Bitch is the new black
Tina Fey on Hillary Clinton’s presidential candidacy.
McCain’s counter to Obama’s “Yes we can” video.
Awhile back I linked to the Obama “Yes we can” video… here’s the (fake) McCain response to it.
Gee, that sounds familiar…
Remember a couple days ago when I said If it were up to me…. and I proposed a new way of doing the primaries that would be more fair? That post did get linked to by about 40 sites… but apparently not everyone likes to give credit.
Check this out on Shakespeare’s Sister:
It wouldn’t have to be hard. Divide the country up into five groups of states, starting with the 10 smallest, then next-10 smallest, and so forth. Run 10-state primaries every other week from the first Tuesday of February through the first Tuesday of April. If you want, put Iowa and New Hampshire in the first group for old-time’s sake. Craft a federal law that sets basic criteria for the primary: the value of each state in delegates, the means of apportioning delegates. Give the parties some input, but make this a federally operated election — meaning it’s time to eliminate caucuses, and replace them with primaries.
Dude, that’s uncool.
Former Top General in Iraq Faults Bush Administration
From the New York Times (presented to you without comment on my part):
WASHINGTON, Oct. 12— In a sweeping indictment of the four-year effort in Iraq, the former top American commander called the Bush administration’s handling of the war incompetent and warned that the United States was “living a nightmare with no end in sight.”
In one of his first major public speeches since leaving the Army in late 2006, retired Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez blamed the administration for a “catastrophically flawed, unrealistically optimistic war plan” and denounced the current “surge” strategy as a “desperate” move that will not achieve long-term stability.
“After more than fours years of fighting, America continues its desperate struggle in Iraq without any concerted effort to devise a strategy that will achieve victory in that war-torn country or in the greater conflict against extremism,” Mr. Sanchez said, at a gathering here of military reporters and editors.
General Sanchez is the most senior in a string of retired generals to harshly criticize the administration’s conduct of the war. Asked following his remarks why he waited nearly a year after his retirement to outline his views, he responded that that it was not the place of active duty officers to challenge lawful orders from civilian authorities. General Sanchez, who is said to be considering a book, promised further public statements criticizing officials by name.
“There was been a glaring and unfortunate display of incompetent strategic leadership within our national leaders,” he said, adding later in his remarks that civilian officials have been “derelict in their duties” and guilty of a “lust for power.”
The White House had no initial comment.
Okay, I gave in and highlighted things.
My New Favorite Quote
“My favorite definition of a libertarian- and I can’t remember where I stole it from- is ‘a conservative who wants to sleep with liberal women.'”
— From the comments on Pandagon’s article: “But Rush told me you had to tolerate my dick in your mouth”
Funny because it’s true.
Newsweek’s Howard Fineman seems to be smoking the crack
Howard Fineman on the Chris Matthews Show, discussing the Democrats in 2008:
Mr. FINEMAN: If they can’t win this one, the Democrats deserve to go the way of the Whigs, which is a political party that disappeared. Now why did it disappear? It disappeared because it couldn’t deal with the biggest issue of the time, which was slavery.
MATTHEWS: Right.
Mr. FINEMAN: So I’m thinking, what’s the issue this time that could render the Democrats useless to history? And the answer is–if there is one, the answer is terrorism. And who is dehumanizing whom. Is it the terrorists who are dehumanizing us or we who are refusing to view them as real people? And unless the Democrats can figure out an answer on foreign policy, then there is a chance they could blow it, despite all of what you said.
Yeah. Because clearly, the Republican foreign policy is working well for us, being mired in a quagmire of a war and alienating every single ally we’ve every had. Sorry, Mr. Fineman – the GOP imaginary boogie man of “terrorism” isn’t going to kill off the Democratic Party. Keep trying, though, it’s cute to watch the Republicans spin out.
It does suck that the GOP has fucked up the world and will then be handing it back to the Democrats in ’08 to pick up the pieces, but they couldn’t do worse the the Republicans.
Rich white douchebags count on racism to win in 2008
During a panel discussion of the 2008 presidential election on the July 15 edition of NBC’s Meet the Press, syndicated columnist Robert Novak asserted: “Republicans are very pessimistic about 2008. When you talk to them off the record, they don’t see how they can win this thing. And then they think for a minute, and only the Democratic Party, with everything in their favor, would say that, ‘OK, this is the year either to have a woman or an African-American to break precedent, to do things the country has never done before.’ And it gives the Republicans hope.” Neither host Tim Russert nor any of Novak’s fellow panelists, Bloomberg News Washington managing editor Al Hunt, Republican strategist Mike Murphy, and Democratic strategist Bob Shrum — all of whom are, like Novak, white men — commented on or challenged Novak’s assertion. As Media Matters for America documented, the four Sunday-morning talk programs on the broadcast networks, Meet the Press, ABC’s This Week, CBS’ Face the Nation, and Fox Broadcasting Co.’s Fox News Sunday, feature guest lists that are overwhelmingly white and overwhelmingly male.
Yeah, they’re counting on racism and sexism to help them win next year. Nice.
Feel Good Inc.
Via Shakesville, via Andrew Sullivan, via the Houston Chronicle:
Al-Qaida has rebuilt, U.S. intel warns
WASHINGTON – U.S. intelligence analysts have concluded al-Qaida has rebuilt its operating capability to a level not seen since just before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, The Associated Press has learned. The conclusion suggests that the group that launched the most devastating terror attack on the United States has been able to regroup along the Afghan-Pakistani border despite nearly six years of bombings, war and other tactics aimed at crippling it.
Still, numerous government officials say they know of no specific, credible threat of a new attack on U.S. soil.
A counter-terrorism official familiar with a five-page summary of the new government threat assessment called it a stark appraisal to be discussed at the White House on Thursday as part of a broader meeting on an upcoming National Intelligence Estimate.
I thought we were “fighting them over there, so we don’t have to fight them over here”? Is that not working? Gee, I wonder why.
A Must-Read Article: “A Mistake of Historic Proportions
Kathy Kattenburg, one of the bloggers over at Shakesville posted a must-read article on the state of the middle east, Iraq, and the world-wide catastrophic consequences that will occur if we make the of trying to attack Iran.
People were writing similar prescient words before the Iraq invasion; if we had listened to them, we might not be in the dire situation we are now.