of sober reflection, what part of it was bullshit and what wasn't — such a country wouldn't do what it did in the case of the Wright flap, which is to panic instantly, collectively leap off the ground in terror like a bunch of silly bitches, and chase the criticism away in a torch-bearing mob with its eyes averted without even bothering to talk about what was actually said...

Now, no one is suggesting that there shouldn't be some reaction to genuinely toxic ideas, or that all criticism of racist or unpatriotic comments is unfounded. But what we're getting with all of these scandals isn't a sober exchange of ideas but more of an ongoing attempt to instill in the public a sort of permanent fear of uncomfortable ideas, and to reduce public discourse to a kind of primitive biological mechanism, like the nervous system of a squid or a shellfish, one that recoils reflexively from any stimuli....

The net effect of all of this is to make the electorate exquisitely sensitive to constant prodding and poking by media stimuli, and what people don't notice is that that prodding and poking is tirelessly moving them in the same direction, toward a safe, inoffensive middle, away from anything that smells controversial. The endless onslaught of tiny scandals trains the electorate to be hyper-responsive to temporary, superficial outrages while simultaneously chipping away at their long-term memories, their inclination to look at the big picture, their ability to grasp subtleties of opinion and policy.

All of this -- and Taibbi's explanation of the Russian word sovok -- are worth your while. (And so, by the way, is this driftglass post, which discusses the darker implications of an increasingly worn, faded, and chipped national long-term memory.) So just go read them both. Your TPS reports can wait.

Update: more on sovok (Совок). h/t NTodd

Golly, I wonder why?

Continuing on in Hap-Hap-Happy Land:

A Pentagon official said Wednesday that reports from the Basra area indicate that militiamen had overrun a number of police stations and that it was unclear how well the Iraqi security forces were performing overall. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

No, only those who will proclaim that it is going AWESOMELY, VIC-VIC-VICTORY! are allowed to talk publicly.

This

Just isn't right.

Although it's perfect for the After-Dark site.

It also isn't safe for work.

It's 3 a.m. on the Pacific Coast

Will someone ring McCain?

The United States has escalated air strikes against al-Qaeda fighters operating in Pakistan's tribal areas fearing that support from Islamabad may slip away, The Washington Post reported on Thursday.

U.S. officials, who were not identified, said Washington wants to inflict as much damage as it can to al Qaeda's network now because Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf may not be able to offer much help in the months ahead.

Hitting Al Qaeda targets in Pakistan is something Barak Obama said he also would do, with or without Pakistan's consent.

This, of course is what John McCain -- "follower of Al Qaeda to the Gates of Hell" said is wrong and claimed Obama is naive and counter American policy in so advocating. Apparently, he has an understanding with Hell, but not Pakistan.

Everybody but they anticipated

Quelle Suprise:

An assault by thousands of Iraqi soldiers and police officers to regain control of the southern port city of Basra stalled Wednesday as Shiite militiamen in the Mahdi Army fought daylong hit-and-run battles and refused to withdraw from the neighborhoods that form their base of power there.

American officials have presented the Iraqi Army’s attempts to secure the port city as an example of its ability to carry out a major operation against the insurgency on its own. A failure there would be a serious embarrassment for the Iraqi government and for the army, as well as for American forces eager to demonstrate that the Iraqi units they have trained can fight effectively on their own.

Now, I fully anticipate from the distance of an entire hemisphere that somehow this operation will be called a smashing success. The full ramifications of the operation (this is Bush we're talking about so it will be a fully BAD ramification) will be known ONLY after Iraqi Jesus, General Petraeus, testifies before Congress. One way or another it will be claimed as treason to question him in any form that makes George Bush look ineffective or deceitful.

That sort of stuff is only useful for Democratic Primaries.

After all, after proclaiming reduced violence actually reflecting stalemate as victory, Bush and the Pentagon portrayed the actions in Basra as a "VICTORY" for the surge already yesterday.

So for those of you following at home:

- Horrific biblical levels of violence = Success
- Protracted intolerable levels of violence = Success
- A return to horrific levels of violence = Success

Iraq, a quality return on investment.

But wait, that's not all...NOW HOW MUCH WOULD YOU PAY?

A Basra newspaper editor who asked that his name not be used for fear of reprisals said most residents despised the Mahdi Army and welcomed the assault. But he said it was obvious that the central government had not consulted with local commanders in planning the assault, citing the inability of the armored vehicles to fit through city streets. But support for the assault already seems to be eroding in several neighborhoods, as militiamen retained control of their strongholds and residents were confined in their homes. “The Mahdi Army is still controlling most of these places,” the editor said. “The result is negative.”

Local residents said the southern sections of Basra, mostly poor and heavily populated, were still controlled by the Mahdi Army on Wednesday night. One Mahdi commander bragged by telephone that after Iraqi armored vehicles failed to gain access to his neighborhood, the Army units fled and his fighters spray-painted Koranic slogans on the vehicles. The claim could not be independently verified.

