A set of separate, shallow thoughts

• It seems to me that O'Reilly seems to be in some kind of flame out, end game mode. For a guy whose biggest priorities are O'Reilly, O'Reilly, followed by O'Reilly, he is choosing strange causes to champion. He seems to want to rally a certain set of people, telling the paranoids they are being victimized, but to what end?



• Senate Summons Pentagon to Explain Effort to Plant News Stories in Iraqi Media


"We're very concerned about the reports," the White House spokesman said. "We have asked the Department of Defense for more information."

Running that statement through the read-between-the-lines-translator, we get:

"We're very concerned about that the reports have been reported publicly," the White House spokesman said. "We have asked the Department of Defense for more information on who couldn't keep their damn mouth shut."

See also the twisted comments (and that's being generous) of General Lynch, the "top military spokesman in Baghdad," from the above article.


• Lobbyist's Role in Hiring Aides Is Investigated


These guys aren't satisfied with the legal-yet-scandalous stuff. They looked at the murky, gray legal waters, and said, "hell yeah, I'll jump in that pool." What kind of person does that?

Hersh on Murtha

When Murtha made his comments about our presence in Iraq, I did not know who he was. Congressman from Pennsylvania? OK. The guy who cleans my gutters? Oh yeah, that's that guy.

In the two weeks since then, he has been described as a "hawk" and a "military guy" and a "former marine." No one was good enough to correct me about the gutters thing, but one can't expect everything.

So, two weeks later, I finally get some useful perspective on Murtha. Here it is, from Democracy Now!

SEYMOUR HERSH:
So Murtha's message is a message, really, from a -- you can consider it a message from a lot of generals on active duty today. This is what they think, at least a significant percentage of them, I assure you. This is, I’m not over-dramatizing this. It's a shot across the bow. They don't think it's doable. You can't tell that to this President. He doesn't want to hear it. But you can say it to Murtha, you can say it to Inouye, you can say it to Stevens.

Murtha gets reports from the military, reports that either don't get reported to Bubble Boy or get ignored by him. That's why this was such a huge uproar. Thanks for nothing to the corporate media for not getting this context in there.

(Via Kate Cambor at TPM Cafe)

Whistling past the failed military action in Iraq and a worthless presidency

National Strategy for Victory in Iraq

Page One: Title page. "National Strategy for Victory in Iraq." Those last three words, "victory in Iraq," are in a font size of approximately 1,000. Gotta plant that mental seed, "victory in Iraq." Can't miss an opportunity for psy ops marketing.

Page four: Executive Summary. The subheading on this page is "Helping the Iraqi People Defeat the Terrorists and Build an Inclusive Democratic State." I knew then that I need not continue reading this. "Defeat the terrorists"? Only Bubble Boy and his Kool Aid-drinking fanatics believe that what we are doing in Iraq has anything to do with "the terrorists."

I understand that most of what follows goes without saying. But I'm a-gonna say it anyway.

"The terrorists" is a stupid trick of language. In the context of this world, in this decade, when you say "the terrorists," you are talking about Al Qaeda, or wanna-be Al Qaeda cells.

Anyone who cares to know, and to recognize reality, understands that there is no connection between Al Qaeda and Iraq. (But, but, Zarqawi! Whatever. Just because Bubble Boy and Co. say he's a mastermind and a big problem in Iraq, don't make it so.) That's why Bubble Boy doesn't often say "Al Qaeda in Iraq."

The word "terrorist" appears about 80 times in this document, compared to about 6 appearances of "Al Qaida." Bubble Boy doesn't like to say "Al Qaida," which is understandable, since Bin Laden is still out there and we appear to be nowhere close to capturing him. But he loooves to say "terrorist."

After all, anyone who blows stuff up is a terrorist, right? And that's how our troops are being attacked in Iraq, by explosive devices. Therefore, our troops are being attacked by terrorists. Therefore, the people we are fighting are the terrorists.

What's that you say? Shouldn't we recognize that all manner of Iraqis are attacking out troops, some Sunni, some Shia, some secular, and they are attacking our troops for different reasons? Whatever, Poindexter! They blow stuff up, they are terrorists, we fight terrorists, so we fight them.

You may expect that, in matters of national security, in matters of life and death, in matters of international relations, in matters of war, you would get a little more specific with a document like this, that you would get a serious look at the issues. You would be wrong.

Thought and reason are for nerds

Intellectual Integrity Watch

A nauseating trip back in time

Timing Entwined War Vote, Election

"There was a sense I had from the very beginning that this was in part politically motivated, and they were going to maximize the timing to affect those who were having some doubt about this right before the election," Daschle said.

Daschle: "There was a sense...this was in part...those who were having some doubt..."

Could you stuff any more mealy in your mouth, Tom?

Of course the timing was politically motivated. The article also says that Bush was smirking at Daschle when he asked for a vote before the November elections. Classy guy, that Bubble Boy.


***

Is there a more serious issue for a country than when to use its military? When to use force against another country?

Is there a more serious issue for a country with the deadliest military in the world than when to use that military?

And to Bush it was a matter of politics.

And now thousands are dead, thousands are injured.

And Iraq was not a threat to us.

And Bush is still the president.

Lame haiku

Pentagon Expanding Its Domestic Surveillance Activity

I want my country
back. The one I learned about
in school. This one sucks.