Both Mahdi and Iraqi Army officers agreed that some of the heaviest fighting took place in the western Basra neighborhood of Hayaniya, where fighters attacked the Iraqi forces and then retreated into the neighborhood.

Col. Abbas al-Tamimi, media officer for the 14th Iraqi Army Division operating in the city, said he expected the fighting to escalate. “The gunmen have heavier and more sophisticated weapons than we have,” he said.

Oh, I'm sure it will all work out well in the end.

Quel dommage!

Happy Birthday

You know who you are!

Enjoy your day.

Stunning, just stunning

Read today's Glenn Greenwald.

Amazing, depressing as all hell, but amazing.

Howard Kurtz ALMOST gets it

So that's his quota for the year.

When I first saw the tape of McCain's comment on Iran--which he corrected a moment later after Joe Lieberman whispered in his ear--I thought it was a blunder, but not necessarily a consequential one. After all, McCain has made eight visits to Iraq and been involved in foreign policy for 20 years. He's no greenhorn when it comes to this stuff. Brit Hume dismissed it as a "senior moment."

But then I learned that the Arizona senator had made that Iran/Qaeda assertion two or three times before. That's serious business. It means either that McCain really believes the link exists and wants to spread it around--until he got called on it--or he is so forgetful that he keeps saying so even though he knows it is untrue.

And Kevin Drum did sum this up best:

Let's recap. Foreign policy cred lets him get away with wild howlers on foreign policy. Fiscal integrity cred lets him get away with outlandishly irresponsible economic plans. Anti-lobbyist cred lets him get away with pandering to lobbyists. Campaign finance reform cred lets him get away with gaming the campaign finance system. Straight talking cred lets him get away with brutally slandering Mitt Romney in the closing days of the Republican primary. Maverick uprightness cred allows him to get away with begging for endorsements from extremist religious leaders like John Hagee. "Man of conviction" cred allows him to get away with transparent flip-flopping so egregious it would make any other politician a laughingstock. Anti-torture cred allows him to get away with supporting torture as long as only the CIA does it.

But the guy can sure grill for the press corps.

Kiss the Cook.

Disgusting

This is a very long post made up substantially of excerpts from the original post at Kiko's House. But it is so important and disturbing it is difficult to cut it down more, or write it better. It is a few months old, and was recently reposted in portions at Moderate Voice.

Want some evidence of how personnel shortages is affecting the military, look no further than this:

When four American soldiers, two dressed in Iraqi mufti and not uniforms, appeared at the Al-Janabi farmhouse on the afternoon of March 12, 2006, they were not entirely unexpected. Abeer had told her mother that some of the Americans at the checkpoint were being sexually aggressive toward her and her mother, fearing for her safety, had been making her stay home.

Among the soldiers entering the house was Private First Class Steven Green, a 21-year-old boy-man and petulant loner with a history of drug and alcohol problems and a petty criminal record back in Midland, the titular home of the Bush family in Texas oil patch country.

Green had been in Iraq for only a few weeks when he was found to have "homicidal ideations" when he was sent to an Army Combat Stress team on December 21, 2005. Nevertheless, he was sent back into combat.

In February 2006, Green matter-of-factly told a reporter for Stars & Stripes that he had come to Iraq "because I wanted to kill people" and bragged that he had "shot a guy who wouldn't stop when we were out at a traffic checkpoint and it was like nothing. Over here, killing people is like squashing an ant. I mean, you kill somebody and it's like 'All right, let's go get some pizza'."

And then it gets worse:

According to an affidavit prepared by FBI Special Agent Frank Charles and other accounts, on the evening of March 11, Green talked up the idea of going to Abeer's house and raping her. Then, on the following morning, he and several buddies played cards and got drunk on black market Iraqi whiskey, a violation of war-zone policy.

After hitting some golf balls behind the checkpoint, an intoxicated Green again brought up the idea of raping Abeer, changed into Iraqi civilian clothing and made arrangements for a buddy to monitor the radio at the checkpoint so he and his confederates could go "kill and hurt a lot of Iraqis."

Once at Abeer's house Green herded her father, mother and Hadil, her 7-year-old sister, into a bedroom. Abeer’s brothers, Ahmad and Muhammad, were at school.

Green shot the father several times in the head, the mother several times in the abdomen and the sister several times in the head and shoulder with an AK-47 that the family was legally allowed to keep in the house, proudly announcing to his buddies, "I just killed them, all are dead."
Green then turned on Abeer, whom U.S. officials initially claimed was 20 or 25. As if that justified what happened next.

Abeer's dressing gown and bra were torn from her body and her legs tied. Green and two other soldiers then took turns raping her. By the time they had finished, blood was flowing from her vagina. Green then shot Abeer in the head two or three times, threw a blanket over her torso and set the family's bodies afire in a crude effort to cover up the atrocity.

And how has he been treated?

Steven Green will spend Abeer’s 15th birthday in a federal lockup in Kentucky as he awaits trial for the rape-murders. He has pleaded not guilty.

Green’s behavior had become so problematic by May 2006 that the Army sent him home on the grounds that he had an "anti-social personality disorder," but nevertheless gve him a regular discharge.

And why?

The war has had such a deleterious effect on the Army that it has repeatedly been forced to lower its recruiting standards and has granted an increasing number of waivers to recruits with criminal backgrounds like Steven Green.

By any measure, Green was unfit to wear an Army uniform, but he not only was fast-tracked through basic training and sent off to Iraq, his readily obvious homicidal tendencies were merely acknowledged and dealt with by medication, "Atta boys" and pats on the back as he was repeatedly sent back into the hell hole that is Mahmoudiyah.

It wasn’t likely that Green would trigger something awful while he was in Iraq, it was inevitable, and the war was a perfect crucible: Not enough troops, vague and changing rules of engagement, negligible efforts to win over an occupied people, and an Army mental-health system that betrays its own soldiers just as their president has betrayed them and his country.
The blood that coursed from between Abeer Qassim Hamza's legs after she was raped is on Steven Green’s hands. But it is on George Bush’s hands as well, and neither will ever be able to wash it off.

Whoops

Looks like this penchant for having conventions later every year is going to bite the GOP in the ass.

McCain is slated to give his acceptance speech the same day the NFL kicks off it's season opener.

D'oh!

There is apparently a chance the NFL will move the game up an hour and a half, but still what if it goes into overtime?

DO NOT WANT!

I've made no secret of my preference for Obama -- but I've avoided the ticky tack shit that happens for the most part (not always).

BUT THIS IS WAY WAY WAY TOO FAR (per Marc Ambinder)

The Clinton campaign is distributing an article in the American Spectator (!) about Obama foreign policy adviser Merrill McPeak and his penchant for.. well, the article accuses him of being an anti-Semite and a drunk. Principally, the author takes McPeak to task for supporting a Middle East map that would require Israel to withdraw to its pre-1967 border. It also makes the case that McPeak supports the Walt-Mearsheimer view of the influence of the Israeli lobby on foreign policy.

The author's sudden conclusion: "Obama has a Jewish problem and McPeak's bigoted views are emblematic of what they are. Obama can issue all the boilerplate statements supporting Israel's right to defend itself he wants. But until he accepts responsibility for allowing people like McPeak so close to his quest for the presidency, Obama's sincerity and judgment will remain open questions."

As one keen observer pointed out to me, if advocating the pre '67 border map makes one an anti-Semite, just about every iteration of the U.S. government since 1967 would qualify. Tony McPeak's verbal gymnastics do not make a "Jewish problem" for Obama.

Un-fucking-believable.

James Fallows sums it up:

But if, as I assume is true based on Marc Ambinder's report, the Hillary Clinton campaign is circulating a hit job from the American Spectator, this is simply disgusting. (Marc has just confirmed to me that indeed the article came in an on-the-record email from Phil Singer, the Clinton campaign spokesman.)

That the Clinton family would dignify the American Spectator, of all publications, is astonishing to anyone who was alive in the 1990s.

That they would bless this attempt to paint Merrill McPeak as an anti-Semite is grotesque.

But How Long Since He's Rocked & Rolled?

Following up on the Fez ...

I don't know what I like more: the fact that our new governor has copped to having done drugs (and had sex) -- or the fact that no one here gives a damn.

(Trust me, we care a lot more about this bait and switch. Our transit fares went higher in early March.)

Is this even possible?

USA Today's Susan Page is writing about a dream team ticket for the Democrats?  Does anyone who "thinks" believe this is possible?  Is it desirable? 

Ladies and Gentlemen

This can mean ONLY one thing:

In reference to cocaine, Gov. David Paterson, 53, said in a television interview that he "tried it a couple of times" when he was "about 22 or 23."

Tim Russert will have to ask Barack Obama about this black man's behavior.

Summing up 4,000

Toles.

Or as he's known to Fred Hiatt, "Who?"

Like a stopped clock

Richard Cohen, America's Concern Troll, writes a good and accurate column.

This week we reached the mark of 4,000 American dead in Iraq. It is a sad milestone in a grinding war that can never be won and is already lost in so many ways. But even when this war, like Norman Bates's mother, is gussied up by its embalmers and declared a glorious effort, the shame of Abu Ghraib will forever stain George Bush and his top aides. For them, the photos from Abu Ghraib are not pictures. They're mirrors.

Gird up, because the next Cohen column is sure to be one gigantic piece of excrement -- for balance.

Go figure

Noboby could have anticipated, etc.

As the U.S. military recorded its 4,000th death in Iraq...President Bush spoke about the death toll, saying, "One day, people will look back at this moment in history and say, 'Thank God there were courageous people willing to serve, because they laid the foundations for peace for generations to come.' "

Even as he spoke, the situation on the ground was rapidly worsening.

Wanking Isn't Everything, It's the Only Thing

Michael O'Hanlon, the Allie Sherman of Talking Heads:

In an event at the American Enterprise Institute today, Brookings analyst Michael O’Hanlon — sitting next to hawks Fred Kagan and Ken Pollack — praised the Iraq surge, saying the surge architects would make former Green Bay Packers head coach Vince Lombardi “proud”